Should I Pursue a Psychology Degree Program?

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Introducing Psychology to Your Study Program

Regardless of your career choice when you enter a higher education program, you are probably going to receive at least one course in psychology. Medical students, nurses, business majors, attorneys; anyone who will be potentially dealing with the public has a better foundation for a career with an understanding of human psychology.

Psychology careers can be subtle. Someone with a Masters in Business Administration may have also chosen to take a psychology degree program for more effective communications and making appraisals of potential employees and clients. If you study law and wish to become a more effective public speaker, you might find a psychology degree program useful.

Psychology in the Arts

For students in the liberal arts, psychology is often their major, with a concurrent degree in a secondary field. Their career choices may be music or dance, but they use the psychological principals of human interaction to communicate moods and emotions. They learn to create an effect through sound, tempo and choreography. Dance and music instructors might choose to develop their psychology careers through dance, music and exercise therapy.

Journalists and creative writers study psychology for the purposes of defining character traits and building personalities. Their ability to “read” others is enhanced by the psychology degree program.

A combined psychology and art degree can acquire a lucrative psychology career designing the labeling, packaging and color themes of products. Psychology careers can be found in helping with the development of technical applications and products that require human and machine interaction.

The Benefits of Psychology

Not everybody who goes into advanced studies will want to choose psychology as a major. Most psychology jobs require at least a master’s degree, while a clinical psychologist must have a doctorate. However, whatever your field of study, completion of a psychology degree program will prepare you better for the work world. Studies in psychology give you a better understanding of human behavior. It teaches you not only how others can be a detriment or asset to a group, but your own effects on others.

Psychology careers can be found in marketing and sales. It takes a good background in psychology to learn how to be persuasive when introducing a new product or service or increasing public interest in an existing one. Public relations departments need people with psychology skills to negotiate with clients, creating public interest in fund raisers and handling customer complaints.

The relative youth of psychology as a science makes it an exciting field. Among the disciplines and theories, there are still many questions concerning the functions of the human brain that have not been answered. New discoveries are made each day in the biological, cellular and neuronic activity of the brain, bringing psychology and biological science increasingly closer. Each day of psychological studies is a day of greater hope for people with learning disabilities, for stroke and trauma victims rebuilding brain functions and for victims of debilitating mental diseases. Where there is a biological cure, psychology provides the re-learning process. Where there is not a cure, it provides the coping skills.

You may not wish to choose a psychology career, but a psychology degree program will enhance any career choice. It will help teach you how to project yourself confidently, to listen to employees, customers or clients objectively, and to make good decisions in your interactions with others.