Archive for February, 2011

Question : Psychology or Theology?
After college I’ll be pursuing a career as director of a residential program that uses horses to minister to high school students struggling with behavioral problems, addictions, eating disorders, etc. I’ve narrowed it down to 4 colleges (1 public & 3 private) and I’ll be double-majoring in Equine Business and either Psychology or Theology (Youth Ministry, Christian Education, etc). My problem is there’s no “perfect” degree for my field. Youth Ministry degrees are geared toward those who will be working as a youth pastor in a church, not out in the field. Psychology would prepare me more for the field and dealing with psychological disorders and addictions, but it wouldn’t give me the theological background or the youth angle. What should I do?
I’m not following a “social trend.” I’ll be working with the Church of the Nazarene to start this ministry. Even if the “social trend” changes, the program won’t. I’m hoping to work for Turn About Ranch (www.turnaboutranch.com) and/or Aspen Ranch (www.aspenranch.com), both Christian facilities, and model what they’ve done to start one with the Nazarene church.

Part of the program will be they’ve gotta choose to come, no one can force them, otherwise the program won’t work. So most likely a devout Hindu or Buddhist person isn’t going to come. Even if they do Christian beliefs will be included in their daily life. Part of what makes Turn About and Aspen so successful is that they teach them how to trust God and make him the center of their lives.

I won’t be doing one-on-one counseling on a regular basis. There’ll be professional psychologists hired for that. I just need to find a degree that’ll give me the background to direct the entire operation.
It’ll also be a program for teens in foster care who may or may not have the same problems as the others but need a permanent home.
residential eating disorder programs

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Well, I hate to further complicate your question, but “psychology” is hardly one thing either. On one hand, you have behavior psychology that focuses on empirical relationships between contingencies. Cognitive psychology works more from the perspective of shaping thought patterns. Brain based psychology is more about he neurochemical interactions, and inferential psychology is more about social psychology trends.

What I will say is that in theology you will find an inherent problem; specifically that unless you take a broad background in many systems of mythology then you risk only providing partial counsel to your subjects. Yes…maybe the area you work in now is primarily Protestant, but will it always be? Will there some day be a greater Buddhist or Catholic shift in the population? Will you be suitably trained to deal with Islamic or Hindi patients you receive? There is no way of predicting trends like that, so through the theology route you will be perpetually forced to follow social trends instead of setting them yourself.

On the other hand, with psychology it depends more on what you want to do. Do you want to work with people on a closer scale, but then predict larger trends for business growth? If so then inferential psychology is what you want.

Do you wish to make your facility more research based in order to discover new means of helping others? Then behavior psychology is what you want to focus on.

Are you interested in a counseling role as someone who is able to personally make people feel better about themselves and correct their self-imposed harmful patterns? Then cognitive psychology is the way to go.

Best of all, with psychology you can apply whatever (or even several different) faith pattern you need.