Chicago Psychologist Sees The Whole Picture
The only surefire way to know someone is to be around them. However, that hasn't stopped personality and psychology tests to randomly circulate in job interviews. For some career fields, such as airplane pilots, the results tend to be consistent.
According to one study completed by the National Database of Indian Medical Journals, "outstanding" pilots tended to be first-born children, have a close relationship with their fathers, show a great desire for challenges and are self-confident.
Clinical Psychologist Sayaka Machizawa can attest to the latter characteristic.
"I shouldn't really generalize, but I have noticed that a lot of airplane pilots tend to have some obsessive, compulsive tendencies," said Machizawa. "They're very detail oriented. When you give a personality measure, you find that their skills for obsessive, compulsive disorder or narcissistic personality disorders are elevated. In order to be a pilot, you have to be very detail oriented and very confident. This is a good trait, healthy trait [for] a pilot."
This is one of many fun facts that Machizawa has learned in her career. She currently works full-time as the Associate Director of Community Partnerships for the Chicago School of Professional Psychology; as a licensed clinical psychologist for both the Center for Personal Development and Georgemiller, Whyte & Associates; and as a consultant with Japan Intercultural Consulting.
The Tokyo native earned her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
"Both of my parents are psychiatrists in Japan so I'm really interested in human mind and behavior. I wanted to do more talk therapy than prescribing medication. That's why I chose clinical psychology."
But her passion for psychology was more than just following in the foot steps of her parents who work in the health care industry.
"I really enjoy neuropsychological evaluations. It's like you're solving a puzzle. You give different tests and integrate all the data to see the whole picture. It's almost like being a detective."
But just as all pilots are not alike, people tend to be shaped by their personal backgrounds. This is one of the reasons Machizawa encourages all future psychologists to take courses in feminism and philosophy.
"Both feminism and philosophy [courses] prepare us to be a good global citizen who is willing to step out of our comfort zones, be able to challenge social conventions, and have integrity to interact with people with different backgrounds peacefully, respectfully and productively."
Shamontiel L. Vaughn is a professional journalist who has work featured in AXS, Yahoo!, Chicago Defender and Chicago Tribune. She's been an Examiner since 2009 and currently writes about 10 categories on Examiner.com.
