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So, you’re a Psych Major.pptx

Published Jul 11, 2013 in Education
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Presentation Slides & Transcript

Presentation Slides & Transcript

So, you’re a Psych Major
A Demoralizing Pep Talk
By Erika D. Price

Every major has a stock phrase…
That people throw out when they learn what you’re studying.
Social Work!
“So you’re gonna be broke, huh?”
Pre-Law!
“You must like to argue.”
Business/Marketing!
“So you’re gonna be rich, huh.” / “You’re the devil.”
Math!
“You must be smart.”
/ “I suck at math.”
History!
“Do you wanna work in a museum?”
Art!
English!
Theater!
Dance!
Philosophy!
“What are you going to do with that?”

“Are you analyzing me right now?”
--What people say to every psych major ever.
Of course, we all know that there’s a lot more to psychology than shrinking heads.
But most of us started out wanting to do clinical, because that’s all we knew.
Social, Cognitive, Developmental, Aging, Applied, Clinical, Counseling, Education, Forensic, Personality, Neuroscience, Industrial-Organizational, Decision Making, Consumer, Health, Gender, Family, Sport, Addiction, Law, Consulting, Evaluation

So what are you going to do with that?
Let’s depress ourselves by looking at labor statistics!

What kinds of jobs?

WHYYYYY IS IT LIKE THIS?
Psychology appeals to a lot of people. It matters to a lot of people. You went into Psych for a good reason. So do a lot of people. This is good for humanity, but bad for labor statistics.

But I’m gonna go to graduate school!
Well hold your horses a second.
Most psychology graduate programs have acceptance rates of 10% or less.
I applied to 20 graduate programs and got into 5.

Ok, breathe…
Jobs are not everything.
And jobs are not the main reason for school.

Every major’s terrible!
(apologies for the nerdy lameness of this video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7lVAATq8MM

These are problems vexing a lot of college undergraduates at the moment.
People change career paths (not jobs) an average of five times.


A lot of people go back to school after a few years of work.


You will apply your education to many, many things, some of which you haven’t even heard of yet.


We’re all kind of making this up as we go.

I know psychology majors who…
I know psychology majors who have great jobs, who make mad bank, and who are happy.
Do research for the VA
Do research for the government
Do research on whatever they want (post-docs)
Evaluate jail programs
Evaluate drug treatment programs
Write text books
Write grants
Evaluate school programs (e.g. summer schools)
Evaluate charter schools
Teach (K-12, college, grad school)
Do social work
Do therapy
Design algorithms for dating websites
Do I/O for Fortune 500 Companies

Do MRI research
Do research on addiction
Do research on self-harm and eating disorders
Hold brainstorming sessions for private industry
Design store and workplace layouts
Help companies and government institutions write surveys
Do statistics consulting
Work for political campaigns
Write popular-press psych books and essays
Work in social services/ hospitals

Wait did you say college isn’t about jobs?
Yup. This ain’t a vocational program or technical school, you guys.
Until the Industrial Revolution, college existed not to prepare people for jobs, but to enrich their minds and develop their intellects. To prepare them to be people, not specific kinds of employees.


This is what we now call a “Liberal Arts” Education.

Psych as liberal art?
It was a diverse education that touched on a wide variety of topics and disciplines, and the lessons were meant to be applied to all aspects of life, not just attaining a career.

Our world is getting less and less industrial. We don’t “make” things for a living anymore.

Our contributions to the world are our ideas. Learning how to think and how to generate ideas is more flexible (and worthwhile) than learning a single industrial skill.

You’re here for a reason.
What do you love about psychology?
What have you learned from psychology (and other classes) that is meaningful to you?
You will always have these things, no matter what you “do” for work. Don’t be afraid to use them.

So what are you going to do with that?
You’re going to do all kinds of things.
If you want to pursue psychology as a career, you have to really want it. You have to work. This class will help you decide if it is what you want.
If I do my job right, this class will also help you decide what parts of psychology to carry with you even if you pursue another path.