How good we are? Lithuanian students' perception of a psychologist

Abstract

Positive image of the profession is very important for all kind of the professionals including psychologists. Though public image of the psychologist is very mixed and inaccurate. Even students who decide to study psychology have some bias related to their profession which influence their studies as though as future career decisions. The aim of the study was to evaluate the image of the psychologist from the students’ perspective in relations with their study field, gender, age, and experience with psychologist in Lithuania. Cross-sectional study design was used in order to evaluate the perception of the psychologist image. 332 students (238 psychology students, 93 – other majors) from Vytautas Magnus University participated in this study. The questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic questions, questions about the experience of meeting with psychologist, knowledge about the psychologist' work and 47 adjectives related to the real and ideal psychologist with 6 items Likert scale (from 1=not true; 6=very true). Factorial analysis of these adjectives revealed 4 factors of the psychologist's image: positive aspects, negative aspects, vitality and external features of the psychologist' image. The results of the study showed that psychology students are more accurate in assessing the minimal qualifications for the profession. They also have more positive image of the real psychologist than other students. Gender and age differences were also found in the perception of the psychologist's image in the group of psychology students: women perceive psychologist as more vital and see him/ her more positively than men; higher course students perceive psychologist as more concerned in his/her own external image than lower course students. The study also showed that image of psychologist is related to the experience of meeting with him/her. The results found in this study could be useful for improving image of the psychologist in Lithuania.