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Abstract

This research objective is to determine if there are differences in the psychologist's image, comparing between different types of professional careers and also between men and women. The image is measured through the Semantic Differential of the Psychologist's Image (Mikusinski et al., 1976), the Scale of Popular Myths about Psychology (Cañoto, 2017) and the Hierarchy Scale of the Psychologist. For testing this, a sample of 217 doctors, social communicators, engineers, educators and general public was gathered, all Venezuelans, over 20 years old, men and women. A non-experimental study of comparison of means was then carried out, using a factorial analysis of variance with elements of covariance. It was found that positive adjectives are usually attributed to the psychologist and this is similar between professionals and general public, and also between men and women. However, men had a more accurate image of the psychologist than women (F = 7,506, p. 0.008 <0.05), while engineers considered the psychologist less relevant than other groups (F = 2,267, p. 0.071 <0.10). The results implied that, in general, the image of the psychologist is favorable and fairly accurate, their personal characteristics tend to be highlighted over their work as professionals and they are considered important for Venezuelan society