<p>Hiya all, I'm kinda new here but I'll give it my best. </p>
<p>I am a social work undergrad and plan to jump right into grad school. Social work is awesome, I wouldn't mind it as a profession but I'm not jumping up and down for it. For the past 2 years, research and human behavior has become of interest to me. On the same token, I've never done well in any psych courses but excel in other science courses with little effort. </p>
<p>*My current plan: Attempt to get a masters in social work, then go into a masters to PHD program in social/personality psychology (professor said those two are nearly the same). </p>
<p>*I've never done any type of research so I don't know if I would enjoy research. I've asked my professors at my college and there is nothing they can do for me...What should I do? Research seems awesome :(</p>
<p>If you don’t love social work, why get a masters in it? That seems like a real waste of your time. See if any professors at your school will let you be a research assistant or something like that, and try out a few different fields (social psych, cognition, neuroscience). Then, go for a masters in one of those and go for a PhD after. I would generally say to apply straight to PhD programs, but since you’ll need to build a foundation in research first, you’ll probably need the masters</p>
<p>Social and personality psychology are very similar to each other, but still different enough that I would carefully consider individual programs rather than applying to both. I’m a social psychologist, but my research is such that there is only one personality psych program I would’ve considered applying to (and that’s Michigan’s, and it’s because their program is “Personality in Social Contexts”).</p>
<p>What year are you in? And why do you want to go straight to graduate school? I did, and personally I don’t think it was a great decision. I wish I had taken some time off.</p>
<p>That said, you absolutely have to get research experience before you apply to social psychology PhD programs. It’s a competitive field with admissions hovering about 10-15%, and I don’t know anyone in my program who didn’t have at least ~2 years of research experience before getting admitted. Many took time after undergrad and worked as research assistants or lab managers for 2-3 years before coming here.</p>
<p>I agree with @jazzcatastrophe - talk to some professors at your school and see if they need an RA, and try a couple of different fields. If you like psych but do better in natural science courses, then you may prefer cognitive psychology or neuroscience - there are people who do what’s called “social cognitive psychology,” “social neuroscience” or even “social cognitive neuroscience”.</p>
<p>One thing, though - you don’t need to do an MA in psychology. If you are a social work major and you don’t have a psychology foundation, my suggestion is that you find a job working at a university as a research assistant or lab manager in a psychology or psychiatry lab (or a related field) and use your university benefits to take psych undergrad classes as a non-degree student. Or, if you can’t get a lab manager job, work in another research position at a think tank, non-profit, or testing company and then take some psychology undergrad classes at a nearby public university.</p>