I think all Gary was saying was that no one should graduate after four years as a Psych major thinking that the bachelor’s degree will allow them to become a psychologist or even a therapist. That requires graduate training. So, if the undergrad Psychology major is thought to be sufficient for being a counselor, there is no way to keep from disappointing 100% of our graduates. If you check the alumni records of your past psych majors, you can get some idea of the diversity of occupations they have, few of which would be described as being a mental health counselor (unless they went on for further education) but all of which could be in areas relevant to psychology (the science of thought and behavior).
Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology Box 3055 John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected] (479)524-7295 http://tinyurl.com/DrFroman "The LORD detests both Type I and Type II errors." Proverbs 17:15 From: Christopher D. Green [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 2:22 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] More bad news for psychology majors Gerald Peterson wrote: Thanks for that info. We are having our annual grad school/career prep seminar next week and this info may provide useful talking points. This might lead some to consider psych grad programs, but I wonder how the market looks for MA or Doctoral level psych folks? How is the academic market in various areas? Interestingly, the article starts out with the misconception of Psych as involving mental health, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, etc. Are psych majors still laboring under this misconception at graduation? If students still want to be little Dr. Phils, then they need some reality checks about the field and the market. Social Work offers better hope for them I think. Some of our students here have done quite well in pursuing Neuropsych, Industrial, and even School Psych., but we have no real idea of the larger picture. I am as big a supporter of psychological science as you are Gerald but, considering that, among the membership of the APA, the proportion of practitioners vastly outnumbers the proportion of scientists, and that the membership of APA vastly outnumbers the membership of APS, I doubt it is true that the market is better for psychological researchers than it is for psychological practitioners. Further, I doubt that anyone outside of psychology looking to hire a "researcher," broadly defined, is nearly as enamored of the methodological and statistical training that we give psychology students as psychologists themselves seem to be. Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5f8a&n=T&l=tips&o=5615 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-5615-13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-5615-13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=5616 or send a blank email to leave-5616-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
