If you are interested in pursuing a career in psychology, you will be pleased to know that there are countless different things that you are capable of doing with a degree in psychology. And if you have never entertained the thought of becoming a psychology, you may want to reconsider. Psychologists do more than just listen to client’s problems and conduct research in laboratories all day, they are active in a variety of different fields and you may find that a career in psychology coincides with your other interests.
Psychologist mainly examine human mental processes and how they affect behavior. Many psychologists are involved in research, exploring the intellectual, physiological, emotional, or social facets of human conduct. However, psychologists are always applying the data they find in almost every field of study including business, government, management, employee relations, law, and even sports. In order to become a psychologist, you generally need to a graduate level psychology degree to be successful. Medical school is required for those who specialize in clinical psychology or counseling, while a master’s degree is a minimum requirement for most educational facilities and organizations.
Here are just a few of the growing fields in psychology:
Counselors:
When people think of psychologists, the image they usually conjure in their mind is a person who jots down notes while listening to a client’s problems. Counselors are just one of the careers a psychologist can get into. Counselors use many methods including personal consultations and examinations to help people deal with everyday struggles and pressures. Their main objective is to find ways to help others live happy, productive lives. You may find counselors working in other areas such as group practices, career or educations counseling centers, or hospitals.
Clinical psychologists:
Clinical psychology is the largest area of practice and people in this field are typically employed at medical facilities like clinics and hospitals. The clinical psychologist helps patients deal with injuries, emotional disorder, adjust to chance, and trauma such as the loss of a loved one. They may also work at physical rehabilitations centers where they work with patients with injuries, disabilities, strokes, or chronic problems. But overall, clinical psychology is varied, and many people in this field specialize in specific areas such as health (helping people maintain a healthy lifestyle through counseling) and neuropsychological (studying the brain’s mental processes and working with patients who had head injuries or strokes).
School Psychologists:
The school psychologists job is to work with educators, administrators, and parents to help maximize student’s education and minimize behavioral problems. They also work to improve problems such as drugs abuse and violence, learning techniques in classrooms, and parenting skills. School psychologists work to find the best programs that are suitable for both disabled and gifted students.
Industrial-Organizational Psychologists:
Did you know that psychologists also work in the work force as well. It’s true, not all psychologists have nice, comfortable offices. Industrial-Organizational (IO) psychologists use their knowledge of psychology in the workplace in order to achieve two goals: increase productivity for the company and advance quality of life for workers. IO psychologists do an assortment of things such as research administration issues or effective advertising, interview applicants, develop and run training programs, and provide advice for employees. In many ways, they are the head-honcho within the company.
Sports psychologists:
Are you a sports fan? If so, being a sports psychologist may be the field for you! As sports of all kinds become more competitive and attract children of increasingly younger ages, this field is growing exponentially. As a sports psychologist your job is to help athletes refine their focus on competitive goals, stay motivated, and learn to deal with anxiety and fear of failure. So in a away, sports psychologists are also coaches to the players on the field, helping them prepare themselves mentally for a big game.
Social Psychologists:
If you are interested in why certain trends are so popular and how people interface with society, you may find a career in social psychology appealing. Social psychologists can be found working in a assortment of different fields as their skills are especially helpful in areas such as organizational management, marketing, and designing programs and systems. Social psychologists deal largely with group dynamics, the nature of leadership, ways of thinking, and ways of perceiving the world.
In many of these fields, the skills of psychologists are in demand. Employment for psychologists are predicted to increase faster than the average for clinical, counseling, and school psychologists while it is increasing at the average rate for Industrial Organization psychologists. Psychologists also have the option of working independently as over a quarter (four times the national average) are self-employed. Many psychologists are also very happy with their work due to the variety of daily tasks and flexibility of their schedules.
Overall, psychology is a great career to pursue as it offers a variety of different fields to choose from, tons of job opportunities, and assortment of different tasks as psychologists job is far from routine, and flexible work schedules. Even if you are not interested in becoming a psychologist, psychology is still a great major for people who wish to improve skills in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data.
Sources:
http://www.careeroverview.com/psychology-careers.html
http://www.apa.org/topics/psychologycareer.html
