What Do Psychologists Do?

In other words – what you probably mean is: what sort of job can you get with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology? Proper ‘psychologists’ – ‘shrinks’ – are doctors and they need a doctoral degree. But you can get a lot of careers in Psychology right after a bachelor’s degree with no further study.

Yes, it’s the world’s best-kept secret that you can find a job in the field you love right after your bachelor’s degree in Psychology – because these jobs won’t be called ‘psychologist’; I told you – those guys are doctors with years of training. But think ‘people skills’ here: a Psychology degree equips you with those in spades – and you probably were a ‘people person’ in the first place to take a Psychology degree.

Relating to a variety of people is a skill needed by case workers and counselors as well as people in sales, marketing, personnel, and management positions. A Psychology degree course will also help you develop your analytical and writing skills. You’ll definitely learn how to do research!

You can spend a few years in these positions before going on to further study in Psychology, if you want to, but once you do – a whole lot of other career doors open for you. Teaching and research in Psychology are obvious career choices and if you teach at a university you can even combine the two! If you want to undertake postgraduate research in Psychology there is no shortage of government and private agencies for you to find employment with.

You can directly apply your degree in Psychology in areas such as clinical psychology, counseling and forensic psychology, which are the main areas of Psychology that everyone has heard of, or you could go into health psychology, organizational or industrial psychology, sports psychology and many more areas. Let’s have a quick look at each of them in turn:

Clinical psychologists are what most people mean when they say ‘psychologists’. These professionals are responsible for the assessment and treatment of people with psychological or mental health problems. They can also be therapists for people who are going through a psychological crisis (e.g., grief) or suffering from chronic, long-term psychiatric disorders. This work can offer you variety of you can specialize in a particular area e.g. children or people with specific mental health disorders.

Counselors do a lot of the work that clinical psychologists do, but they tend to work with people who don’t have an underlying pathological problem which may require medication. Counseling psychologists can be employed in many different places: college counseling centers, mental health centers within the community and private practice to name but a few.

Health psychologists try to promote and maintain good mental health. They often design and run large-scale projects commissioned by the government and other agencies to help people give up smoking or to lose weight and eat healthily.

Sports psychologists are spoken of a lot these days, as they try to improve the performance of our national and league teams by trying to get them to think like winners and so much more! They also look at what effect – both positive abnd negative – that sport and exercise has on all our lives.

Our health at work is often in the hands of industrial/organizational psychologists. They try to look at the relationships between people and their work environments and try to develop new ways to increase workplace productivity. They may also be involved in personnel selection. Did you have isometric testing at your interview? – Blame industrial/organizational psychologists!

“Forensic psychologists” can do a variety of jobs.  Some forensic psychologists are employed in clinical work in jails or hospitals; some work for lawyers as consultants or expert witnesses; some help to decide what should form public policy on psychological matters and the law. Often, the work of forensic psychologists is fundamental to solving crimes, so it’s a challenging but highly rewarding job – as is the case with most psychologists’ jobs because they really offer you a chance to make a difference in someone’s life. The ones mentioned above are just a few sub-fields which a degree in Psychology equips you for.