Insights on Psychology

By Evelyne Chua

Discover+ is a series of online industry panels which gives students the chance to interact with working professionals and learn about the careers they aspire to enter. These panels provide youths and working professionals with the opportunity to better understand industry trends, hear first-hand perspectives from industry professionals, and gain valuable advice on entering or navigating these industries.

On 15 April 2025, Advisory hosted Discover+: Psychology, the 94th edition of the Discover+ series. Speakers on the panel included:

• Khairul Mohd Khair (Moderator), Head, People & Organisational Development, Stroke Support Station
• Carlin Lee, Founder & President, SG Psych Stuff
• Dr Geraldine Tan, Director & Principal Psychologist, The Therapy Room
• Dr Jorge Sinval, Research Fellow, Nanyang Technological University
• Dr Ong Mian Li, Founder & Clinical Psychologist, Lightfull Psychology Consulting & Practice

Attendees included students at various levels of education with a desire to understand more about the diverse range of roles in the psychology sector, and how to best position themselves for such roles. Below are some key points shared during the session:

What does a career in psychology realistically look like?

A typical day in front-line psychological practice begins well before most offices open and ends long after the last client leaves. Meetings with partner organisations or schools can start as early as 7.30am, and the first therapy session may begin at 8.00am. From that point the schedule does not abate. In one day, a psychologist may see an adolescent struggling with exam anxiety, then an adult wrestling with marital conflict, and then a parent worried about a child’s suicidal thoughts. Each session demands full emotional presence, quick formulation and careful boundary-setting. By late afternoon practitioners may feel depleted, yet the work continues as case notes must be completed, risk-management plans reviewed, and formal reports drafted for doctors, teachers or court. The role is therefore both intellectually varied and emotionally exacting as it requires not only psychological expertise but also disciplined self-care to prevent fatigue from accumulating across days, especially as they seldom unfold the same way twice.

Could you explain what psychometrics is and what a psychometrician’s role is?

Psychometrics is the branch of psychology that turns invisible qualities, such as intelligence, burnout, anxiety or personality, into numbers that can be analysed and compared. Instead of dissecting a brain or observing behaviour directly, psychometricians design questionnaires, performance tasks and rating scales whose individual items act in mathematically predictable ways. Drawing on both statistics and psychology, they test whether each item truly captures a portion of the underlying trait, refine the wording, set scoring rules and confirm that the final instrument works just as well for teenagers as for adults, or for one language community as for another. Their work is wide-ranging as they work on depression inventories, learning-styles surveys and cognitive-ability tests. As ministries, schools and companies alike need fresh, culturally-valid measures, there is substantial local demand for specialists who can run confirmatory-factor analysis, calibrate item-response models and report margins of error. A psychometrician may consult for government agencies, build assessment tools in ed-tech start-ups or teach quantitative methods at a university.

What is performance psychology and where is it applied?

Originally rooted in sport science, performance psychology now supports students facing high-stakes exams, performing artists, military personnel and corporate executives. Techniques such as goal setting, arousal regulation, visualisation and attentional control translate readily from athletic arenas to classrooms or boardrooms. These can even extend to settings like the O-Level national examinations, which may be called the “Olympics of schooling”, given that they happen after four years of schooling, and require structured mental-skills training for optimal results.

Besides clinical psychology, what other disciplines of psychology can someone consider building a career on?

In Singapore, roughly one-third of practising psychologists specialise outside the clinical arena, concentrating in fields such as educational psychology, counselling psychology, industrial–organisational (IO) psychology and, to a smaller extent, sport psychology. Each has its own postgraduate route as master’s programmes exist locally for educational, counselling, IO and forensic tracks, while other niches such as community, health or full-fledged sport psychology typically require overseas study. A research pathway remains open to graduates as well. Many graduates proceed to a master’s or PhD in the social sciences and build careers in academia or policy analysis. Because the undergraduate curriculum emphasises broad psychological science, alumni also migrate into adjacent professions such as social work, human resources and marketing, where their understanding of human behaviour and data proves equally valuable.

How is the registration for psychologists by the Singaporean government expected to unfold?

A forthcoming regulatory framework will apply to psychologists who hope to practice in Singapore, in order to ensure client safety in the previously unregulated space. The change means that psychologists who wish to practise in Singapore will have to ensure they meet the required standards set by law. Academics or practitioners working solely in non-clinical roles may be included later, but it is likely that alignment with the ethical and education standards will become mandatory.

What emotional risks accompany the profession, and how can they be managed?

A concern is the toll that constant exposure to distress can take on the practitioner. Much of a psychologist’s caseload involves individuals who are already at heightened risk, think students returning to school after a suicide attempt, adults wrestling with intrusive thoughts, or families in acute conflict. Each case demands meticulous risk assessment and, in many instances, a formal sign-off that the person is safe to resume daily activities. When the outcome is tragic and a client is lost, the team may revisit every note and decision, questioning whether anything could have been done differently. That self-scrutiny, though necessary, is draining. Even on routine days the work is cognitively dense, clinical notes must be checked and counter-checked, psychometric data audited, diagnoses justified in reports that carry legal or educational weight.

As the material clients share is so intense, psychologists often describe it as walking with a backpack that gradually fills with other people’s stories. The discipline therefore insists on clear boundaries, knowing when to “take the pack off”, through scheduled breaks, peer supervision and, where possible, personal therapy. Empathy, the very skill that makes the work effective, also opens the door to vicarious trauma if countertransference is left unchecked. Regular reflective practice, honest conversations with colleagues and careful caseload balancing are essential safeguards. Burnout research shows that clinicians who build exercise, family time and friendships into their week fare better and so does periodic rotation into research, teaching or organisational roles that provide a different rhythm. Finally, would-be psychologists are reminded that not everyone is suited to daily immersion in crisis and loss. Seeking mentorship early and remaining alert to one’s own limits is part of the ethical duty of care, both to clients and to oneself.

How can undergraduates gain relevant experience before postgraduate study?

Securing meaningful experience as an undergraduate is entirely possible, but students often discover that the most direct-sounding routes with titles such as “associate psychologist” or “research assistant” attached to a hospital or a ministry, can be the hardest to land. Those positions exist, yet competition is fierce and vacancies limited. A more productive first step is to clarify what a student hopes to practise later. For example, whether one needs stronger research design and data-analysis skills, sharper interviewing techniques, or a grounding in community work. Once the desired competencies are clear, a much wider field of opportunities opens up. A stint in a start-up’s people-analytics team, for instance, can hone quantitative abilities far better than a coveted but unavailable clinical post. Volunteering on a youth helpline can deepen listening skills and expose you to risk-assessment protocols in real time. Even front-of-house duties at a private practice teach client triage, confidentiality and professional communication, skills that transfer directly to postgraduate training.

Employers and admissions panels consistently look for reflective practitioners, so treat every placement as raw material for future applications. Keep a journal of the specific tasks attempted, the theories glimpsed in action, and the moments that felt uncomfortable; later, those reflections become vivid examples of learning and resilience. Crucially, do not rule out shadowing experiences that feel “non-clinical". Sitting in on organisational change meetings, observing school counsellors during case-consultations, or analysing survey data for a social-enterprise project all reveal facets of human behaviour that formal coursework rarely covers. As many private-sector clients pay for confidentiality and may refuse a second person in the room, undergraduates should be prepared to start at reception or in administrative support. Far from menial, that first-contact role is where one learns how crises present over the phone, how paperwork underpins ethical practice, and how practitioners manage their schedules to avoid burnout. In larger voluntary-welfare organisations and family-service centres, there is often more room for observation, group facilitation and community outreach. Those hours can later be documented toward supervised-practice requirements.

Finally, cast the net beyond psychology-branded positions. Employers in marketing analytics, HR tech, or user-experience research routinely welcome psychology majors precisely because they bring a behavioural lens. By the time postgraduate applications roll around, candidates who have sampled different settings, and can articulate what each taught them, stand out far more than those who waited exclusively for a single, highly specific clinical internship.

Why do, or why not do, psychology?

Pursuing psychology makes sense only when the motive is an enduring fascination with human behaviour and a genuine desire to help others. The work can be profoundly satisfying, few careers offer the chance to see someone regain hope or leave a consultation visibly lighter, but the path is long and demanding. Most undergraduates will spend eight or more years (including honours, supervised practice and a master’s degree) before becoming eligible for registration, and tuition alone can run to tens of thousands of dollars. Entry-level salaries, while respectable, do not come close to matching that investment in the short term, so anyone driven primarily by financial reward is likely to be disappointed.

Equally important is why not to enter the field. Psychology is not a shortcut to resolving one’s own relationship tensions or personal mental-health struggles as those issues call for treatment, not a professional qualification. Moreover, only a fraction of graduates, often quoted at around ten to fifteen percent, ever progress to the title of psychologist, and doing so requires consistently high grades, competitive internships, and comfort with statistics, research methods and relentless report-writing. Candidates who dislike uncertainty, extensive reading, or human interaction will soon find the discipline draining.

That said, for individuals who thrive on curiosity, accept that learning never stops, and find meaning in translating theory into real-world change, psychology offers remarkable breadth. Whether the goal is clinical practice, organisational consulting or behavioural research, the profession rewards those who combine intellectual rigour with empathy, resilience and a willingness to keep growing long after formal studies end.