Few disciplines offer the sheer variety that psychology does. A career in psychology requires mastery of numerous topics such as sociology, behavioral studies, medicine, and legal concerns. To succeed in this field, advance, achieve seniority for higher wages, psychologists must obtain the best education that they can get. Most will need a doctoral degree in order to build a lucrative career. But, a therapist can hold a successful career with just a master’s degree, however, most therapists agree that a doctoral degree goes a long way toward ensuring success in this fascinating and growing field.
Here are 50 of the top jobs in psychology that will open up to you once you obtain a degree:
- Industrial-organizational psychologist
Use psychological principles to solve problems in the workplace and improve working conditions.
- School psychologist
Apply mental health expertise to help children and youths to succeed academically, socially, and emotionally.
- Career information specialist
Advise students, coordinate operations of the Career Center programs and provide planning resources.
- Polygraph examiner
Detect deception and verify truth through instrumentation by means of mechanical devices, training, and insight.
- Probation/Parole officer
Perform routine social service and law enforcement functions to assess criminogenic needs, design transition plans, and ongoing monitoring of convicts under supervision.
- Penologist
Work in prisons with prisoners, help to maintain security by working to prevent disturbances.
- Employee relations specialist
Assess the moral of a company’s employees, build programs and policies to change or maintain high productivity.
- Employment counselor
Advise, coach, provide information for, and support persons planning and managing their life/work direction.
- Employment interviewer
Interview candidates for jobs in a company.
- Human resource adviser
Use psychology training to advise managers on employment law and personnel issues.
- Job analyst
Collect, analyze, and prepare occupational data to facilitate the personnel, admin, and management functions of an organization. Consult with management to determine scope, type, and purpose of the study.
- Management analyst
Study evaluate and design systems and procedures, conduct procedure simplification and studies in measurement. Prepare operations and procedures to aid management in operating more effectively.
- Occupational analyst
Use optimization, data mining, statistics and modeling to develop solutions to help organizations function more efficiently and cost-effectively.
- Occupational therapist
Help patients develop, recover, and build the skills necessary for daily living and working.
- Personnel psychologist
Manage recruitment, evaluation, and selection of personnel, as well as other job aspects like morale, job satisfaction, and relationships in the workplace.
- Personnel recruiter
Screen applicants to fill job openings and promote career opportunities inside an organization.
- Systems analyst
Identify the needed organizational improvements, and design systems to apply these changes, train and motivate others.
- Volunteer coordinator
Manages volunteering initiatives within an organization or on behalf of an organization for which they recruit volunteers.
- Art therapist
Use art and the creative process to explore client’s feelings, conciliate emotional conflicts, foster self-knowledge, manage behavior, develop social competence, improve coping skills.
- Coach
Motivate children or adult athletes to perform better in a given sport, leveraging the psychological dynamics of a team.
- Counseling psychologist
Work directly with patients on their mental, emotional and behavioral disorders.
- Financial aid counselor
Work with parents and students to delineate a plan to pay for tuition.
- Guidance counselor
Provide support to students, staff, and parents including referrals, assessment counseling, diagnostics, and report writing.
- Minister, rabbi, priest, chaplain
Works in hospitals or hospice facilities providing spiritual guidance and counseling for patients, families, and hospital staff.
- Music therapist
Facilitate the use of music as part of a comprehensive therapeutic plan.
- Recreational therapist
Plan, organize, direct and conduct therapy programs. Instruct or supervise clients within recreational activities as part of a medical treatment program.
- Clinical psychologist
Meet with clients and work together to identify emotional, mental and behavioral problems in their lives.
- Neurologist
Treat and diagnosis brain and central nervous system diseases and disorders.
- Neuropathologist
Examine and analyze specimens obtained from patients for the treatment and diagnosis of brain disorders.
- Psychiatric aide/attendant
Assist mentally or emotionally disturbed patients under the direction of medical and nursing staff.
- Psychiatric social worker
Provide mental health services to those with acute needs. Perform psychotherapy and diagnose mental illness.
- Psychiatric technician
Help patients with personal hygiene, bathing, and keeping clothing and living areas clean.
- Psychiatrist
Evaluate, diagnose and treat patients suffering from mental disorders.
- Child development specialist
Help teachers and parents learn to administer therapy and use behavior modification techniques to bolster the skills of young children.
- Developmental psychologist
Deal with the respective physical, social and mental processes that come about throughout a person’s lifetime.
- Comparative psychologist
Study diverse aspects of animal groups including sensory recognition social cognition, communication, and other mind related systems for comparison to their human analogs.
- Experimental psychologist
Join these research-oriented psychology experts to study human behavior and the human thought process.
- Psychological stress evaluator
Analyze and evaluate the stress levels of people or populations in a number of settings.
- Research assistant
Analyze basic rudimentary brain functions and examine complex sociological relationships, in the pursuit of psychology research.
- Academic counselor
Provide needed information and assistance to students to help them navigate University systems and make suitable decisions.
- Alumni director
Work with Alumni Association Board of Directors, arrange meetings, staff its committees and ensure productive relationships between members as well as academic and administrative leaders.
- Educational psychologist
Help children and young people experiencing problems in educational settings with the goal of enhancing their ability to learn.
- Vocational rehabilitation counselor
Perform complex work toward the specialized job placement and vocational rehabilitation needs of persons with disabilities.
- Delinquency prevention social worker
Provide services and assistance meant to benefit the social and psychological performance of children and families to maximize group well-being and the academic performance of children.
- Group worker
Cater to individual differences, build communicating skills, cooperative skills, critical thinking, general knowledge and acceptable attitudes to generate group standards of behavior and judgment.
- Teacher for the emotionally impaired
Work with students with mental, learning, emotional, and physical disabilities.
- Vocational training teacher
Provide needed workplace skills and education to employment seekers to help prepare them for their careers.
- Community organization worker
Work to promote and restore the social functioning of persons, families, groups and communities.
- Recreation leader
Plan, promote and coordinate activities for members of the community. Recreation leaders are responsible for the safety of participants.
- Family counselor/caseworker
Provide case management for clients that are needy enough to qualify for assistance.
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