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Summary: Psychology Degree
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Getting a Masters Degree in Psychology
A masters degree in
psychology is one of the best career choices. Clinical
psychologists are known to have stratospheric salaries, and even
though much of this reputation is a mix of urban myth and easy
stereotyping, there is some grain of truth in it. This makes a
graduate or a masters degree in psychology one of the most
competitive domains when one is trying to get a seat after their
undergraduates. Indeed, it has been reported that only about 2-5%
of students who apply for a seat in a masters course succeed in
getting a seat. Here we discuss the how and why’s of getting a
masters and graduate degree.
Why You Should Get a Masters in Psychology
One of the foremost reasons why people do a graduate degree in psychology is that it is the only possible way to become an accredited clinical psychologist. Without a masters, you can be a psychologist, but you will not be able to see patients in a clinical setting. This degree also allows you to become a counselor, which is a professional who advises people with their day-to-day life. Such counselors include school psychologists, marriage counselors and educational counselors. If you specialize in social work, you can also work as a psychologist in a social work environment. Depending upon the specialization you take, you have a choice of working in many different settings. A masters also allows you to pursue a graduate degree in psychology.
Graduate Degrees After Masters in Psychology
In the United States,
there are two types of doctorate degrees you can do after masters
in psychology – one is the more popular PhD program that is more
academically inclined, and the second kind are the PsyD (doctor
of psychology) degree program that is more practically oriented.
In the United Kingdom, one has to complete a Doctorate in
Clinical Psychology (D. Clin. Psych.) after their bachelors to
get a masters. In most countries, after completing a degree, a
license is required from the government or the relevant body to
practice.
Getting a masters in psychology is not an easy task: first you have to get a seat in a program of your choice against heavy odds, then it takes more than 6 years to complete the degree, and that is not including any internship required. And all this after you have to pay very high fees for the degree itself – any decision to take a masters should be weighed in with the cost, benefits, your long-term goals and tempered with a passion for psychology. Because only when you really like this field would you be able to succeed in it.
Getting a Degree in Psychology
An education in psychology
prepares one to work with the one factor that is common in all
jobs: people. Whether you are working as a professional
psychologist, or as an advertising copywriter, the principles of
psychology will help you reach your audience. There are different
types of degrees you can take in psychology. These include the
bachelor’s, associate’s, master’s and graduate degrees. It must
be noted that only a graduate degree will prepare you to become a
clinical psychologist who can have a private practice. Only about
25% of graduates of a bachelors degree are able to work in a
field related to psychology, so you have to be careful about your
career path if you take such a degree.
Whether you take a bachelors or a post-graduate degree, there are a number of sub-fields that should help you decide what type of psychology education you want to take. These sub-fields include:
- Clinical Psychology If you are inclined to work with patients to help access, diagnose, and treat them with emotional and mental illnesses and maladaptive behaviors and thought-patters, this is the field for you. After doing your post-graduation in this field, you will also need to take accreditation from the professional body of psychologists in your region or country.
- Forensic Psychology If you want to work with psychology in the legal domain, this is the field for you. As a forensic psychologist you will study criminal behavior, and will work directly with the legal system.
- School Psychology As a school counselor you will help children with emotional, career and academic issues. You will have to collaborate with parents, teachers and students to further the academic and other skills of the students.
- Industrial-Organizational Psychology Psychologists in this field use their skills to help improve the workplace of the organizations they work with. This is an example of applied research, because you will directly apply research principles in real world to solve problems.
- Personality Psychology As a personality psychologist you will study the pattern of feelings, thoughts and behavior that make a person. You will more likely work in an academic setting as an instructor or researcher.
- Social Psychology If you wish to study social behavior, including about how individual behavior and self-image correlates to interaction with others, this is the field for you. You will more likely work in an academic setting; however, you can also work in domains such as advertising, where you can bring your understanding of social groups to good use.
Once you go for a post-graduation, you have the choice of pursuing either a PhD or a PsyD in psychology. The former is more academic in nature, whereas the latter is more real-world oriented. Both will allow you to become a professional clinical psychologist.
Jobs After a Psychology Degree
Students who have done a degree in psychology are proficient in many transferable skills that help them in jobs that are not directly related to psychology. It is seen that the coursework for a psychology degree trains one to study diverse domains such as statistics, writing essays, writing dissertations, understanding an issue weighing empirical evidence, writing reports, and presenting the findings in seminars. All these skills can be employed on many jobs, which is what makes psychology students such an attractive option for employers. Here we talk about the most popular types of jobs pursued by psychology students after their bachelors.
Childcare Related and Counseling
Also called school
psychology, these jobs involve working with kids in schools
towards guiding them to better behavior and careers. With
schoolyard bullying still a major problem in schools across the
country, the counselors have their work cut out for them. To
become a counselor, you may need to take a relevant degree. In
the United Kingdom, you can take a part-time degree in
Qualification in Counseling Psychology (QCP). It must be noted
that a counselor is not a clinical psychologist. Rather, he can
be considered more as an adviser in specific settings, such as
in schools.
A degree required to become an educational psychologist is that of Doctorate in Educational Psychology. In the United States, most school and educational counselors are Master’s in psychology, though there are some Ed.S. courses too available in the same.
Personnel, Training and Recruitment
Also known as Human Resources, many psychology majors go on to work in the HR department of companies, and bring their people skills to full use there. There is a lot of competition in this domain, so one may have to join in a relatively junior position to gain some experience before they can get a more senior position. HR jobs involve manpower planning, recruitment and selection, training and development of employee skills, performance evaluation and other employee services.
Psychiatrist Technicians
Even if a psychology
degree does not make you a clinical psychologist, you can still
work in the domain as a mental health technician. In these
jobs, you will work directly under the guidance of a clinical
psychologist. This makes it an attractive option if you wish to
pursue your masters – experience working with a clinical
psychologist should help you in your later career.
An undergraduate degree in psychology prepares one for many jobs other than that of a psychologist. Other jobs options for psychology degree holders include teaching, market researchers, sales representatives, and forensic psychologist, among others. Apart from all these jobs, one also has the option of pursuing their masters in psychology.
Psychology Colleges in US
Psychology is the study of
human behavior, mental conditions and of human emotions in a
scientific manner. Further, the job of a psychologist is to apply
the principles thus learned to real human subjects, whether in
clinical setting, or in any other setting such as industrial
psychology. The United States has possibly the best psychology
programs in the world, with its top colleges turning out top
psychologists every year. Selecting the best program, from the
best colleges is not an easy task. You have to select the best
colleges from among a long list of universities that offer
degrees in psychology. The importance of selecting the right
college is even more important in the case of psychology because
psychology is one of the costlier programs one can take. Any
wrong selection here can cost you a packet. We have sifted
through a number of surveys to bring you this list of the best
psychology colleges in US.
Stanfo
rd
University Stanford is consistently as the top
university for psychology in the United States year after year.
With more than 15,000 students enrolled in the university in the
year 2010, it is one of the most respected universities in the
world, with an unmatched psychology department.
Yale University The psychology program of Yale specializes in behavioral neuroscience, cognitive psychology, as well as clinical, developmental and social psychology.
University of Michigan The psychology students of this university can gain experience at the clinic at the university, which has therapy programs as well as community outreach services for patients.
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Located in the Westwood area of Los Angels, the psychology program at this university specializes in cognitive sciences and psycho-biology fields.
University Of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Apart from other specialties, you can study clinical, quantitative, developmental, and industrial-organizational psychology at this university.
University of California at Berkeley The university offers a Ph.D program within the area of Cognition and Development in its Graduate school of Education. The program the students to prepare themselves for a job as a psychologist in public schools, universities, mental health clinics, and other work settings.
Harvard With more than 30 faculty members, and past faculty that includes eminent psychologists and researchers such as B.F. Skinner, Gordon Allport, George Miller and Henry Murray, Harvard has one of the most distinguished psychology departments in the world.
University of Minnesota (U of M) Areas of specialization at the university include Clinical psychology, cognitive and brain sciences, Counseling, Industrial/Organizational, Quantitative methods, social psychology and Personality etc psychology.
University of
Pennsylvania The university offers both
undergraduate and graduate courses. It is consistently rated
among the top psychology programs in the world.
University of California in San Diego This is the best school in US if you want to study experimental psychology: program it offers include Behavior Analysis, Cognitive psychology, Developmental psychology, Neuroscience and Behavior, and Social Psychology.
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