Graduate Psychology Programs

Psychology as a Helping Profession:

Psychology encompasses a diversity of specialties, but people simply regard it as one of the major helping professions. Most students entering Master's and doctoral programmes in psychology hope to use their new knowledge and skills to assist others in living more meaningful and satisfying lives.

A lot of people hold the stereotype of a clinical psychologist analysing the thoughts, behaviours and emotions of a patient lying on a couch, but this image is inaccurate for most psychological practitioners. Psychologists help people in a wide variety of ways including, but not limited to, the therapeutic setting in a clinician's office.

One of the major issues facing prospective graduate students is identifying the kinds of programmes that match their interests and long-term goals - there are many choices and implications for your possible career paths.

The specialty areas mentioned here are just a small sample of what is available, but it will give you a sense of the questions you need to ask and the resources available for arriving at good answers.

Five popular areas in graduate psychology are clinical/counselling, school psychology, school counselling, law and psychology, and industrial/organisational psychology. In some cases, these areas overlap, but each one has its unique characteristics as well. And the training is different for each.

Clinical/Counseling Psychology

Clinical and counselling psychology are technically different from one another. Clinical psychology is often seen as the province of treating people with psychopathological problems that range from mild to severe. Counsellors, on the other hand, may focus on helping people with the relatively normal crises of life. In practice, however, the two may be indistinguishable.

Traditionally, doctoral level psychologists have engaged primarily in therapeutic work, but the future may be a different picture. With changes in the way American health insurers cover psychotherapy, Master's level counsellors or social workers may encroach significantly on the clinician's territory. Consequently, doctoral level psychologists may be headed more toward programme development, administration and other activities parallel to providing therapy.

Students who want to enroll in a doctoral level programme should begin their preparation as early as possible as undergraduates. Ph.D. and Psy.D. programmes in clinical psychology are extremely competitive, often only admitting five or ten students out of several hundred applicants. High grades and high scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) are essential.  In addition, Ph.D. programmes place a premium on research experience by students as undergraduates. This is less true for Psy.D. and for counselling programmes.

School Psychology

An option available for students interested in working in an educational setting is school psychology. These professionals do not provide therapy but are instrumental in working directly with students, administering and interpreting personality tests, establishing and evaluating educational programmes, and referring students to agencies for social services.

School psychologists are likely to work in a school district rather than having an independent practice. Salaries are somewhat lower than for clinicians, although part of this discrepancy may be that most clinical practitioners hold doctoral degrees, whereas for most school psychologists, the Master's degree is sufficient.

Gaining entrance into school psychology programmes is somewhat easier than it is for clinical and counselling programmes, so progress into the career is speedier. Studies have shown that this area should experience fairly substantial job growth in the coming years.

School Counseling

An area that shares similarities with school psychology is that of school counselling. Graduate students in psychology who interested in working in elementary and secondary school settings could consider this field. Although this area is distinct from school psychology, both types of professionals administer and interpret psychological tests and are able to respond to crises nd emergencies in a school. Counsellors, however, may focus more on psychoeducational workshops, career guidance and appropriately related vocational and interest inventories, and teaching skills for finding jobs. (A related career path involves Community Counselling, which involves similar types of work, but outside a school system.)

Programmes in counselling generally favor applicants who have either paid or volunteer experience in settings associated with counselling, and in the changing climate, job growth in this area is likely to be quite good in the coming years.

Forensic Psychology/Psychology and the Law

An area of growing importance involves psychology's interface with legal issues. Undoubtedly the most widely known, but by no means the only, work by forensic psychologists involves expert testimony in trials involving such topics as battered woman syndrome, domestic violence or drug dependence. These psychologists also tackle issues associated with jury selection and other pretrial elements.

Forensic psychology also deals with such critical issues as civil trials involving personal injury and the awarding of custody of children in the breakup of a family. More on the clinical side of psychology, these professionals might evaluate and treat people who are likely to exhibit violence or aggressiveness in the workplace or in prisons. Other variations in this domain involve mediation and conflict resolution or consultation on legal and public policy issues.

Training in this field can take different forms. An initial choice involves Master's versus doctoral level programmes. Acceptance into Master's programmes is less competitive, but it is likely that salaries will be lower, autonomy less, and the chance for advancement more limited. Some forensic psychology programmes involve clinical psychology Ph.D.s, but others are non-clinical in orientation, involving developmental, cognitive, or social psychology. Some programmes also feature a dual degree, with a law degree accompanying a clinical psychology degree.

This area has been one of notable growth over the past two decades, according to APA's division of Psychology and the Law.

Industrial/Organisational Psychology

Industrial/Organisational Psychology is usually not listed among the so-called 'helping professions,' but some of the work I/O psychologists engage in will be of interest to students oriented toward clinical and counseling psychology.

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP, a division of APA) notes that I/O psychologists examine barriers in organisations associated with factors such as weight, race and ethnicity, attractiveness, and sexual orientation. The work that overlaps with more clinical issues may involve workplace aggression, sexual harassment, personality traits associated with employment, and disability issues.

Alternate paths to the helping professions

One can provide great help to people by pursuing graduate work in areas that relate to, but are different from, psychology, for example, if you want to provide therapy, you might want to consider a Master's in Social Work. Other possibilities for helping careers include areas such as occupational therapy and rehabilitation counselling, and special education teaching. These fall outside the traditional domains of psychology, but they may take you where you want to go.

How do you decide?

The first step in planning for graduate work is to decide which branch of psychology interests you most. It would be a mistake to identify a graduate school and programme and to assume that it will prepare any student for any specialty - each programme has its own strengths, which may not match your desires.

Explore the domains of psychology that aren't mentioned in this article. As noted at the beginning, this provides a small sample of psychological career paths; there are numerous others that you can investigate.  Ultimately, the choice is yours, but the more information you gather, the better the outcome will be.

Resources for investigating advanced training in the helping professions:

Academy of Counseling Psychology (http://www.academyofabpps.org/)
American Psychology-Law Association (http://www.unl.edu/ap-ls/)
Council of Applied Master's Programs in Psychology (http://www.camppsite.org/)
Divisions of the American Psychological Association, http://www.apa.org/about/division.html
Graduate Study in Psychology 2003 (American Psychological Association (http://www.apa.org)

Great Jobs for Psychology Majors, by Julie Degalan, Stephen Lambert (McGraw-Hill)Himelein, M. J. (1999).  A student's guide to careers in the helping professions.  Available through the Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, provided by the Society for the Teaching of psychology: http://www.lemoyne.edu/OTRP/teachingresources.html

Insider's Guide to Graduate Programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology. 2002/2003 ed., by T. J. Mayne, J. C. Norcross, & M. A. Sayette (Guilford)

Northamerican Association of Masters in Psychology (http://www.enamp.org/)
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (http://www.siop.org/)
Society of Counseling Psychology (http://www.div17.org/, for doctoral level information only)

More than Meets the Eye by Barney Beins Professor of Psychology, Ithaca College

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