<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am torn between majoring in child development or psychology. My pick would be child development, because it's more specialized than general psychology, and I love working with and learning about children. However, my parents would rather me major in psychology. They don't think that many of the jobs that have to do with children, such as working in a daycare, teaching elementary school, or social work are very rewarding emotionally or financially.</p>
<p>I am most definitely planning on going to graduate school, either for family therapy, child development, or counseling and development. I do plan on getting a PHD after I get my Master's. I either want to be a therapist or a professor; I haven't decided yet.</p>
<p>A lot of the required child development "electives" at my college are general psychology courses, such as Personality, Cognition, etc. It's just that the core classes are those that relate to the actual development and learning of children.</p>
<p>What should I tell my parents?</p>
<p>If you’re going to get a job out of collegethey’re partially right: it’s not necessarily a major that leads to a high paying job. I think it can be emotionally rewarding for some people, but child care and teaching elementary are jobs where you have to be very attentive and deal with children fighting and yelling all day. As for social work, it can be very, very draining, but certainly can be rewarding too. It’s not easy. I’ve talked to a family friend who’s working at a daycare, and had only one recommendation for me when she found out I was taking a child development classdo not major in child it!</p>
<p>That said, a masters/PhD opens up new options. If you’re totally positive that you’re getting that, it matters less what you do at an undergraduate level. If you have any doubt, I’d personally recommend a more general major like psychology, with an emphasis on development. That’s just my personal opinion, though. If you’re totally sure about going to graduate school, do what you like the best. You’ll be able to work with children with either major. Just do what makes the most sense to you.</p>
<p>I earned my B.A. in Child Development and am now in an MA/PhD program in Education. My goal is to become a professor. My recommendation is definitely major in psychology over Child Development. I actually added Psychology as a minor, just before graduating (stayed an extra semester) in order to be better prepared. If you search faculty position openings and read the requirements, you will see that it is the graduate degree that will really matter and most jobs requiring a BA only will accept either CD or Psych degree (such as teacher/daycare worker). So if you have to work before going to Grad school the Psych is as good as the CD. However, when applying to Grad programs, the methods courses required for psychology majors are way more helpful. As a matter of fact, my Child Development classes, although very interesting and enjoyable, did not prepare me for graduate school very well at all. (I will say, I know the department chair is working very hard to change this at the school I attended, but typically child dev. is seen as an easy major)</p>
<p>If you major in psychology, you should be able to take some child development courses as electives. Also be sure to take courses in developmental psychology. Your first year courses in grad school will likely cover everything you need to know anyway, such as Piaget and Vygotsky (major child dev theorists). Plus, psych classes are stricter about using APA, which is helpful in grad school as well.</p>
<p>Last bit of advice: Major in psychology, but keep your focus on child dev. by using your desired interest (special ed, early childhood, family studies, cog dev, etc) to drive your work in your classes. A lot (or all) of your classes will require you to do a research paper or project. Use those papers as opportunities to learn about children’s development. If for example you would like to learn about communication development in autistic children, then that is where you start. The more you read, the quicker you will find out which topics you are most attracted to.</p>
<p>Hope this helps! (btw this is my first CC post! hope I did it right)</p>