I have a degree in psychology for 40 years, I studied in Buenos Aires, in a difficult period: the military had closed the University of Philosophy and Letters, which offered courses in Sciences of Education, Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology, since They were considered?left-wing ideologies and therefore subversive ideologies of the social order. There were a number of private universities that kept the psychology course, despite the questions and discredits disseminated by the far-right groups of the national reconstruction government.
In this situation, psychology continued to develop, mainly clinical psychology, acting against a law that reduced the psychologist’s task to the administration of mental evidence.
- In front of these professionals.
- Who took six-month courses in specialized institutes and were able to apply tests.
- Psychologists and psychologists trained in psychoanalysis.
- Model ahead at the time.
- To practice the profession behind closed doors and without attracting attention.
At the time, classrooms were full of women, which were between 60% and 70% compared to male students. I have always been pleased that some professions have a greater gender presence. The practice of the profession was closer to the tasks of women or men, for convenience, competence, ease or simply by social determination.
Courses such as nursing and teaching were mostly female, while in engineering the number of men was much higher, so imagine technical courses such as automotive mechanics, absolutely masculine, or gastronomy, definitely feminine, others, such as medicine and architecture, seemed more divided. between the two sexes, but what determines this choice?What characteristic gender patterns, along with biology, influence the decision and development of studies?
It is also interesting to note how these choices have evolved over the years and changes in contexts, for example, the gastronomic career has moved to male territory, and the specialization of surgery in medicine is more shared between men and women, unlike in previous eras.
Over the years, the world of psychology has evolved into a greater presence of the female audience, the classrooms of the psychology faculties of all Argentine universities are increasingly populated with women.
It seems that the profession of psychologist has become an “inherited” woman. This is not the case only in Argentina; women’s audiences represent 90% of those attending courses, conferences and conferences on the subject in Latin America, Europe and the United States, but after all, why are there more psychologists than men?
The research team in neurosciences and social sciences of the Argentine Systemic School (LINCS) analyzed the topic and initially asked psychologists what are the main conditions for effective psychotherapy.
From these premises, they developed a series of conclusions based on neuroscience and social neuroscience, in analysis of the female and male brain (although opinions are currently divided on this distinction) describing hormones, neurotransmitters and areas of the brain to explain the choice. .
Below are some of the findings in the study that explain why there are more female psychologists than men.
The female brain has a higher amount of fiber in the callous body that communicates both hemispheres. Is the callous body a? Avenue? It connects the two hemispheres, the holistic, emotional, creative right and the rational, logical and binary left.
This generates greater understanding and emotional empathy, the ability to intervene in the power of affectivity and emotionality with an emphasis on patient feedback. History and emotion, so important in the therapeutic relationship, come together.
The female brain has a higher percentage of neurons in the language centers. Older women develop better management of rhetoric and vocabulary, unlike men, whose influence of testosterone on adolescence stutters and “guts”.
It is estimated that a woman speaks about 8,000 words a day in front of 5,000 men, speaking in therapeutic sessions is essential because it is the vehicle for entering information.
The hippocampus, a center of learning and memory, has greater proportions in the female brain, among the various skills of the professional of clinical psychology are undoubtedly the memory and the integral account of the details that allow to intervene by bringing together the factors of the patient’s history and the present day.
There is a greater peripheral vision (development of cones and sticks) that allows them to observe details such as gestures, body positions, actions, etc. This, combined with memory logging, is a powerful tool in intervention.
The peripheral vision of 180%, epigenetic product of its actions in prehistory in childcare, favors the development of roles.
Although mirror neurons, the genesis of relational empathy, are not a female inheritance, they are involved in one of the reasons why there are more psychologists, as these neurons are favored by female observation and mnemonic registration.
Observation skills describe and record the details of attitudes, gestures, intonation of speech, elements that serve to show empathy and define the best interventions.
Increased inter-hemispheric connectivity due to the fibers circulating in the callous body allows several tasks to be performed simultaneously in therapy sessions, such as thinking, remembering and analyzing post-fact sessions, seeing attitudes, listening to the report.
In addition to being emotional and social beings, the release of oxytocin (secreted by neurohyposis) that intervenes in situations of motherhood and generosity makes the professional more jealous and able to contain the patient.
Containment, on the part of the psychologist, is one of the axes of the therapeutic relationship. In general, patients come to the clinic with a significant amount of anxiety and anxiety, i. e. the therapist not only tries to solve the problem, but should also create an atmosphere where the patient feels content, protected and listened to.
While testosterone makes men more stubborn, the woman has a higher level of aesthetics and cares not only for her own body, but also about observing the other person’s body in the therapy space, so her expressiveness is greater.
Along with acute observation, speaking the patient’s language is a technique that promotes the effectiveness of interventions.
It consists of subtly copying verbal and paraverbal language, using these paths so that the message that the person is trying to convey has an arrival point.
The combination of oxytocin and dopamine (a neurotransmitter that promotes motivation and activates in difficult situations) represents the pleasure of intimacy, especially when estrogen is high.
Therapy is a very intimate space, in which patients comment on their personal world, this openness depends, among other things, on how that space is built to allow greater delivery, so do the empathy and histrionics that allow us to speak the patient’s language together to create this environment.
Is the woman more curious than man and more critical, because she has a brain that observes more details as communication signals?Verbal and nonverbal elements? And, with loquacity and rhetoric, they make the psychologist more interested in giving an opinion and making assumptions about what happens to the patient.
This interest shown by women psychologists is an invitation for the patient to talk, reflect and deepen their problem.
For all of the above reasons, women can make more complex assumptions about what happens to the patient.
They incorporate details, gestures, ad hoc developed words, but also go through past situations with the patient’s history, thanks to their memory and concurrency that allow them to do all this at the same time.
The last reason there are more psychologists than men is related to oxytocin and serotonin: both make the professional figure reliable.
We have already described the seat as an intimate space, a place where one or more patients meet with the therapist to discuss their problems, the decision to do so is supported by the psychologist’s trust, which creates the possibility for the patient to expose their personal information in search of answers.
If we expand this analysis to emotional, cognitive and social variables, we will certainly continue to see other peculiarities that reinforce the comment.
It should also be noted that these descriptions are general and, as such, relative, although they serve as a descriptive model of guidance that explains the experience of women in the field of psychology.