Rationalization
George Ritzer's book, The McDonaldization of Society: Into the Digital Age details his four pillars that describe how rationalization appears in society:
- Efficiency - the ways in which an organization alters what it does to more effectively deliver a good or service to consumers at the highest rate.
- Calculability - the measurable component of an organization that is used to determine things such as consumer demographics and habits which inform the development of an organization.
- Predictability - the consistency in goods or services provided by an organization which informs the consumer that they will receive the same product every time.
- Control - the discrete ability of organizations to regulate the consumers through their policies and procedures.
In addition to describing the serious trends of rationalization that have developed the modern society, Ritzer also considers the irrationalities that come with a more rationalized society. These are the ways in which rationalization has had a negative impact on society and the possible concerns as it continues to advance in the culture of organizations. The field of counseling psychology and its establishment in society has not been immune to the effects of rationalization.
Founders of Counseling Psychology
Father of Psychoanalysis
In the late 1800s, Sigmund Freud was the one who put a name to the study of the unconscious. In his work partnering with the well-established physician Joseph Breuer in the late 1800s, the two published Studies on Hysteria in 1895 which drew attention to the “cathartic talking cure,” later coined as psychoanalysis by Freud. Psychoanalysis was the birth of what is now more commonly known as counseling psychology.
Psychoanalysis is used for people with psychological problems including but not limited to irrational fears, obsessions, and anxieties. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis tried to explain these disorders and other aspects of human identity such as personality and motivation. More specifically, Freud significantly focused on the unconscious influence on our behavior. This was a major departure from the belief of the general population at the time who believed that people knew and were aware of the causes of their behavior. Freud’s theory attracted a substantial amount of controversy because it suggested that people are not in control of our own minds.
G. Stanley Hall
As one of the most significant early pioneers of psychology, G. Stanley Hall made many great contributions to the establishment of psychology as a respected field of study. Hall established his own experimental laboratory for psychology in America at Johns Hopkins University and also earned the first PhD in psychology at Harvard University. The academic certification allowed for Hall to have the credibility to continually expand the field of psychology and thus created a model for the path of aspiring psychologists.
Hall founded the renowned and well respected American Psychological Association (APA) in 1892, which created a guideline for many of the modern psychological endeavors. This includes the start of the American journal of psychology and the American journal of applied psychology that Hall started within the APA. Through time these journals grew to become predictable in their format and delivery, which made distribution of information more efficient.
Another major contribution of Hall was the international Psychoanalysis Symposium held at Clark University. This conference gathered 175 of the world’s leading psychologists and is the same 1909 conference for which Hall invited Sigmund Freud to give his first and only lecture in America.
World War
Significance
In the United States, the experience of a World Wars catapulted psychology to significantly take a foothold in society following the establishment of post-war psychology efforts. War has acted as a significant catalyst for pooling resources to the field of psychology and expanding its reach to the public. before the development of psychological clinics, psychology was viewed as a largely academic and research focused discipline that theorized about the human consciousness. However, the use of military screenings of veterans, revealed that there was a need for an applied version of psychology.
"Shell shock"
After World War I, the United States federal government issued the creation of psychological assessments for soldiers. These were tests used to determine whether a soldier was fit to fight in a war, more specifically this test revealed who was more or less likely to be capable of dealing with the stress of war. This was a product of soldiers’ deteriorating mental health following experiences in war. The psychological assessments were in place to prevent soldiers from experiencing “shell shock.” This was a term coined by soldiers that “included fatigue, tremor, confusion, nightmares and impaired sight and hearing.” (Jones, 2012)
As a result of this psychometric testing, psychologists believed that anyone was susceptible to mental health disorders from the stress of war. This changed the previous perception about people in general that to experience mental health issues one had to be somehow unique or nonstandard when compared to the rest of the population. This was a significant change that was critical for the field of psychology. Not only did this change the general view of mental health, but it also sparked new investments in expanding the capacity of psychology.
Federal Funding
Now that there was a significant need for more psychological services, the Veterans Administration (VA) encouraged therapy to be used for soldiers trying to cope with their experiences. The VA also provided training for this counseling psychology, which led to the APA establishing procedures to accredited psychologists that were seeking to provide therapy to patients. Every counseling psychologist who provided aid had to be accredited by the APA to be regarded as a professional.
In addition to the work of the APA, President Harry Truman passed the 1946 national mental health act which significantly advanced the range of psychological services. This act provided funding for psychological research, the creation of the National Institute of Mental Health, and helped to instill psychology departments as a service to students in universities across the country. These resources all increased the efficiency and overall rationalization of psychological research and treatment by simply having more certified professionals focused on the growing issue of mental health. The more attention that psychology received, the more widespread and accessible it became as a service funded by the government. The experience of wars was a groundbreaking part of history that allowed for psychology to grow and for counseling psychology to become a more prevalent part of the lives of citizens.
Modern Demand for Psychologists
COVID-19
With the rise of the information age and the COVID-19 crisis, counseling psychologists have been called on to meet the needs of an increasing number of clients. According to the Mayo Clinic, surveys show a major increase in the number of U.S. adults who report symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia during the pandemic, compared with surveys before the pandemic. While there are many different factors that contribute to poor mental health, the pandemic that we have and are currently experiencing has significantly impacted the demand and focus on mental health. This raises the responsibility for current psychologists to accommodate for the greater number of people who are seeking psychotherapy. From the perspective of Arthur C. Evans Jr., the CEO of the APA, “As more people seek treatment for mental health conditions, the demands on psychological practitioners have increased.” This sentiment is reflected in the responses of current psychologists. Of the psychologists who work with anxiety disorders, 84% of them observed a higher demand for treatment since the start of the pandemic. This increase has been seen for depression and other mental health struggles because of the pandemic.
Telehealth
This rise in demand has led psychologists to adapt to the change in structure and method of providing psychological services. One of the major ways in which this is done is through the emergence of telehealth. Various providers on online platforms that connect patients to psychologists for their therapy sessions and other services have gained much use in the psychological field. Telehealth allows people to meet with their psychologist from any location. Since the time factored in for patients to travel into the clinic is no longer necessary, the number of patients that a psychologist can meet with in a day is also increased. Additionally, the accessibility of mental health services has been expanded across multiple mediums such as phones, email, video chat, and even text message. Even secondary platforms have gained support allowing patients to search for licensed telehealth professionals. These are all examples of how efficiency has manifested in psychotherapy as it changes with the growing demand.
Conclusions
According to Vaile Wright, the director of health care innovation at the APA, “There’s always been more demand for [psychological] services than there are mental health providers to provide them.” This is a striking representation of why I have concluded that the field of psychology is one that is relatively difficult to rationalize. Counseling psychology necessitates a very personal human connection, which can interfere with the systematic process of rationalization.
Although rationalization has appeared in the development of counseling psychology, it is accompanied by irrationalities that affect both the psychologists and their patients. The dependency on human emotional labor is what makes the field of counseling psychology particularly vulnerable to irrationalities. Psychologists experience fatigue from interacting with troubled patients in need of their help as their careers go on. Compassion fatigue is the emotional withdrawal experienced by those who deal with traumatized people for an extended period, and burnout is an exhaustion of emotional strength or motivation typically from prolonged stress are phenomena that occur in counseling psychologists. To continue rationalizing the field of psychology responsibly and effectively, comparable measures must be taken to increase the number of available psychotherapists while preserving the emotional wellbeing of the health professionals.
I have learned that in response to societal needs, psychologists and psychology organizations have applied their knowledge, expanded their services, and adapted to new mediums to continue their care for patients. The four pillars of calculability, control, predictability, and efficiency have all been seen through the history of psychology and will likely continue to play a role in the efforts to increase accessibility to counseling psychology. There will continue to be a need for psychologists, and more methods will be developed to distribute psychotherapy. From my research, I believe that psychology is an ever-changing profession that relies heavily on the state of the patient and the ability of the psychologist to adapt. Because this is such a personal experience, the standard of service that counseling psychologists provide must rise with the expanding access and the implications of rationalization that have come with it.
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