They picture patients lying on a couch discussing their relationship with their mother analyzing the phallic symbols in one's dreams. To others, psychology is psychiatry, simply prescribing medications for those with mental disorders. Many television and feature length movies focus on specific psychological disorders often confusing one for another. How many stories have we seen on television where someone ends up being diagnosed as having multiple personalities when their symptoms more clearly relate to schizophrenia. Not to mention the rarity of dissociative identity disorder and the fact that many do not believe in its existence as a real psychological disorder.
Psychologists are in a variety of careers addressing a number of issues on many different levels.
Enter any bookstore and you will come upon the psychology section filled with self-help books. These books tell you how to do anything from dealing with depression, getting over divorce and finding happiness. Perhaps the most notable face of pop psychology is Oprah's Dr. Phil with his no nonsense approach. People are now being made to believe that they are developing psychological disorders like bipolar disorder and antisocial personality disorder at an alarming rate. This of course is due to the explosion of media coverage of psychological disorders.