Multiple Jobs You Can Get With A Psychology Degree

There is no job as rewarding as doing something which you love doing most. If you are intrigued by ‘games people play’, or become curious to know why people behave the way they do, or wish to go deep into a criminal mind to understand his thought processes, you could try your hand at learning and practicing psychology. Psychology degree jobs are well paying, challenging and rewarding too. After all, the human mind is one of the most interesting minds to study and know. The following list is designed to give you a brief overview about some of the various psychology degree jobs or what you can do with a psychology degree:

Clinical Psychologists: If you choose this career option, you will have to work in hospitals or other community facilities with the sick and infirm people or those who have problems in learning. For example, you could train people to relax, so that they can manage their anxieties better and assist children with learning disabilities. You will also work with people who suffer from eating disorders, some phobias, or patients who are HIV/AIDS positive. Geriatric problems are also a clinical psychologists’ area.

Counseling Psychologists: In this psychologists’ job, you are to render assistance to people to handle distress, crises and enable them to cope with life better. Teach them to take independent decisions. Various psychological techniques and theories are required to do this job professionally.

Educational Psychologists: Many young people encounter serious emotional problems in schools and universities. This work is accomplished with the help of the teaching staff and those associated with social service.

Forensic Psychologists: This job is primarily concerned with applying psychological techniques and theories in the fields of criminology and social justice. Jobs are available in the prison, health and social services and organizations engaged in voluntary services.

Health Psychologists: This deals with a relatively newer field of applied psychology. It primarily deals with changing peoples’ attitudes towards health, hygiene, behavior and thinking about health. Altering the way they think and live, could bring about major changes in their quality of life. Work environment is usually in health clinics, health research, health services and academics.

Occupational Psychologists: There are various types of psychologies at play in a working environment, which directly or indirectly affect the health of an organization. This field of applied psychology is used to assess and suggest changes which an organization may undertake to improve its overall health and motivate its employees towards realizing personal and corporate goals as well as optimize time management.

Psychotherapy: Interviews, counseling and long discussions are often needed between a psychotherapist and his patient, who is suffering from a series of mental or physical illnesses. There are many scientific tests done in this therapy, to assess the patient’s particular mental disorder. Suggestive remedies then emanate from the results and psychotherapists play a big role in its rectification.

Research Psychologists: In this job you would work as academics, government enterprises or privately-owned companies.

Over and above the traditional career paths of private practice, research and teaching, psychology degree jobs could be completely non-traditional also. This requires some out-of-the-box thinking though. But a growing number of young psychology graduates are putting their degree and power of analytical as well as critical thinking, to use in few of the most challenging areas of human behavior. Few examples:

  • Kristen Ralph Beyer, PhD, 29, Violent crime resource specialist, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Salary range: $43,000–$79,000
  • Laura Helmuth, PhD, 31, Science writer, Science. Annual salary: $40,000
  • Paul ElRif, PhD, 32, Usability engineer, Microsoft Corp.
  • Steve Williams, PhD, Director of industry and market research, American Society of Association Executives. Annual salary: $110,000
  • Marisa Reddy, PhD, Co-director, Safe School Initiative, National Threat Assessment Center, U.S. Secret Service, Salary range: $50,000-$100,000

Psychology Course