Ludwig van Bach Posted May 10, 2015 Posted May 10, 2015 I'm thinking of studying psychology in university. I know that there might be variations between Psychological Societies and the content of degrees in my country - Ireland - and other countries, but any insight into the academic world of psychology that anyone has to offer would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like to know if it's worth pursuing a degree in, and what career options one might have available after having obtained one.
NGardner Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 I have a degree in psychology from a canadian university and it is useless. I am currently getting my docrate in another field. Classes are very easy and not applicable to the practice of psychology. If you are going to get your masters it may lead to some decent paying jobs in the field. Truth is a BA is only going to put you ahead of high school applicants for most jobs. You will be qualified to do nothing after finishing the program. I would look for a school that specializes in psychology and has a low acceptance rate. This program in Canada is a filler degree for universities. It has high acceptance to the program for lower GPAs making it a breeding ground for morons. My courses were quite repetitive and destroyed my enthusiam and motivation for the field. I have found this to be fairly common with studying formally a subject you enjoy destroys the enthusiam for that subject when you run up against the wall of academic bullshit. I would say 85% of my class of 200 had no idea what they were going to do after graduating. Most are now working in lackluster jobs (cop, security guard, prison guard, assistant to psychologist, retail, waiter, manager of fast food place, car wash attendent, walmart assistant manager just to name the ones who i remember where they are). 1
GregMerwe Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 My sister studied psychology and now she is a manager at a social services organisation that specialises in domestic abuse. I think psychiatry probably make more money as it is a medical qualification (lol) but seriously, it is real science. Subscribing pharma drugs for your latest disorder is a great way to make a living. I think being a good psychiatrists on the other hand could be a very rewarding career. R.D. Laing as an example.
Ludwig van Bach Posted July 26, 2015 Author Posted July 26, 2015 My sister studied psychology and now she is a manager at a social services organisation that specialises in domestic abuse. I think psychiatry probably make more money as it is a medical qualification (lol) but seriously, it is real science. Subscribing pharma drugs for your latest disorder is a great way to make a living. I think being a good psychiatrists on the other hand could be a very rewarding career. R.D. Laing as an example. Thanks, I appreciate your response. I'm not really interested in psychiatry, just for the reason that I'd like to deal more with the personal, emotional side of work that would be focused on more through psychology. I've also heard of a lot of negative aspects of psychiatry in general, from people such as Daniel Mackler. And I don't mean to discredit the field altogether, as the challenges put forth by Laing of psychiatric diagnosis seem positive, but I think that the medical aspect of prescription in a profession is something I just don't feel passionate about. Just as a matter of curiosity, how does your sister enjoy her job?
Ludwig van Bach Posted July 27, 2015 Author Posted July 27, 2015 I have a degree in psychology from a canadian university and it is useless. I am currently getting my docrate in another field. Classes are very easy and not applicable to the practice of psychology. If you are going to get your masters it may lead to some decent paying jobs in the field. Truth is a BA is only going to put you ahead of high school applicants for most jobs. You will be qualified to do nothing after finishing the program. I would look for a school that specializes in psychology and has a low acceptance rate. This program in Canada is a filler degree for universities. It has high acceptance to the program for lower GPAs making it a breeding ground for morons. My courses were quite repetitive and destroyed my enthusiam and motivation for the field. I have found this to be fairly common with studying formally a subject you enjoy destroys the enthusiam for that subject when you run up against the wall of academic bullshit. I would say 85% of my class of 200 had no idea what they were going to do after graduating. Most are now working in lackluster jobs (cop, security guard, prison guard, assistant to psychologist, retail, waiter, manager of fast food place, car wash attendent, walmart assistant manager just to name the ones who i remember where they are). Wow, It's always shocking to hear how often university education can turn out to be a disastrous waste of time, but it's helpful to know. Thanks for the feedback. I'll be taking an Honours BA in psychology, and from what I can find myself, it seems to be similar to a BA(hons) degree in Ireland. Maybe there isn't a great distinction between the two, but in Ireland, there are no BA psychology courses. If you want to do psychology, it has to be at least an honours degree. As for acceptance rate, the courses are fairly competitive. In my first choice course, first year students do arts subjects in 1st year, then the top 30% progress to the honours degree second year. Is there any such distinction between psychology degrees in Canada, or are they generally part of BA courses? Do you know of anyone who actually went into a career in psychology from their degree?
NGardner Posted July 27, 2015 Posted July 27, 2015 there is BA and BA with honours i have and most of the jobs I mentioned were people who had the honours degree. Unfortunately I did not research the field and have no one to blame but myself for any annoyance i have with the degree/program. Stef's latest education video on youtube would have been a great tool for me before I went to school.
Nick900 Posted August 15, 2015 Posted August 15, 2015 I've just finished my degree in computer science but I'm also into philosophy quite a bit, i enjoy reading about it on the side. To me it seems to be a simple case of if you need a well defined career at the end of it ... doing a STEM subject will give you much more job security, with philosophy its less clear what role you could go into. I'm pretty happy with the way I did it though ... studying something very technical in university and then studying philosophy on the side, you tend to get less bored with both of them if you're able to switch depending on what you're feeling like. Also if you're planning on taking it further ... i.e. PhD, there are less grants for philosophy researchers because you don't really produce anything tangible like a piece of software at the end of it.
Nick900 Posted August 15, 2015 Posted August 15, 2015 And i've just noticed you said psychology not philosophy x] Some of what I just said still stands, especially the PhD thing, if you want to get a good psychology job you'll need a PhD and because everyone knows this there is a lot more competition.
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