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Do you love the idea of studying human behavior, but don’t
want to get stuck behind a desk all day listening to other
people talk about their problems? That’s perfectly acceptable,
because the field of psychology is growing every day. There
are plenty of career opportunities for people with psychology
degrees who don’t want to become therapists, counselors,
or clinical psychologists. Here are five possibilities for
how you can put your psychology degree to good use.
Workplace Psychology
This branch of psychology is also referred to as industrial
or organizational psychology, but the work is similar no matter
what it’s called. Workplace psychologists do a number
of things to make the work environment more comfortable for
employees. They may work in human resources to develop training
materials and team-building exercises, or they may conduct
sensitivity and sexual harassment seminars. They may even
hold individual meetings with employees during restructuring
or after a crisis.
Engineering Psychology
Engineering psychologists study how people interact with machines.
They are often employed by industry to help design equipment
that is both efficient and user-friendly. They do this by
using what they know of how the human brain processes information
and what they know of how machines operate. This is a great
field for people who are interested in the practical applications
of psychology and who have a strong belief that increased
productivity comes from working smarter and not harder.
Forensic Psychology
You’ve probably seen actors playing forensic psychologists
on your favorite crime dramas and not even realized it. Forensic
psychologists work in the gray area where the legal field
and the medical field overlap. They work closely with lawyers
to evaluate mental competency of defendants, they may help
in jury selection, they can weigh in on custody battles, and
they are sometimes asked to speculate upon possible motives
for crimes. Usually trained in both law and psychology, forensic
psychologists are go-to people for lawyers and judges when
questions of human behavior and thought processes can influence
a court case.
Quantitative Psychology
If reading about case studies and experiments was what got
you interested in psychology to begin with, you might consider
a career in quantitative psychology. Also called measurement
psychology, this field is particularly appealing to people
who like working with numbers and rules. These folks are the
behind-the-scenes math geniuses who develop the criteria for
experiments and research methodology so that when research
is conducted, it’s both statistically relevant and ethical.
They may also work on mathematically interpreting the results
of experiments.
Sports Psychology
The old days of crusty coaches barking orders at athletes
are coming to an end. Competitive sports are changing, as
kids are getting scouted for college scholarships at much
younger ages than they ever used to. All this pressure and
stress takes its toll, and that’s where sports psychologists
come in. Sports psychologist work with athletes of all ages
to help them set goals, stay motivated, and deal with competition
and stress in a productive way.
There are many schools that offer psychology courses. To see
these and other related degrees, visit the Psychology
Schools directory today.
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