What do you do for a living?

Some of you may or may not know that I am a psychologist. I am not a clinical psychologist, which is the type of psychologist that most people think of. There are many types of psychologists and I am a psychologist that does psychological research (on occasion I also teach college courses in psychology). I do not provide therapy or any clinical services.

It is sometimes difficult to answer the question, "What do you do for a living?" I usually answer that I am a psychologist and then I have to explain that I am not a clinical psychologist and what I actually do. In fact, my family (Mr. Bear and my parents included) don't even seem to know what I really do. They just know that I have a Ph.D. in psychology but do not really know what that means.

My training is in developmental psychology and I conduct research on issues that impact children and families. Currently, my research is focused on the issues of work and family, such as the impact of maternal employment on families, the impact of the decision of women to opt-out of the workforce, and the effect of paid family leave on the health and well-being of newborns and mothers.

I have tried to keep my professional life separate from this blog simply because this blog was somewhat of a reprieve from work. But I have some exciting news that I really wanted to share. For the last couple of years, I have been working with 2 colleagues on an edited book based on a conference we had a few years ago. The book is finally published and I am so excited. I wrote a section introduction and a chapter in the book, and I was a co-author to another chapter. The book is an interdisciplinary volume that examines the multiple realities of work and family from academic, commercial, and political perspectives. It probably isn't a book that the regular person will read since it is geared toward work-family researchers, but it does include interesting information and research on an array of topics that cover the broad field of work and family from various perspectives.

So for those of you who wondered what I do for a living. Well there you go. It never is easy to explain.