Reality Psychology
How TV is the Becoming Out Best Therapist  
Story by Elizabeth Gonzalez // Art by Wesley Vara

I struggled nearly everyday to sit through my psychology classes during my last semester, hearing my professor practically pleading that psychology was a legitimate science. Everything was derived from exact scientific methodology and whatever wasn't was not close to psychology. Listening to him made me feel that psychology had no heart and didn't care about people. I went into the field because I thought psychology was a way to help people better themselves.  

Now, a year after graduating with my BA in Psych, I am finding a new way to reconnect with the science in a very human and accessible way – TV. Television shows like Starting Over and Nanny 911 have changed the televison landscape, while bringing in a deeper element of psychology from what we are used to seeing on daytime talk shows. These shows take something that used to be very private and intimate and have exposed it to a national audience in a new way through psychology reality TV.

On FOX's “Nanny 911,” stressed out parents that have lost control of their kids get help from professional British nannies to help them structure their relationships with their children and assume the correct roles in their relationship. These shows give us a glimpse of behavioral psychology because on Nanny 911, the nannies come into a home and just observe a typical day, watching the behaviors of both the parents and the children. In order to change the negative behavior displayed by both she first explains what is happening and with the children she reinforces positive behavior instead of the negative so that the children change their behavior and feel good doing it. The parents also get explanations as to how their own behavior is affecting  

My favorite of these shows is NBC's “Starting Over,” where life coaches and a psychologist live in a house with six women who are ready to struggle with their emotional battles and essentially start their lives over as new women.   They live in a house where they have to completely let their guards down not only in front of each other, but also for national cameras. Although there are a lot of shows that are misleading and could actually be unhealthy for people, I believe this show whole-heartedly helps the women. Viewers can recognize the same patterns within themselves.  As a psych student I am happy that people are captivated by these shows.   They are helping change the notion of therapy being something to be ashamed about by putting the work more in the public eye than it has ever been.   I have even found myself connecting to the issues that the women are going through. I see myself in some of them and wish that I could actually watch the show more consistently to see them progress.

The psychology reality tv shows have large internet followings where other women have shared not only their opinions of the shows, but ask for advice and describe how it is helping them in their own lives. It's not just another hour of mindless gazing into the television, but an hour where some women claim to be able to reflect on their own lives and replicate the activities that the women on the show do to achieve a transformation. At times without even intending to, the show has made women look at their own lives and work towards change. One forum writer posted, “this show has made me take a good hard look at myself, and work on changing things that need to be changed. I started watching the show not knowing anything about it, I just thought it was another reality show, before I knew it, I was working on ME!!! It has truly changed me for the better.” Another woman adds, “ I find it helpful to myself, even though all these women have different issues they all seem to have similar underlying themes. I can relate to almost of the women at some point, and a many of the assignments they have done, I have actually benefited from personally.”

Although not everything can or should be worked through via the television, these shows can help de-stigmatize the negative ideas of mental health and therapy. It allows viewers from the privacy of their own living room to get a sneak peak of what issues people are dealing with and what counseling looks like from the point of view of both the ‘patient' and the ‘doctor.'

Also by this Author:
“Survivor”-- The Silicon Valley Episode
Story by Elizabeth Gonzalez // art by Fernando Amaro Jr.