Check out the Facebook group: University of Northern Iowa Psychology Alumni -
Check out this excellent page: Careers in Psych
After reviewing all of this information, please write up a summary of what you learned, anything that surprised you, and bring to class.
All Week 1 materials are due by Thursday class time.
Explore!
6 Important College Experiences
What Therapists Want You To Know
Possible Minors (this is not an exhaustive list..you can minor in something just because you like it! and you can minor in something that will ultimately help you in your future endeavors):
Honors in Psychology
You can graduate with Honors in Psychology if you have at least a 3.5 GPA and complete an Honors Project. Basically, an honors project is a research study that you design, carry-out, and write-up in your senior year with the help of one primary faculty member. You will learn how to design an original study, write an IRB proposal, collect and analyze your own data, write a real research paper, and present your work to others. This is a great way to stand out when you apply to grad school! Please see this website for more specifics: http://www.uni.edu/csbs/psych/psychology-department-honors-program
The most typical timeline for doing a project like this is:
Fall of Junior Year - work with a professor on their research. Get to know the professor well, and learn how to conduct a study by helping with an ongoing project.
Spring of Junior Year - continue working with a professor (or start working with a new professor to learn about another type of research). Decide which professor you'd like to be the Chair of your project, ask if he/she will supervise you, and pick a topic you'd like to study for your project. Meet with Dr. Lefler, the Honors Coordinator, to discuss the rules and requirements. Fill out a Declaration Form.
Summer between Junior and Senior Year - write the Introduction/Literature Review section of your paper, the Methods section of your paper, and the IRB proposal with the help of your Chair.
Fall of Senior Year - continue writing your paper based on feedback from your Chair, and secure IRB approval for your study. Collect your data. Your Chair should be working with you every step of the way.
Spring of Senior Year - analyze your data and write the final draft of your research paper. Schedule a "defense" of your paper with your committee (the Chair and two other professors), and present your research at a conference. Notify Dr. Lefler before Finals week that you have completed all requirements, and fill out the Completion Form.
I thought that this chapter was very useful in different educational/research fields you can get into with different degrees. This chapter did open my eyes to the fact that not all professors are the same and working at a university has a lot of different options for professors and what they can do with research. It sounds like a lot of the freedom you get from being a teacher comes from experience and time. You need to take time and work your way up in your employment to get to the dream job you may want.
The military was also an option that I had never thought of. It seems like something that could be interesting to a psychologist who is interested in the government workings and how we interact and choose who goes and fights for our country. It seems like a too restricted field for me to pursue.
Industrial psychologists seem very interesting but it seems like it would be more like an engineering field then a people field. Less social and that is not something I want in a career.
It did make me a little worried that they didn't mention working in a hospital rather then one for the military since that is a type of environment I am very interested in but I am sure that there is another section or some other type of posititon that I could look into for that type of career situation.
In this chapter, I mainly focused in on the research aspect and the professor aspect (although I did read it all). I chose to focus on these mainly because these two areas are the areas that I am interested in.
I don't recall reading this (but maybe I did). But, in the portion of the chapter where it talks about the careers of a professor and outlines the salary break down, I wish they would have given more background information about the difference between and assistant professor, associate professor, and just a professor. I know some of it has to do with the length you maintain a professor position...but what other factors contribute to going from an entry level professor to a professor.
Other than that, I also enjoyed the section on what you can do as a writer with a psychology degree. I do believe (as outline in the first chapter) that psychology majors get great experience writing in a more profession, less flowery manner. I have noticed throughout my education that I am better able to get my point across with fewer words and am better able to write scientifically. But, like I mention in my discussion of the first chapter, some of these skills developed out of my own interest of seeking out more difficult classes (doing my own research project). Through writing my thesis proposal and getting feedback, I have learned to use "x" word instead of "z" word and how to write more succinctly and to the point.
Most importantly, though, this chapter has given a better scope as to the variety of careers available to post-graduate individuals and has given a better sense on the salary accompanying each career choice (which, was a lot more than expected...so woooohooo for that!)
This first part of the chapter was devoted to explaining the different roles that a person would take on if they became of college professor. I liked how it differentiated between community college professors and university professors. It also explained that a person may only need their master’s degree to teach at a community college, but it is becoming more competitive because many professor have their doctorate. I think it would be nice to be a professor because of the amount of flexibility and autonomy. It would be beneficial to be a professor because for the most part you can teach what you want and also do research on the side, write a book or assist students. However, as the book stated, jobs are not very common in this field. I really liked how the book showed a table of the different average salaries for different positions. I think it is always helpful to see how much money can be made in your field of interest.
Reading about how many psychologists publish and write was kind of intimidating for me. I like to write, but I don’t see myself publishing a book. Some of the positions suggested in this section don’t sound very appealing to me. For instance, a developmental editor deals with editing manuscripts for many different psychological publications. Personally, I don’t enjoy editing papers or research articles. Also, another downfall for me is that the median salaries for these types of positions aren’t very high.
Overall this chapter was very informative. It introduced several different jobs and positions associated with psychology that I would have never even thought about. Although many of them weren't very appealing to me it is beneficial to have a broader view of the different jobs out there.
This chapter had a lot of useful information. The first section covered being a professor with a graduate degree in psychology. I did not realize how stressful being a professor really was until I read what the job of a professor consisted of. A professor does not only teach classes they also conduct research, advise students, write grant proposals, write articles, and much more. Even though professors have a lot of autonomy and flexible schedules, I do not think this would be a job for me.
I also learned there are many opportunities to conduct research for psychologists. Research can be conducted in universities, government agencies, private organizations, and businesses and corporations. The field of research is very competitive if that is all you plan on focusing on for your career, but it also does provide for a very comfortable lifestyle with the salary it holds.
I have never considered working for the military with a psychology degree, but it sounds very promising. Even though it sounds like a promising career, there are some disadvantages in the career. Psychologists in the military have to spend a lot of time overseas, and they can expect to be relocated every two to three years which can be difficult when raising a family. A major disadvantage is the pay that the government offers a masters-level and doctorate-level psychologist, which was about $33,000 and $40,000 respectively. This chapter held a lot of information about psychology related jobs, however none of these jobs were very appealing to me.
This chapter focused the majority of its time on how to become a professor and what a professor does. Many people I know have stated that being a professor would be an easy task; all you have to do is re-give the same tests over the years and put them in a scanner to get the students correct answers. Obviously this is completely wrong. Not only to professors have to teach extremely hard lessons but they also have to constantly be doing research. It also explained in this chapter the differences between community college professors vs. university college professors. I have always wanted to teach in a college setting. It states that you have to have a PhD in order to teach at a university level. I was planning on continuing on to get my masters but not my PhD. I didn’t want to have to go school for this much time. But it is nice to know that if I still want to teach at an upper level, by getting my masters I would be qualified to work at a community college level.
I am not a big fan of research. I think it is interesting, but doing big research projects stress me out. It was good for me to read about everything a university level professor does. They have to publish work. This to me seems like a very tough job. This chapter talked about writing with a psychology degree and this is something that just does not interest me. I want to help people, so a school counselor is ideal for me. I think teaching would be fun but not if I have to publish a bunch of material. I also don’t hate writing necessarily but don’t think I would want it for a full time job. This is a very tough task and the pay is good but not good enough for me to write as much as psychologists do.
I thought this chapter was very informative. It gave a good outline on the different job opportunities for psychology majors. It also gave a graph to show the different salaries in the different positions which is helpful. I want to have a sense of what my pay will look like when I graduate. Especially if I intent to go on for a masters and/or PhD.
I thought chapter 13 had a lot of good information about various careers in psychology. Before reading the chapter, I thought I had a fairly good idea of what sorts of careers psychologists could have, but I was surprised at how many careers the book talked about that I had not thought of. Reading through the different professions, I was mainly interested in three areas.
I have considered becoming a professor before, so I was glad that the book talked a lot about what exactly professors do other than teach classes. The information was very useful, and will definitely be good to look back at in the future. One thing I did not consider before was that professors spend the majority of their career as a psychologist studying one main topic. Thinking about it, I am not sure if I could keep myself focused on one specific topic or interest for such a long period of time, because I tend to have many interests and questions, and I want to research all of them.
I also think industrial psychology seems really neat, because psychologists take on more of a public relations role. I think I would like that, because promoting and studying various products would be interesting. It also seems sort of social, because as the book mentioned, industrial psychologists sometimes study consumers' opinions.
I think working for the government would be interesting. It would be neat to research questions created by politicians. I also like that psychologists work on many different projects rather than researching one topic throughout their entire career.
Overall, I really liked this chapter because it gave me a better idea of the broad range of careers psychologists can have.
Even though I'm not planning on going to graduate school, ch. 13 still provided useful information for me. For one, it gave descriptions of different careers you can go into, some are ones that I haven't thought of before. It also helped me decide that after all graduate school isn't the place for me and what I hope to do yet, but down the road I'd possibly like to become a professor or a publisher.
While I do not have much interest in what this chapter covered, it still shed light on some careers I had not before linked to a psychology degree.
The chapter first started off focusing on psychologists as professors, I did not know about the different types of colleges, those more research based versus other so I found that interesting.
Then the chapter moved on to Industry, this was the least expected role covered in this chapter. I had not considered the examples it mentioned as a role for one with a psychology degree.
Next the focus shifted to the Military. This was most connected to me because before deciding on UNI, I was considering pursuing a psychology degree at a military college, under the naval ROTC. I like the travel opportunity and experiences connected with this possibility but it would not suit me well.
Publishing was another role I had not connected with a psychology degree. I found all the different types interesting, but did not understand the connection to psychology very well.
This chapter was really interesting and I enjoyed reading about all of the things you could do with a graduate’s degree. I didn’t realize that with a graduate’s degree in psychology you can really work in any setting. It is nice knowing that I have a lot of options of places to work. There are few different place settings that I would like to look into work at. I am interested in being a psychology professor, but I did not realize that research was such a huge part of it. I think research is really interesting, but actually constructing research myself makes me a little nervous. Therefore, I think I would like teaching a community college instead of a 4 year because that is more focused on teaching instead of researching. Traveling is also one of my passions, so I am also interested in looking more into working on a military base as a counselor. I don’t think this would be my dream job forever because I do want to start a family at some point, but I think it would be fun and interesting for a couple of years.
Also, I really like how in this chapter, you could see about how much money you could make doing different jobs and what the job outlook is. With the economy right now, knowing what different salaries are and job outlooks is very important.
This chapter was very beneficial to read. It listed several opportunities we have available to us after graduate school.
I found the section on teaching to be the most interesting. I was previously and education major before switching my major to psychology. Although, the education I was going for was at the early childhood and elementary level, I still feel like I gained much knowledge in this field. My ultimate goal is to pursue my PhD and become a clinical psychologist, however, teaching doesn't seem like a bad option either. If I were to become a professor, I would want to have time to do research. Therefore, I could see myself working at either a community college or in undergraduate studies at a larger college.
I had never put much thought into working for businesses as a psychologist. After reading more information about it though, it doesn't seem like a bad plan. I have always been interested in business and I feel like this could be another option for me to explore. Marketing new products while integrating psychology seems like a fascinating career.
I like writing would also be another career to explore as well. I am not so much interested in the editorial aspect of it, but I am interested in writing.
Careers in the military, government, and social services are not of interest to me. I would like for more flexibility in my work place.
Overall, this chapter was very interesting and useful.
Overall, this chapter was very interesting. I never knew the extent of a psychology career. I was surprised to learn about the unique and various ways one can use their degree. One of the most surprising ways was in the writing field. I would have never expected psychology being implemented into writing and publishing.
One thing that stood out to me was the different types of teaching at different levels of universities. I expected all colleges and universities to expect the same out of their professors. I was intrigued to learn what each professor does depending on their size of university/college. It was also interesting to learn the basic things of what they do, as well as the rest of the careers.
The section I enjoyed the most was the social service agencies and nonprofits. The jobs associated with this are something I am thinking about doing. It really like the ability to have a direct impact on stuff. The down fall is that it has a lot to do with research. That is not my favorite, but I am glad to learn this now.
I found a lot of things in this chapter to be interesting as well as useful. I am strongly considering entering into some type of counseling psychology. I had not thought at all about counseling psychology in the military. I learned a lot about the pros and cons through that section of chapter 13. I'm not sure that I would be comfortable with the lack of confidentiality or with the continuous location shifting, but I would enjoy helping military personnel and their families cope with stresses on site in their everyday settings, such as military hospitals.
I also found it interesting that the requirements for professors vary based on the type of institution. For instance, professors at a 4 year university are required to conduct more research than professors at community colleges.
I found the section on writing and publishing to be interesting, but I do not think that it is an aspect of the field that I am particularly interested in.
By reading this chapter, I learned a lot about the various opportunities for psychologists. I learned things that I had not previously known.
I like how chapter 13 talks immediately about being a teacher which a psychology degree and how it is much more than just lectures, but the importance of growing and shaping individuals through outside contact and being a supportive member of a faculty. I noticed form the psychology website that all the professors have doctoral degrees, which according to the text appears to be an important factor in becoming a teacher, especially in competitive schools. I also like the autonomy that I allowed as a professor and the ability to freely teach according to what interests them. I realize now the difficulty of finding jobs as a professor and not being able to limit yourself to one location, because it is so competitive. The industry aspect is also very interesting how you are able to possibly create products that you see as beneficial for the company. Working in a career for the government seems beneficial from the diverse projects and wide range of opportunity within them.
I have always been interested in how non-profit organizations work and the use that psychologists can have on them. The importance of positive social change in other’s lives is a really important component to the nonprofit organization. Bachelor degrees with psychology are obtainable, but yet again, the higher the degree the better chance of obtaining a position. It is interesting that this is an option for the undergrad, however.
Publishing books, such as psychology texts are also very important. The chapter exclaims the best success is working your way up. I have heard and seen professors who use their own published text books to teach in class.
Chapter 13 was very informative about graduate jobs in psychology, specifically being a professor. I am interested in being a professor eventually. Professor is a very decent paying job that offers stability for starting a family and intellectual freedom and autonomy. I always thought that being a professor would require me to get a PhD, but after reading this chapter that is not necessarily the case. Although it is encouraged to get a PhD to become a professor it is not required if you just plan on working at a community college or being an associate/part-time professor. I plan on getting my PhD, but plans do not always work out especially when I plan to get married and start a family someday. It also makes sense that professors doing research can sometimes be bad professors because they are more distracted and focused on getting their research done and published and less concerned about making sure their students are getting a proper education. That is why throughout my college experience I have tried to avoid the professors that are getting close to applying for tenure with a few exceptions, because from my experience they have been the least helpful and approachable to students.
I thought the information on military careers in psychology was very interesting as well, but not something that I would consider as a future career. It might interest me as a future career if it was not for the fact that I grew up in a military family that moved around every 2 to 3 years. I loved the aspect of traveling and meeting new people, but the pay associated with having to start your life over every few years is not worth it. That is why I want to be an I-O psychologist for a private consulting firm because they do a lot of traveling but the pay is well worth it.
I had never before heard of psychologists working as acquisition editors. It sounds like a very creative field if you love to read. I love to read but I do not think I would love it if it was my career. I think that reading as just a hobby would not appeal to me anymore if my career was also about reading constantly. It reminds me of the job I have now where I am required to talk on the phone for five hours a day. Prior to me working there I loved to talk on the phone, now I completely despise talking on the phone even with my close friends and family. I am also not a huge fan of writing and my writing ability shows that. I think a lot of college kids my age are not a fan of writing papers however because the majority of things we are a writing about are of other people’s ideas and other people’s research. I affirmatively believe that as soon as I have the resources and ability to conduct my own research on my own ideas and hypotheses I will enjoy writing a lot more because it will mean more to me. I just can’t wait until I am finally in graduate school where I am able to conduct my own research with help from my professors and peers on my ideas/hypotheses, because I have so many I would like to research.
I just really wish this class had been offered when I was a freshman. It would have helped me to be ahead of the game when applying to graduate school, because I had no idea I even wanted to go to graduate school until my senior year, and by that time it is too late. I will have to wait an entire year before I am able to start graduate school after I graduate this year. I hope during that time I will be able to help in more research and build my application/vita more to make me more competitive for graduate school.
Chapter 13 helped me realize the different roles or parts of what is required of professors. I found some of the roles appealing, such as the autonomy and freedom with topics to be taught/focused on for each class. I also found the role of helping mold and shape individuals very appealing. I have the desire to be able to help people achieve their potential. However, some of the other roles I view as being very challenging in terms of just how much professors are asked to do from teaching classes to conducting research, advising students, writing grant proposals, writing articles, etc. The chapter helped remind me that professors do have a very challenging job. I thought the chapter was useful in helping me realize that overall being a professor is most likely not the best career choice for me because of the required levels of education and the variety of work that is demanded.
Later on in the chapter the book discussed Industry. I found this part of the chapter very useful because working for a business while involving psychological aspects is something that I am interested in doing. As I mentioned I am interested in helping people, especially with helping them achieve their potential, but I do not think I would be interested in working for non-profit or social service organizations. Seeing what other opportunities would be available for someone with a bachelor’s degree in psychology is something that I need to research more. The next section focused on the Military. This is one area that I am sure that I am not interested in. I considered it before graduating high school, but I am just not interested in traveling and being in different locations regularly, especially overseas for example. I am simply just not cut out for that.
Overall I benefitted from Chapter 13. It reminded me of some information that I once knew but had forgotten, and also with some new helpful information that I will use to help me in job searching before I graduate in May.
Chapter 13 was very interesting to me and had some information that will help my pursuit in expanding my careers in psychology knowledge. One piece of information I had always assumed but was confirmed by the chapter was the amount of work professors put into a lecture. The lecture is the only part students think about, but there is also all the time professors spend researching, looking at different books to use, and different community work. It is also interesting how the different levels of teachers receive different benefits like tenure. This seems appealing to me because of the freedom the professors have. They are able to have freedom with their schedules and are also able to “teach the truth as they see it.” They can really teach and research what really interests them. It seems like they would be able enjoy their jobs more than the average career. It also describes how professors are at a disadvantage because of the competition. This actually greatly appeals to me because I am a very competitive person and it would drive me to perfect my trait.
Outside the “ivory tower” there are many other options for psychology majors. One that I had no idea about is the military options and it interested me until I found out how much (or little money) they make. Money isn’t everything to me, but I would like to make more than $40,200 after doing that much work to obtain my doctorate.
Plz ask in class the difference between asst, assoc, and full prof...thnx,
Ask me in class abt the connection btwn publishing and psych...thnx!
Plz ask me in class abt the role of research in a profs career...thnx!
I thought that chapter 13 had a lot cof useful information. It taliked a lot about becoming a professor, careers in psychology, and research. Right now my goal isn't to become a professor, so I focused more on the research aspect on of. I feel that research is very important, especially since I'm planning on going to graduate school. I know that I will need some type of experience with doing research while applying to grad school, or even afterwards.
The military options in the section was very interesting to me. That was one thing that stuck out to me because I've never considered it. Before reading this chapter I didn't know much about it, and what it has to offer. Overall I thought that this chapter had very good information and it was helpful.
After reading chapter 13, I feel that I have gained a better understanding of what I do and do not want to do as a career option. I always thought it might be rewarding to work for the military and counsel troops with PTSD or extreme trauma victims but I didnt realise that in order to work for them you had to enlist as an officer. That does not sound appetizing to me. As for the research aspect, I can see myself doing very little of this throughout my career but definitely not as a main focus. I have confirmed that even though the pay is considerable, I would not enjoy being a professor or a researcher/writer. Publishing a book has always been on my bucket list but moreso as a fictional story. :)
This chapter was interesting to me, as someone who is currently in the process of applying to graduate school. It served as a good reminder as to why I am going through this process and also provided some new insight as to what I can do with my degree. For instance, I was unaware of the different areas in which an individual with a psychology degree can profess. The section on governemtn was interesting to me because of all the things I could imagine the government needing help with research. As someone who does research now, publishing and writing also has appeal for me.