Future of Professional Psychology

Ronald F. Levant (n.d.), candidate for position of president of the American Psychological Association, sees the future of professional psychology as one where a shift will take place from its being focused on mental health issues per se, to its being perceived as a discipline that deals with health in general.

Although not explaining his reasons for the occurrence of this difference in perception, his theory may likely originate from the fact that contemporary psychology tends to focus on the biopsychological / pharmaceutical determinants of human mental welfare, particularly with its interest on the brain, and from its reduction of so many of its sub-fields (such as addiction, depression, disease, and so forth) to medical models. From there it is a short step to equivocating certain areas of psychology with medicine and, once done, psychology seems inseparable from the discipline of Medicine. Levant (n.d.) states that with psychology entering the realm of, and fusing into, primary health care, many more individuals will be able to be cured, since many of those seeking treatment do not perceive their disease as psychometric in origin and, therefore, not seeking psychological help, continue to suffer.

"Seven of the top health risk factors," Levant (n.d.) points out, "are behavioral." These include tobacco use, alcohol abuse, poor diet, injuries, suicide, violence and unsafe sex, all of which have long been addressed by psychology as consisting of mental health issues and to which psychology has devoted much research to; psychological interventions to these problems include helpful models such as psychotherapy, counseling, and other mental health interventions. Turning the coin around, one study found that approximately 16% of somatic diseases had an organic compound. Psychology and medicine are so tightly bound that the two are virtually inextricable. Dealing with one, enables one to reduce or mitigate the other. Consistent empirical research shows that addressing psychological problems invariably reduces disease across all aspects of the population and across all disease boundaries. The future of professional psychology, therefore, will be one where psychologists will be on the frontlines of healthcare working collaboratively with doctors and nurses to cure individuals. In a more visionary sense, professional psychology will advance to the point where health care will be reorganized so that psychology precedes health care in providing insights and perspective in preventing illness in the first place. Professional psychology will tread into all nooks and crannies of the health care service. In fact, it will become indistinguishable from the field of medicine itself.

In terms of the micro field of substance abuse, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), that is dedicated to monitoring the future of substance abuse, predicts an optimistic future. The percentage of eight to twelfth graders indulging in drugs, cigarettes and alcohol had significantly declined between 2006 and 2007. On the other hand, prescription drug use rose, most seriously, amongst young children, with Vicodin being a favorite (The Canyon; web). It seems as though, the pattern fluctuates and predictions are hard to come by for, in 2010, Monitoring the Future Survey revealed that the opposite was the case with marijuana with 12th graders reaching an unprecedented high (achieved only in the early 1980s) and with a predicted increase of drugs amongst all ages, particularly amongst youngsters. Alcohol use and cigarette smoking, on the other hand, seems to have declined amongst high school seniors although continuing unabated in college (National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); web). Given the periodic fluctuations and the difficulties in conducting thorough and exhaustive cross-sectional research, it may be difficult to predict the future of substance abuse in this nation.