December 19, 2008, Newsletter Issue #98: How to Choose Your Psychology Discipline

Tip of the Week


It's always a good idea to check with a career counselor when you want to know if you should choose a specific discipline and need help sorting through all of the possible variables involved in making a choice. If you find it makes sense to choose a specific psychology discipline, you'll most likely decide this and have opportunity to do so when you're looking at master's and doctoral programs. If you know you want to work in a clinic that provides cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), for instance, you'd want to learn about Cognitive Psychology and Behavioral Psychology, and be trained in the use of CBT. You'd also want to make sure there is enough of a job market in work where you'd use CBT before you invest too much in that discipline. If your career goal is to be a school counselor, you would want to choose a School Psychology or Counseling program. There are relatively few such simple choices of careers paths in psychology, though. As an example, you may feel particularly drawn to Jungian Psychology, but want to work with people who have mental illnesses. Since few, if any, jobs working with that population would give you the opportunity to use Jungian Psychology and you might have a hard time getting a job with that population with a Jungian background, you might want to reconsider the degree program or your choice of population.

Some psychology disciplines are well suited to the job market and others aren't. Some types of psychology are best used in specific settings, such as Human Factors Psychology which is used in industrial settings. Some psychologies are best suited to particular populations. Job markets vary between regions, states, cities and rural areas too. These are just a few of the factors a counselor can help you include in your decision-making.

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