The 5 differences between a psychologist and a psychopedagogue

Education is much more than what we do in schools when we go through the vital stage of our childhood and adolescence. Learning is a life-long process that, due to its complexity, has been approached from the different disciplines that investigate and intervene on the human mind.

Psychology and psychopedagogy are two of these disciplines, and both allow a global vision of both the learning process itself and the effectiveness of educational strategies.

But... What are the differences between a psychologist and a psychopedagogue? In what characteristics do they differ?

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The differences between psychology and educational psychology

It is easy to confuse the tasks performed by the psychologist with those of the educational psychologist. After all, both psychology and psychopedagogy use observation and empirical testing to study some aspects of human behavior and its mental processes and develop strategies to favor forms of learning that benefit being human.

However, beyond these superficial similarities, there are many characteristics that allow distinguishing these two disciplines. Let's see what are the main differences between them and how they are related to each other.

1. The specific character of psychopedagogy

Psychology is the science that studies behavior and mental processes in general. For years it has been an incredibly extensive discipline that has belonged in part to both the social sciences and the world of science based in biology, and in recent times it has strengthened ties with the neurosciences to better understand who we are and why we act as we do. we make.

Psychopedagogy, for its part, is much more specific and it focuses on a very specific part of the human experience: learning and education, both in childhood and in adolescence and adulthood. This means that it considers secondary themes, for example, the study of consciousness, decision-making or clinical intervention on psychopathologies; they are only approached from the implications they have for the educational process.

2. The importance of intervention in childhood

From psychopedagogy it is understood that learning is something that goes far beyond school and that it occurs at all ages, but, in practice, more importance is given to education aimed at children and adolescents, since it is understood that youth is a stage in which you are especially sensitive to the environment and that what happens during this will greatly influence the educational level you leave to have.

Psychology also attaches great importance to the first two decades of life, but not in all cases, since there are certain psychological phenomena that become more relevant in adulthood. For example, the purchase decision process, the work environment or the effect of electoral propaganda have much more to do with adult life than with childhood or adolescence.

3. The importance of adaptation and context

This is one of the most obvious differences between psychology and educational psychology. From the second discipline, much emphasis is placed on that facet of behavior that is due to learning, that is, the way in which interaction with the environment affects and transforms us.

Psychology also attaches great importance to what has been learned, but it is not the only thing it takes into account. For example, certain branches of this science, such as basic psychology or neuropsychology, give great importance to genetics, which cannot be modified by interaction with the environment. This facet of psychology more focused on biological processes does not deny the transformative power of our experiences, but decides to focus its efforts on studying what always remains latent in the individual.

4. One may focus on the individual, the other may not

Psychopedagogy does not study the individual in isolation, but it is considered that the subject of study is bio-psycho-social, that is, each person is inseparable from the physical and social environment in which dwells.

Something similar happens with psychology and it also tends a lot to consider people as bio-psycho-social subjects, but not in all cases. One facet of this science studies only the individual, considering the contents of learning and social interaction as secondary. These branches of psychology are usually the same ones that take genetic inheritance into account, although this is not the case in all cases.

For example, in the behaviorist current of the mid-twentieth century, research focused on individuals and, at the same time, much more emphasis was placed on learning than inheritance biologically.

5. The type of training

In Spain, Psychology is a 4-year university degree, while Psychopedagogy only exists as postgraduate training and is considered a form of specialization. This means that psychopedagogues can be people trained in different fields, such as psychology, pedagogy or any career that has been supplemented with training to be a teacher.

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