Psychomarket
The term Psychomarkt stands for the variety of providers and offers of psychological services (e.g. psychological diagnostics , counseling, life support, personality development, therapy, other personal services, etc.), although the negative connotation is difficult to achieve due to the large number of competing offers and their different ones verifying and often questionable quality is consciously accepted. The term market is intended to make it clear that this is a highly commercial area - annual sales in Germany are estimated between 5 and 10 billion euros, depending on the definition.
Market regulation
The need for consumer protection and quality assurance in this area has led to the introduction of a “draft law on contracts in the field of commercial life management assistance and personal development” (abbreviated as “Psychomarket Draft”) in Germany. It failed in 2004 in the Federal Council. Among other things, the providers should be obliged to provide information about their qualifications and the methods used in order to make the quality assessable. One reason for the failure was consensus-finding problems in the definition of quality, and another was the question of which of the numerous offers fall under this designation.
Quality assessment is made more difficult because legal bases and standards for the field of psychological services and their providers are missing or incomplete in most countries. Quality standards for psychological diagnostics do exist, but they have no legally binding force. For other areas (e.g. consulting services and many methods for personal development) there is a complete lack of generally recognized standards.
Assessment of the quality of services offered
So far, quality requirements for psychological services have been defined in-house by professional associations. Standards such as DIN 33430 for aptitude diagnostics are addressed to clients of psychological services and compliance is voluntary. Because it is a market, information and education for consumers (clients) are ways of influencing offers through demand .
Assessment of the qualification of the service provider
Protection of job titles (title protection) stipulates that certain activities may only be carried out by defined professions (as with psychotherapy in Germany and Austria). However, most of the fields of activity within business psychology are not tied to specific qualifications (e.g. the entire personnel diagnostics).
- Academic designations such as doctor and master are protected in many countries, but only refer to a scientific qualification without reference to a specific subject.
- In Germany, the title of diploma psychologist or the corresponding master’s degrees are protected. Furthermore, activities in the field of psychotherapy are regulated by law. The title of psychotherapist is protected by law.
- In Austria there is a law on psychologists which protects the title of psychologist and the activity, including psychotherapy.
- In Switzerland, the Psychology Act also provides for far-reaching consequences for psychological services.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information page of the Federal Association of Sect and Psychomarket Consulting eV
- ^ Draft for the law on contracts in the field of commercial life management assistance and personal development
- ^ Psychotherapists Act in Germany
- ↑ Initiative Psychology Law in Switzerland ( Memento of the original dated November 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Therapy: Guide through the psycho-market : DER SPIEGEL 1/1994
- Psychoberufe : Deutsches Ärzteblatt, Volume 103, Issue 4, January 27, 2006