psychiatrist

Says Colonel Thomas Murray, chief Army psychiatrist in South Viet Nam: “Some of our psychiatrists are the most improbable military guys: soft, flabby, unexercised.”

1969 October 10, “Dividend from Viet Nam”, in Time:

Even medical schools seem to have submitted to psychophobia by training psychiatrists almost exclusively as psychopharmacologists instead of as psychotherapists.

2000 May 28, Peter Wolson, “A World of Psychophobia”, in Los Angeles Times, archived from the original on 2025-05-10:

Pass the chalk. Dr. Levine was there with a friend and fellow psychiatrist (detect a pattern?), Alexa Albert, Coco’s mother, who squinted up into the sun as her daughter effortlessly sailed skyward. Dr. Albert is an acrophobe.

2009 July 19, Lizette Alvarez, “Whee! Also, There’s a Net”, in The New York Times:

A medical doctor specializing in psychiatry.


psychologist

In 2009, the Obama Administration released guidelines on enhanced interrogation written in 2003 and 2004 by the CIA Office of Medical Services. ^((OMS).1-3(appendix F)) The OMS guidelines, even in redacted form, and opinions from the US Department of Justice's (DOJ’s) Office of Legal Counsel show that CIA physicians, psychologists, and other health care personnel had important roles in enhanced interrogation.

2010 August 4, Leonard S. Rubenstein, JD, Stephen N. Xenakis, MD, “The Ethics of Enhanced Interrogations and Torture: A Reappraisal of the Argument”, in JAMA, volume 304, number 5, American Medical Association, →DOI, pages 569–570:

Investigating why IBM salespeople were so successful, researchers found that IBM set easy targets for their salespeople rather than targets that were difficult to reach and so most of their salespeople achieved their targets. IBM had hired psychologists to define optimum motivational goals for their salespeople and it was discovered that if the targets were achievable the salespeople became very confident and motivated (unlike their demotivated cousins in rival companies) and went out and sold even more computers.

2012, Christine Wilding, chapter 2, in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Croydon, UK: CPI Group (UK) Ltd, page 18:

Self-help programs can give people the nudge they need to see a psychologist or encourage healthy changes, but that is not always the case, experts say. […] Redding’s study asked four psychologists with expertise in anxiety and depressive disorders to rate each self-help book on five criteria: […]

2019 May 2, Nina Avramova, “When you should use self-help programs and when to skip them”, in CNN:


school psychologist

en-noun

school psychologist (plural school psychologists)

A practitioner or educator who conducts assessments to evaluate students on criteria such as intelligence, aptitude, and psychopathology. Additionally, they often consult with teachers and other school personnel to supply interventions to aid in student learning. Not to be confused with a school counselor.


psychotherapist

From psycho- + therapist or psychotherapy + -ist.

“Psychotherapists are not immune to the same stereotypes that we all have, and I think they could become even more relevant for psychotherapists than for other professions [both medical and nonmedical], because they are embarking on this intimate, potentially long-term relationship with these [clients],” said Heather Kugelmass, a doctoral student in sociology at Princeton University. Kugelmass is the author of the study (PDF), which was published Wednesday in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

2016 June 1, Carina Storrs, “Therapists often discriminate against black and poor patients, study finds”, in CNN:

A psychotherapist I visited a few years ago [...] told me that my mother leaving my father, and my father letting us both go, has coloured my view of all relationships.

2020, Avni Doshi, Burnt Sugar, Hamish Hamilton, page 178:

“People don’t come to therapy until they’re having the equivalent of an emotional heart attack,” psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on his podcast Chasing Life recently.

2024 June 9, Andrea Kane, “Therapy is more than lying on a couch and talking. Here are 5 ways it can boost happiness”, in CNN:


phonetician

(linguistics) A dialectologist; a person who studies regional differences in speech sounds.


neuropsychologist

A neurologist or psychologist whose speciality is neuropsychology


neuropsychiatrist

A medical doctor specializing in neuropsychiatry; a medical doctor dealing with disorders that have both neurological and psychiatric features.


criminal psychologist

criminal psychologist (plural criminal psychologists)

A psychologist specialized in examining the personality of convicted criminals and suspects.


zoopsychologist

One who studies or practices zoopsychology.


biological psychologist

biological psychologist (plural biological psychologists)

A type of psychologist who explores the application of the principles of biology to the study of mental processes and behaviors.


developmental psychologist

developmental psychologist (plural developmental psychologists)

A type of psychologist who focuses on systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perceptual changes that occur in humans over the course of their life span.


neuropsychopharmacologist

One who studies or practices neuropsychopharmacology.


aphasiologist

(speech therapy) One who studies or practices aphasiology.

afazjolog

one who studies or practices aphasiology


cognitologist

(rare) Someone who studies cognitive science.


robopsychologist

From robo- + psychologist.
Coined by Isaac Asimov


differential psychologist

differential psychologist (plural differential psychologists)

differential psychology
differential psychology#English

A psychologist who focuses their studies on differential psychology.


protopsychologist

A person who studied what is now called psychology before it was an established discipline.


ethnopsychiatrist

A psychiatrist whose speciality is ethnopsychiatry


teenologist

“Of course we must also discredit the sociologists, criminologists, teenologists, and all the other 'ologists' that constantly find excuses for people not taking their personal responsibility seriously enough,” Reiffel added, […]

2004, Jonathan Ledwidge, A Mannequin for President:

Briefly Leanne imagined telling her friend Jane that she would quit her job at the high school and come to New York City and join Jane's practice of teenologists.

2012, Meg Wolitzer, The Uncoupling, page 255:

We'd be the best 'teenologists.' With this book, we could dictate our own terms on appropriate adolescent etiquette. Because adults like Ms. Michaels forget what it's like to be a teen, and all the pressure coming at you […]

2018, Christopher Phillips, A Child at Heart:

(rare, informal) An expert on the subject of teenagers and their psychology.


armchair psychologist

armchair psychologist (plural armchair psychologists)

/ˈɑːm.t͡ʃɛə saɪkɒləd͡ʒɪst/

From armchair (“unqualified or uninformed yet giving advice”, adjective) + psychologist.

compound

Alcohol education has turned our son into another armchair psychologist. All my wife and I hear about is how we must strive for open communication. Can't anyone just give him the facts about what alcohol can do to you and leave psychology to the experts?

1977, National Center for Alcohol Education, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Planning a Prevention Program: A Handbook for the Youth Worker in an Alcohol Service Agency, page 41:

This was in 1895. The armchair psychologist thereby acquired a stain of taboo early on, in the childhood of psychology, while laboratory research was the totem it was hoped that psychologists would dance around in the twentieth century.

2014, Ole Jacob Madsen, The Therapeutic Turn: How Psychology Altered Western Culture, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 166:

Amid a two-hour conversation at Manny's, Axelrod veered from raconteur to philosopher to armchair psychologist to pundit.

2022, Blake Hounshell, “David Axelrod on Biden, Karl Rove and What He'd Ask Trump”, in The New York Times:

(informal) One who gives psychological advice or speculates about a person's mental health without any qualification to do so.