This setting is filled with multiple opportunities. There is the ever-present possibility of being given responsibility for embracing an emerging opportunity in one’s job. This opportunity supports new learning while building on the foundation of one’s current successful work. This third setting is new for most people, including psychologists. What does it mean to keep operating as a psychologist while also working in new areas? For instance, as I have already mentioned, many psychologists have now begun to provide life coaching services (if they have been trained as a clinician) or as an executive coach (if they have been trained and are working as an organizational consultant). We also find clinical psychologists who are being trained in new neurofeedback procedures and those doing assessments gaining training in the use of new neurological testing procedures or newly validated employee selection-based tests (such as the Big Five). As a prophetic colleague (and esteemed clinician) told me several decades ago: the future will reside not in academic degrees but in certifications!
The RS setting is here to stay. The challenge for psychologists with doctorates is to retain their identity and sense of self as someone providing psychological services while exploring the boundaries of psychology and the intermixing of several disciplines and fields of study (such as neurology and psychology, or leadership and psychology). Some psychologists even declare ownership of a field in which they have just entered. Psychologists in one state, for instance, recently declared that those doing professional “coaching” must have earned a doctorate in psychology (even though coaching touches on many fields). Other psychologists find that they are engaged in a skirmish with professionals in other fields regarding their ”right” to provide certain kinds of treatment (for example, neurologically-based treatments).
In many ways, the fourth setting is quite old. Called Diffuse Opportunism (DO), this setting was often one in which many women lived—if they were following their husbands from job to job in many different geographic locations. Found not just among military families but also corporate families, the DO setting required that women (and some men) find work wherever they can in a community to which they have just moved. The DO setting might not be easy to find in a closed community (such as a small town) or in an economy where everyone is scrambling to find work. The “outsider” is identified as an unwanted “migrant” and often told to go away. During the 1930s, we find that “transients” (hobos) were found in abundance. While they may have been portrayed in a romanticized manner in song (Woody Guthrie), the world in which they lived was far from being secure or gratifying.
In our own times, we find some psychologists who operate as professional “hobos.” They use their doctorates to move from funded project to funded project. These are often organizational consultants and trainers who work primarily in non-profit or educational settings. The good news for these hobos is that they face the possibility of moving freely in and out of specific job assignments. They are not bound by organizationally dictated expectations regarding role and responsibilities. Furthermore, there is the possibility that they will be recognized for and supported in their initiation of bold new ventures. These ventures can take place both within and outside traditional organizational boundaries. They may yield unanticipated beneficial outcomes. Freedom is alive and well for the DO folks.
The bad news is that there is very little security or stability for the inhabitants of a DO setting. Typically, those working as professional hobos are sometimes successful. This being the case, they are overwhelmed with work and have no time to breathe or spend time with their family. At other times, these hobos have no work. They are overwhelmed with anxiety and must devote an exceptional amount of time to marketing their services. They find little time and have few reasons to breathe or to spend enjoyable time with their family. There is rarely a balance regarding the “right” amount of work in which to be engaged.
