Choosing A Career In Psychology Essay Research

Choosing A Career In Psychology Essay, Research Paper

Choosing A Career in Psychology

Society is crowded with many different kinds of people, which create problems of how to live and work together and live with oneself. It is in these situations which psychology serves its purpose by creating answers to these questions. Psychology helps create an awareness of these problems and this awareness increases the likelihood of treatment. A student who is deciding to enter the field of psychology has a choice to make from an array of many different and exciting careers. All of these numerous careers in psychology fall into three basic categories of practice: psychologists, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists. Each of these categories differ slightly in the job role and number of years spent on education but the ultimate goal of each is the same, to aid in the advancement of society.

The first and most important part of entering the field of psychology is understanding the amount of education needed for each of the three subareas. A psychologist is someone who has spent four to five years of postgraduate education and has received a Ph.D. in psychology (Plotnik 17). Next, is a clinical psychologist who has a Ph.D., specialized in a clinical subarea, and has spent an additional year in a supervised therapy setting to gain experience (17). The last area is a psychiatrist who differs from the other two mainly because of the number of years spent in school, which gains them the ability to prescribe medication. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who has spent several years in clinical training that includes diagnosis of abnormal behaviors and treating those behaviors with prescription drugs (17).

Students who are planning a career in psychology will have to determine which type of psychologist they want to be and, in addition, what are they would like to specialize in. The field of psychology is divided into subfields each of which deal with a different area. These specialties include such areas as developmental psychology, experimental and physiological psychology, personality and social psychology, cognitive psychology and psychometrics (Super 36). Next, each of these subfields are divided into careers that students can choose to participate in such as residential care, community and social services, human resources, therapy, and teaching (DeGalan 106).

Residential care has grown in importance in the past years due to a number of social issues that have been recently addressed by the government. Since the demand for residence care has gone up so has the demand for psychologist who have training in this type of area. Many of the jobs in the residential care area are not permanent but are taken by those who are entry level and on their way up to more permanent employment. In addition, most residential care jobs are labeled as training jobs meaning that these jobs will train a student to specialize in a certain skill. ?Most residential care jobs are advertised as counselor positions? (115). Overnight counselors, relief counselors, and staff counselors are usually types of jobs on the residential care level. Since these positions are not permanent, job earnings are generally not competitive. Entry level salaries are in the $15,000 to $20,000 range.

Large numbers of people are in need of community and social services such as alcoholics, juvenile delinquents, and those with mental retardation (150). This area of employment has numerous job openings and careers that meet with many different types of people. Job opportunities in this area include abortion counseling, children services, human services, and dozens more that are involved with almost all different types of people. In addition to sometimes-long hours, job salaries are usually not that high ranging in the $25,000 to $30,000?s (153). However, if working with and helping people is an attraction, community and social services is an excellent job group.

Many students often feel that their degree in psychology would be best used in the field of human resources. If a students interest in psychology were in human behavior and social psychology than human resources would be an excellent route to take. Those in the field of human resources are primarily concerned with training development, organization development, and career development (166). Typically, the role of someone in human resources would include: employment and placement, wage and salary administration, training and development, benefits administration, and research management (171). In addition to a major in psychology those who would like to pursue a career in human resources would be well advised to gain skills in communication, data analysis, public presentation, and become familiar with computers and software. Salaries in the human resource area are generally much more competitive than those in community services and residential care (180). Those with human resource skill often have a wide range of possible employers from which to choose a job. Schools, state and federal government, and finance companies are just some of the many possible employers for those interested in human resources.

Therapist are those who work to treat and help rehabilitate those with environmental, physical, or mental disorders (201). Some of the more frequently encountered therapies are cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal, psychodynam