{"id":8022,"date":"2018-01-30T09:15:22","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T19:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/workable-level.flywheelsites.com\/?p=8022"},"modified":"2018-02-01T09:51:50","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T19:51:50","slug":"ask-a-professor-forensic-psychology-in-real-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/30\/ask-a-professor-forensic-psychology-in-real-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask a Professor: Forensic Psychology in Real Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Katlin Cilliers | Staff Writer<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Ask a Professor is a regular feature where Kapi\u02bbo News will highlight the real-life careers and jobs that stem from areas of study at Kapi\u02bbolani Community College.<\/em><\/p>\n

Having a PsyD in Psychology from Argosy University, Dr. Keith Pedro recalls his journey into the field. At age 25, after having taken his MCAT, he dropped his plans of going into pre-med school and went soul-searching in Bali, Indonesia. He claims that the month spent in the country\u00a0\u201cheightened his senses\u201d and shifted his perspective; he found himself fascinated by human behavior. Upon his return to Honolulu, he informed his father that he wanted to change careers.<\/p>\n

Pedro has worked as a forensic psychologist\u00a0 – someone who specializes in legal matters and sheds light on the mental functioning of criminals – for nearly 13 years. He has a private practice in Honolulu and also teaches PSY 100\u00a0<\/strong>at KCC.<\/p>\n

Do you recall the moment you changed your mind, from medical school to psychology? <\/strong><\/p>\n

During that month in Bali, on a tour to the rice fields, I sat observing this young girl.\u00a0She was about 7 years old, and she was creating this windmill out of a tin can. I thought to myself, “Someone with so little has so much.” From that point on, something changed. I was fascinated by watching people, and how they interact.<\/p>\n

How did your family take the news?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My parents were against it. They wanted medical doctors in the family. We were trying to be the quintessential Asian family. [Upon my decision], I lost my father\u2019s financial support, because he said that if I wanted to go on that path, he wasn\u2019t going to fund my education. I decided to do it even so.<\/p>\n

How did you end up involved in forensic psychology?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I overheard someone say, “You get to ride in these police cars, and you evaluate people.” And I thought, “Oh my god, this is so exciting.” I filled out an application that said Department of Public Safety, but I didn\u2019t read it thoroughly. I never thought I was going to be a forensic psychologist. When I got a call from the maximum-security prison, and they said, “We chose your application, could you come down for the processing?” I asked, “The prison? Is there a police station over there?” \u2018No.” “I thought I applied for the Department of Public Safety.” “Yes, you did. You are at Halawa, the maximum-security prison.” I was embarrassed to tell people that I\u2019d made a mistake so I just went with it.<\/p>\n

What was the job like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a practical rotation, so you had to do 900 hours of assessments, interviews with inmates that were sex offenders. During the first month, I was afraid to be in the prison. But I soon became fascinated by the artwork, their tattoos, the stories behind them. I became engaged with them.<\/p>\n

Were you treating them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was evaluating them, to help the system decide on the length of their sentence.<\/strong> After so many years of being incarcerated, then [we\u2019d assess] rehabilitation, where they stand sexually, if they are perpetrators. A lot of the exams were very intense. That was [me], training to become a forensic psychologist, but I did it without realizing [it]. In forensic psychology, most of the training is done within that [type of] environment.<\/p>\n

Some people would say that dealing with criminals and victims is quite heavy. How do you deal with it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is a draining job, but it\u2019s also satisfying. You do need to self-care, to have some down time. I need to not think about work. I never bring home work, unless I must. There are specific days that I say to myself “no more work” and I\u2019ll go home, play the piano and relax.<\/p>\n

Can you describe a typical day<\/strong> as a forensic psychologist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019d start with checking emails in the morning, making sure of your appointments. Then, you\u2019d go meet with the treatment teams in prison or agency\u2019s offices with case managers. You might have to go [to the agency\u2019s offices] to talk about a case. Forensic psychologists would provide all the background to the case, because the team may not have all the pieces. The murder, the crime, or whatever it was, and based on that, [we\u2019d discuss] how you want them to work with the behaviors, so you\u2019d consult with the treatment team. You might go to court that same day to testify or to observe a court hearing. You would collaborate on planning with the state hospital and other agencies. You work directly with probational officers,\u00a0 judges, hospitals, and case managers. You may be called by prosecutors or defense attorneys to evaluate a defendant or provide psychological assessment.<\/p>\n

What is the best part of your job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The people I work with. You need good support, from your head [of department], the director of health, the forensic chief, my immediate supervisor, the community health administrator. These people have been so supportive.<\/p>\n

What is something you don\u2019t like about your job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When a person dies, and when you hear the victim\u2019s story. Sometimes we feel like we can treat everybody. And we forget that we\u2019re humans.<\/p>\n

What traits are needed to thrive as a forensic psychologist? And as a clinical psychologist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flexibility in thinking, cultural sensitivity. You must have an open mind. Not be biased, because you cannot go into [a] session and have a bias about something. I work with women in my private practice where they\u2019ve had abortions, for instance. If you\u2019re a therapist who does not agree with abortion, you will have a hard time working with the patient. Be sure that you do not influence the patient with your own personal beliefs. I think you should be continuously educating yourself.<\/p>\n

What would you say to a student who wishes to pursue a career in psychology?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be afraid of all the hard work, or the nights that you don\u2019t get to sleep because you\u2019re studying or reading. Seek constant education. If you have that mentality you\u2019ll do fine. If you have that mentality of “I\u2019ll just do the minimum and that\u2019s it,” you won\u2019t [succeed],\u00a0<\/b>because [psychology] should always intrigue us to learn more and more every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Editor’s note: To see the Ask a Professor feature on Susan Inouye, a linguistics professor, click here<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Katlin Cilliers | Staff Writer Ask a Professor is a regular feature where Kapi\u02bbo News will highlight the real-life careers and jobs that stem from areas of study at Kapi\u02bbolani Community College. Having a PsyD in Psychology from Argosy University, Dr. Keith Pedro recalls his journey into the field. At age 25, after having […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":8024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campusfeatures","category-features","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}