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Why Major in Psychology?

Introduction

Psychology is a fascinating and diverse field of study. It attracts students with varied backgrounds, interests, and abilities, all of whom are hoping that psychology will be a good fit for them. In addition to pursuing topics that they find compelling, these students benefit from devoting themselves to the study of such a broad field. Psychology's breadth is what makes it possible for students to have a variety of career options. The wide range of knowledge and skills acquired as a psychology major is applicable to a variety of careers and employment sectors. In other words, psychology offers many different things to many different types of individuals. Although this is a strength of the field, the breadth can also contribute to some students feeling uncertain about their direction and lacking focus in developing their academic and career paths. It can be difficult to determine if psychology is the best fit. Consider for a moment four students, all undergraduates who for various reasons have come to think that majoring in psychology is the best fit for them.

Valerie

Valerie is 19 years old and always knew she would go to college. Since middle school she had planned to become an elementary teacher, so she first chose education as her major. After taking introductory courses, Valerie decided that teaching was not for her. She next considered majoring in nursing, but the admission standards for local nursing programs are highly competitive. Although she had a high grade point average (GPA), Valerie feared that the grades she earned in some courses required by the programs would keep her from being accepted. One day last semester, Valerie's roommate described an intriguing demonstration from her psychology class. This reminded Valerie of her interest in psychology in high school, and she decided to take a course to see what psychology was like at the college level. Valerie enjoyed the course and performed well. As a result, she decided to change her major to psychology. When she mentioned the change to her parents, they asked probing questions about what she could do with a psychology degree and how her career options would compare to those of education or nursing majors. Valerie was unsure how to answer their questions. She had not thought much about what she could do with her degree. But she figured that if other people were majoring in psychology then there must be jobs out there.

Ajay

Ajay is 37 years old and has attended college at several points in the past at three different institutions, always as a psychology major. Most recently they stopped attending after their first child was born. Between working full-time and raising children, Ajay was unsure if they would ever complete their degree. Now that Ajay's children are older and they have more flexibility in their current job, Ajay has decided to return to college part-time. Ever since they were young, Ajay has wanted to become a clinical psychologist. Ajay was in family therapy as a child and individual therapy as an adolescent. They have fond memories of the psychologists they interacted with and the benefits of these treatments. Ajay's interests have led to frequently reading psychological theory and some of the latest research in the field. Now with returning to school, Ajay has made a commitment to take their education seriously and stay focused on their career goal. Ajay knows meeting this goal will require completing a doctoral degree. As the first in their family to go to college, Ajay has always viewed earning a bachelor's degree as the main goal. To now be thinking about even more education feels both exciting and a bit daunting.

Mateo

Mateo is 23 years old and has attended college both part and full time since high school. After taking general education courses, Mateo settled on exercise science as his major. Although he had interests in physical therapy and coaching, he was never quite sure what his career path would be. Mateo was a strong student, but several areas of his life outside of school placed demands on his time. As a result, he did not maintain the GPA required by his major program. While taking courses in an effort to bring up his GPA, Mateo switched majors to psychology. When he was unable to secure a high enough GPA to reenter exercise science, he decided to stick with psychology as his major. Since then he has focused solely on completing his degree requirements, checking off each needed course. Now that he is starting his senior year, Mateo feels good about being so close to graduation. But he is feeling nervous about his next step. He hears other students talking about internships, applying to graduate school, and attending job fairs. He feels behind. Though he has enjoyed his psychology classes, he is not sure how the major fits with his original career interests and what options he has for employment or additional education.

Katrina

Katrina is 26 years old. She began college two years ago after working for several years in her family's business. Katrina's first major was computer science, an area of interest for her since high school. Her teachers, family, and friends encouraged her to pursue this major given her talents and technological skills. She enjoyed the courses at first but later realized that she did not feel passionate about the topics or the prospects of future careers in the field. Owing to her growing apathy, and her working 30 hours a week, Katrina's grades suffered. Then she took a psychology course and started a dialogue about her interests with the professor. As a result, Katrina decided to switch majors to psychology. Since that time, she has invested herself in her coursework and excelled academically. After serving as a research assistant in one of her professor's labs over the past year, Katrina is now planning to pursue a research career in cognitive psychology. She intends to merge her computer science skills with her developing interest in human memory. Although changing majors extended her graduation date for another year, Katrina now knows exactly what it is she wants to do in her career and has worked diligently to learn about the field, improve her academic skills, and gain valuable experience.

Valerie, Ajay, Mateo, and Katrina represent typical undergraduate psychology majors. You likely can identify with one or more aspects of their histories and experiences. For those of you who may not see parts of yourself reflected in these particular students, there are still several things you all have in common. Each of you has decided to major in psychology, or is seriously considering it, as a result of intertwining experiences and life circumstances. Each of you has found something interesting within the field that has brought you to this point. And each of you is hoping that this major will be the one that allows you to accomplish your goals. In essence, each of you hopes that you have found a home in psychology. As professors of psychology, we have taught, advised, supervised, and mentored thousands of undergraduate students in all areas of their academic and career pursuits. Among them have been students like Valerie, Ajay, Mateo, and Katrina. Although every student's context is somewhat unique, chances are we have also worked with students who have a lot in common with you. Our focus is on helping students succeed in the ways that best match their goals, and we find this work to be incredibly rewarding. One of the most frustrating aspects of this work is when we encounter students who could have benefited from having key questions answered and guidance provided when they were first navigating the psychology major. Instead of succeeding, these students find themselves playing catch-up, and they often feel confused and frustrated about their education and potential careers. Our focus on student success, coupled with our awareness of students' needs for clear, comprehensive information and guidance, prompted us to write this book. It is our hope that you find elements of it informative and instructive in pursuing your academic and career goals.

In this opening chapter, we first offer some brief suggestions on how to use the book effectively. The remainder of the chapter considers a question that may be looming large in many of your minds - why psychology? Regardless of whether you have already firmly committed to the major or are still trying to make a decision, this section will help all students formulate and explore their specific interests in the field.

How to Use this Book

Given the breadth of the field, students who major in psychology encounter a wide range of issues and challenges. This book seeks to cover these in a comprehensive manner, offering clear, thorough explanations and practical steps you can take to support your success. The first section of the book focuses on achieving educational and career goals that many students have in common. The second section focuses on achieving more specific career goals while examining the subfields or key areas within psychology. In addition to the valuable information in each chapter, you will also find helpful exercises, readings, and resources.

With the diversity of topics covered in the book, some chapters will instantly grab your attention because they directly speak to your current situation or pressing concerns (e.g., deciding if psychology is the right major, preparing a résumé, obtaining research experience). However, we want to encourage you not to neglect chapters that seem less relevant at this particular moment in your education.

For those chapters...