<p>I don't know if this is the right thread, so my apologies in advanced.</p>
<p>I'm a Psychology Major and I'm sophomore. I love Psychology and everything about it and for several years I have wanted to someday, work in the field of psychology. Despite my love for psychology, recently I have wondered if it is the right field for me. </p>
<p>Just because I'm a 4.0 in my major and a overall GPA of 3.8, doesn't mean working in the Psycholog field is right for me. Any one can study and pass a test and do well in a class,. It's being able to retain the knowledge learned and apply it to your future career that's the hard part. I feel as if I'm not intelligent enough to apply my knowledge learned to the real world. I just feel as if I won't be able to perform well/ be successful with a career in Psych. I also heard that it is hard to find a job with a Pscyh degree. I would want to go into a Clinical, developmental or criminal area. </p>
<p>So, I've been thinking about becoming a High School teacher or College Professor, in either Psychology or English. I feel as if I would perform better at this and as if I would enjoy it as well. </p>
<p>With both fields I would want to obtain the highest degree possible. </p>
<p>You don’t need the highest degree possible to become a high school teacher - getting a Ph.D has absolutely nothing to do with teaching high school in a subject. Also, you would generally be teaching more than just psychology at the high school level - unless it’s a really big school with many specialized departments.</p>
<p>To teach high school, you’re going to need to pursue teaching credential courses and certification. I would suggest going to your school’s College of Education and ask to speak to an adviser there. They can probably help you sort through what it takes to be a teacher, perhaps set up a shadowing opportunity in a classroom and otherwise expose you to the work that goes on in a teaching career. That would help you decide if it’s something you’re really interested in.</p>
<p>By highest degree possible, I meant relative to each different field. Not as a whole. </p>
<p>But thanks for your advice.</p>
<p>Do you guys think Psych or Teaching would be a better field to go into regarding job security and what not?</p>
<p>Do you think it is a good choice/reasoning for me to say that I should teach instead? My mother think it’s ridiculous and keep nagging me about it.</p>
<p>To become a psychologist (talk therapy, testing) a Ph.D. is required. You cannot practice without a State issued license and a Ph.D. is required. For teaching at the college level the Ph.D. is also required. You might be able to teach at a community college or in some limited capacity at a 4 year institution with a Masters degree in psychology.</p>
<p>You’ll probably want another teachable subject if you plan to go into teaching psych at the secondary school level, because as polarscribe said, you’d need to be in a very large school to be able to teach only psych full-time, and your prospects otherwise will be limited. As spectastic noted, teaching at the college level is completely different, and the job market in that area may be even more cutthroat than in the area of counselling.</p>
<p>I’d recommend working toward the career you prefer, but also having a fall-back plan in the event it doesn’t work out. Are you interested in therapy or healthcare? You could consider taking the prerequisites for a speech or physical therapy program, or consider nursing or similar careers. Are you interested in teaching sciences? Math and physics are the most in-demand teachable subjects in high schools and middle schools (if I recall correctly), and would likely be the best way to get a teaching job.</p>
<p>One of my good friends came into school intending to teach math. She changed her mind her senior year and decided to pursue economics elsewhere instead. She still got a degree in math, but it can really open your eyes to what you want to do or not by going through the actual experience of it. I think she was on a credential program.</p>
<p>On the other hand, my girlfriend is a Psychology/Art major and she probably intends to teach.</p>
<p>One way to become more confident about your prospects of retaining and applying information is by getting an internship and actually applying it. There are many fields that are related to psychology - advertising, marketing, management, market research - and there are summer research internships you can do, too. Try one to see if you excel and if you like it.</p>
<p>But as a note - if you don’t think you will be successful as a clinical psychologist, becoming a professor would be <em>harder</em>, not easier. Professors must do psychological research as well as teach classes, so that would require you to retain the knowledge AND teach it to other people.</p>
<p>Teaching just psychology does not give good job prospects at the high school level - you would need to get certified in the social sciences, and would likely teach other classes besides psychology. At the college level, teaching psychology involves getting a PhD (5-7 years of study), usually a postdoc (2-3 years) and then trying to find an academic job. It requires you to be geographically open to moving anywhere. You would also have to do research, unless you taught at the community college level.</p>
<p>Psychology graduates do go into lines of work only somewhat related to their major (e.g. various aspects of business), or those jobs that desire people with bachelor’s degrees but are not specific to any major. This is probably true of most, given how many psychology majors there are and how few professional psychologists, college psychology faculty, and high school psychology teachers there are. However, there are lots of college graduates competing for those same jobs.</p>
<p>Social workers with Masters Degrees (MSW) can be licensed to do talk therapy and some types of testing in all states but social workers do not call themselves psychologists.</p>