What is the meaning of life?  That's not exactly the question Sharon Bober, PhD, spent her undergrad as a philosophy major pondering.  But close.

"I was always interested in how meaning is made in ambiguous situations in life," she says.  She translated her philosophical interest into "something more grounded in human experience" when she decided to study psychology in graduate school at Clark University.

Her dissertation examined autonomy and empowerment in the context of relationships.  "I really wanted to explore those concepts in the context of illness," she says.  The experience of cancer in her own family made her realize that cancer brings up fear, panic and anxiety that "affects the whole family."

"How do people make decisions that are meaningful and satisfying when they are scared or confused?" she wanted to know.

In her role as consulting psychologist to the Cancer Risk and Prevention Program at Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston, Bober helps find answers to these important questions surrounding illness.  Her responsibilities include examining preliminary assessments for depression and anxiety when a patient first comes in, acting as psychology consultant for a multidisciplinary team-a medical oncologist, a surgical oncologist and a genetics counselor and providing psychotherapy and consultation for women who may be dealing with cancer or the risk of cancer.
At the Cancer Risk and Prevention Program, women get a risk assessment and are given advice and feedback about the assessment.  Some women may be in a situation to undergo genetic testing for cancer, allowing them to determine early on how likely it is that they will have the disease.  She helps manage and cope with the results of genetic testing and, in some cases, offers counseling on whether to even undergo the testing.

"Everyone has his or her own decision-making and coping styles.  Each person may make sense of the same information in very different ways," she says.
 Her work has piqued her interest in how women with increased risk make complex decisions surrounding cancer prevention.  She is now researching how women make decisions about taking the drug tamoxifen, currently used with women in clinical trials to prevent breast cancer.

"This is really the first step to learning the kinds of challenges that women face.  The next step is developing interventions to help people," she notes.
Bober is one in a growing number of psychologists and behavioral scientists working in oncology.  "Sometimes the physicians are not sure about what I do," she says.  "In general, they are still learning how to incorporate behavioral science into their practices.  But the ones I work with directly see a lot of value in what I have to offer."

Bober still wrestles with philosophical issues.  Through her clinical work and research, she hopes to bridge theoretical problems with real-world situations.

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Founder, Lundgren Trial Consulting

Sharon Lundgren, PhD, is something of a rarity.  She's one of only about 400 professionals-about a third of them psychologists-who consults on court trials, including preparing witnesses for trial, holding mock trials to help attorneys prepare for court and teaching attorneys how to present themselves to jurors.
Learning the ropes of this profession is "deep-end immersion by fire," the independent trial consultant says.  Her first employer flung her immediately into trial work, with guidance from a senior consultant who knew the tricks of the trade.

She uses all aspects of her training---social psychology, experimental psychology, statistics and the listening skills of counseling-to help lawyers win cases or opt out of losing ones, says Lundgren, who lives in Houston.  For example, she uses paper-and-pencil assessment measures to ascertain the opinions of mock jurors in mock presentations of a case, then informs attorneys with that information.
Marketing savvy is also a requisite for the field, she says.  "A lawyer's case is like a product," she says.  "You can't change the facts of a case, but you can learn how to spin them."

Lundgren's maverick attitude probably played a role in her eventual choice of profession, she surmises. When she left undergraduate school at Southwestern University in 1989, she had no idea which psychology specialty to pursue.  To her surprise, a summer job as a vacuum salesperson piqued her interest in marketing.
"I noticed there's something very subtle about persuasion," she says.  "People know when you're desperate--they can see the sales pitch coming.  When you relax, you can sell better."

Those observations led her to minor in marketing at Texas A&M University while working toward a social psychology doctorate there, which she earned in 1995.  She took courses in consumer persuasion, and interned at an advertising agency.  When a graduate school colleague told her about trial consultation, the career seemed a perfect fit.

 Lundgrern’s first job was at the Houston office of Litigation Sciences International Inc., a Los Angeles-based firm that pioneered the field of trial consultation.  When the company folded in 1996, she moved to a rival firm, Forensic Technologies Inc.  There she acquired a wealth of experience, including handling a $600 million antitrust suit.

While on maternity leave for her first child in 1998, Lundgren decided to launch her own business so she could have more time for family.

Now, she seems to have the best of both worlds.  In her first year, she earned two to three times the lucrative salary she made at Forensic Technologies.  Her caseload varies: Last year, she had about 20 cases; in 1999, she handled about eight, including a $1 billion lawsuit that consumed most of her time.

Her biggest challenge, though, is juggling a profession and her family, says Lundgren, mother of 2-year-old Nathan and 2-month-old Noah.

"Sometimes I feel guilty, like I should be just a stay-at-home mom, " she says.  "The next day I land my biggest case ever and I'm on top of the world."

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Internet Marketing Analyst

First impressions often make the greatest impact, a lesson Michael Moon, PhD, puts to use in his line of work-creating Web sites that are visually appealing and user friendly.

Yes, your favorite cyber portal has a "face," attests Moon, an Internet marketing analyst who says entering a Web site is "like seeing someone's face for the first time."

At his jobs at software companies Quaartz.com and Egghead.com, an Internet commerce company, Moon designed Web site "personalities" using both words and images.  To target consumer taste, he dressed business portals to "well-designed, informative and useful" perfection.

Perhaps Moon so easily envisions winning Web sites because he was born an eager observer.  "When I was a toddler and my family went out to eat at restaurants," he says, "I would just sit with my mouth stuffed, cheeks ballooning out like Dizzy Gillespie's... watching, observing and scrutinizing everyone.
True to his silent trumpeting of childhood, Moon became a violinist. But psychology was his foremost vocation.

Experiences such as mentoring younger musicians fed Moon’s fascination with "questions of emotional, cognitive and social development." After obtaining his bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Moon traded coasts for a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University.  He also earned a Certificate in Organizational Development and Consultation from the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology.

Midway through his PhD track, Moon grew "disillusioned with the concept of academic freedom' that had initially propelled him toward academic research.
"The cons became clear," he says, citing "funding sources, research communities and departmental pressures" as involving more politics "than I cared to participate in.

The Internet was enticing new territory to Moon; Web sites offered an opportunity to "build something" to serve others.  Newly armed with his PhD in 1998, Moon entered the cyber-world as an entry-level customer service representative for Onsale.com. When that company was acquired by Egghead.com the following year, Moon was promoted to analyst.  At the end of 1999, Moon transferred to Quaartz.com as a marketing manager.

"In both cases, the roles had been created for me and my research abilities," he says.  His marketing positions "came as a result of brainstorming with my eventual bosses," Moon says.  "They didn't even realize that they had a need to fill!"
Though he enjoys his marketing career, knowing "I couldn't have done it any other way," there are times when Moon has felt like an island in a sea of MBAs.
"I've felt a bit like a squatter with a psychology background on marketing territory," Moon admits, surmising that he may "turn the tables and use my marketing background for a role that is related to psychology.”

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