<p>Hi! I am currently an undergraduate student considering graduate school. I want to do a PhD degree and later research in universities. I've always wanted to do research on the psychology and sociology of sexuality, and I primarily want to do research on East Asian LGBT culture and local societal issues around LGBT communities or topics along those lines. What field should I go into? Psychology, Sociology, Gender Studies, or International Studies? Or something else?
And would a JD degree added to the PhD degree help for doing research on these topics since it can provide a background in policy making?
Thank you!</p>
<p>Can someone respond please? ^_^</p>
<p>Who’s doing the most interesting work in the field you want to study? Find those people, apply to their programs. I know it sounds simplistic, but it makes sense to attach yourself to the bright lights in the field, both from a funding standpoint and in terms of getting jobs later.</p>
<p>To add to @Sue22, do some internet searches for conferences in these fields (and anthropology?), and look for sections with papers that seem to really speak to you. when you have clustered in this way, it will be much easier to know what to do. (you, know, contact these people and ask if you can do some research for them at their school. Then apply to their department in their school.).</p>
<p>And would a JD degree added to the PhD degree help for doing research on these topics since it can provide a background in policy making?</p>
<p>No. Get a JD only if you want to be a lawyer. If you just want to learn about policy, you can always take classes in policy or even classes at the law school if you are enrolled in a PhD program.</p>
<p>What field should I go into? Psychology, Sociology, Gender Studies, or International Studies? Or something else?</p>
<p>Hi! This is very close to my area of interest (not in East Asia, though).</p>
<p>Which field you pick for the PhD doesn’t matter in terms of the area you want to study. What field you enter does not affect the research questions you ask so much - you can investigate East Asian LGBT culture from all of those fields and more. What the field the PhD is in brings is 1) different approaches to the question and 2) different employment options afterwards.</p>
<p>First of all - what is your undergraduate major? It is difficult to go from a non-disciplinary major to a disciplinary PhD, although it is easy to go the other way around. What I mean is, if you major in sociology in undergrad, it’s quite possible to go to a sociology PhD program OR a PhD program in an interdisciplinary field like international studies, public policy, or women & gender studies without taking additional coursework. The reverse isn’t true, though - if you major in international studies in undergrad, unless you take significant coursework in sociology it is somewhat difficult to gain admission to a sociology PhD program.</p>
<p>Similar is true on the other end. Disciplinary PhDs can work in disciplinary and interdisciplinary departments, but the reverse is not always true. So if you got a sociology PhD, you could go to teach in a sociology department (of which there are thousands) or you could go to teach/work in a women & gender studies department, a school of public policy, a school of communications, a department of international studies, etc. depending on the nature of your research. However, a PhD in international studies could have a difficult time getting a job in a department of sociology. There are exceptions to every rule, of course.</p>
<p>From there, the decision comes down to</p>
<p>1) the approach you want to take;
2) who’s available where;
3) the resources available.</p>
<p>Sociology and psychology are related, but take vastly different approaches to their work. Again, there’s always exceptions to the rules, but sociologists tend to focus more social theory and group behavior, whereas psychologists are focused on individual behavior (even if it’s how groups affect individual behavior). Sociologists also use different research methods: sociology departments are more likely to have a mix of quantitative and qualitative researchers, and they mostly do fieldwork and community research with a variety of methods (ethnography, CBPR, interviews, etc.) Some sociologists do do large-scale quantitative social surveys, too, though - I have a sociologist friend who does this. Psychologists are almost always quantitative researchers, and in many departments the vast majority of researchers do controlled experiments within laboratories, often with the undergraduate subject pool. However, that’s not always true - I’m a psychologist and I do not do experimental work (my research doesn’t really lend well to experiments), and my former graduate advisor does mixed-methods research that includes interviews. However, the way your field is constructed is going to change what you learn in graduate school. Anthropologists don’t usually take advanced statistics classes, and I’m not sure there is such a thing as a quantitative anthropologist, but if you wanted to be one you’d have to take the classes in your own time. At the other end of the spectrum, most psychology PhD programs will not offer you the opportunity to take classes in ethnography or interviews, and I suspect that most psychology advisors would be baffled if you chose to pursue that.</p>
<p>And interdisciplinary departments are a hodgepodge, in a good way. I was in an interdisciplinary department in grad school that had researchers who used every method under the sun. You got to choose what method you wanted to use, and basically sought out the advisors and classes that would teach you that method.</p>
<p>So basically, what is the approach that you want to take? Do you want to go live in East Asia for months at a time, conducting interviews and focus groups and/or directly observing and forming theories based on this sustained ethnography? Anthro or soc might be better suited for you. Do you want to do perhaps a combination of semi-structured interviews and community-based surveys with some quantitative analysis? Sociology might be a good fit; there are also some areas of psychology that might embrace that like community psychology (and my former PhD program, which I will PM you about.) You could also do this from within an international studies department or a public policy department, depending on who’s there, which brings me to the next point:</p>
<p>2) The social sciences generally operate under something of an apprentice model: you find an advisor doing work that’s similar to work you want to do, and that advisor helps you learn the ropes and eventually serves as the sponsor or chair of your dissertation committee. So a lot of decisions about where to go to graduate school are based upon where great people (with money) are doing the work you want to do.</p>
<p>I still think that you should consider approach and career issues first, since it makes no sense to go work with a famous anthropologist if you want to do experimental studies in the lab on East Asian cultural influences, nor does it make sense to go to work with a famous person in an international studies department if you know you want to teach psychology. But once you’ve narrowed down your approach, you can add programs to your list partially on the basis of who’s teaching there. Consider not only his area of expertise but also his methods. My advisor was particularly good for me not just because of his substantive interests, but his methodological expertise in an area I really wanted to learn about.</p>
<p>3) Resources are important. You need to eat and live inside in grad school. So who has money? And who has the things you need to get your research done? Going somewhere where all the grad students get Fulbrights to do their fieldwork abroad or that has a special archive you need can drastically cut the time and money that you spend in your PhD. A university or department in which most of the researchers have active grants means that not only is there money, but the researchers know how to teach YOU how to get grants, too. Reputation matters - not <em>ranking</em>, mind you, but reputation of your department and advisor. Be careful, as reputation doesn’t mean prestige nor is it the same in academia as it is among lay people. Many public universities and/or universities unknown to the general public have top-notch programs in certain areas.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>The other thing that’s important to note is that you can apply to more than one type. When I was applying to grad school, I considered public health, psychology, social policy, human development and family studies, and a few selected sociology programs (I do not think I would’ve been competitive for the sociology programs. I was a psychology major.)</p>
<p>@juillet Thank you so much for these detailed information! 
I’m so glad that you are interested in similar topics also. I am from China and found many difficulties LGBT communities face there. Personally I believe that China does not have the traditions and history of discriminating LGBT people, so the fact that the society now is not very accepting to LGBT communities there yet interests me a lot, makes me wonder what is the psychology behind it.
As for my major, I’m just now transferring from a community college to a 4-year university in Spring, and some colleges admitted me so far. Depends on what university I’m finally going to go to, I might do an individualized major with the topic of LGBT Social Psychology in East Asia or something along these lines. Right now I’m trying to decide which major should I do my double major in. I’m considering East Asian Studies, Sociology, Psychology or Linguistics. Probably going to do psychology though since that’s what I wrote on most of my applications.
For graduate degree in Psychology though, I’m a little confused about the APA accreditation. Is that only for students who are enrolled in Clinical and Counseling programs? If so, does that mean I’m neither gonna get an APA accreditation nor need to do an internship if I do Social Psychology program? If an APA accreditation is out of questions, does it matter which country do I get my PhD in Psychology in?
Again thank you so much for your reply, I learned so much!! :)</p>
<p>An individualized major on the social psychology of East Asia is too specific for undergrad - you need a broad-based education for success in grad school. Instead, you could do a double major in psychology and East Asian studies, or you could major in psychology and minor in East Asian studies. You can then focus your coursework on the more social side of psychology (which is what I did myself - no biological psychology classes here, lol) and your East Asian studies classes on the cultural side.</p>
<p>What you major in in undergrad will influence what graduate program you can attend. If you major in East Asian studies and don’t take any psychology classes, getting into a psychology department will be nigh impossible. If you major in linguistics, then you can do linguistics as a PhD, but I’m not sure that you can study what you want to study with a linguistics PhD. Given your interests, psychology or sociology (with a double major or minor in East Asian studies, if you want) sounds like the best bet.</p>
<p>APA-accreditation only matters for practical programs - so clinical, counseling, and school psychology (they also accredit industrial-organizational programs but I’m not sure whether it matters there). The APA doesn’t even accredit social psychology programs, so don’t worry about that. You won’t need to do an internship for a social psychology program. There’s no counseling/therapy component, so no internship.</p>
<p>It does matter what country you get your PhD in. If you want to teach and do research in the United States, it is best if you get a PhD in the United States or Canada. There are some very well-reputed European universities that are held in high regard in the U.S. that would also be acceptable - mostly in the UK and Germany. While it’s not impossible to go from a Chinese PhD to research and teaching in the U.S., it’s an uphill battle. Take a look at the alma maters of most faculty members in prominent departments - the vast majority of them received their PhDs in the U.S. or Canada.</p>
<p>@juillet Thank you so much! I think I might do a generalized LGBT individualized major and take sexuality and LGBT classes in a wide range of disciplines such as history and sociology and double major in Psychology. Does it matter which degree (B.A. or B.S.) I get in Psychology when applying to grad school though?</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t!</p>