In this video I encourage people considering pursuing an education in Psychology at any formal level – bachelors, research Masters/PhD, or Clinical Masters/PhD – to research and reconsider what they are considering.
My relevant experience includes having an Hon. B.Sc. in Psychology Research and Cognitive Science, having been an MS/PhD student in Cognitive Psychology, having looked into the job market stats, and now working in a parallel healthcare field, Occupational Therapy.
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Hey Buddy, it was such a cool video, so informative. I was thinking of a Psy. degree but watching your video has given me more reasons for me to think deeply and understand better before i take any decision, rather then keeping my eyes closed and going. Thanks.
Glad it was helpful, Dheeraj. I experienced first hand how easy it can be to go down this road thinking you’re being much more practical than you really are..
This is a great video and so true. I have a psychology BSC and almost made a mistake in doing a PHD in that subject (In experimental psychology no less. I was accepted to the parapsychology PHD at the university of edinburgh. It’s pretty much research psychology) Your video helped me choose a different path while I still had the chance.
Hi thanks for the informative video really useful advice. I’m conflicted myself at the moment as going back to college and have always wanted to study psychology and become a therapist, but have had concerns about the career prospects and financial side of it all so great to see an honest evaluation of it from someone who has done it 🙂
Glad you saw the video. The psych program would never have given you this side of this 🙂
I’d suggest looking up stats for the careers you’d want to take on . e.g., rate of employment, pay rate at various career stages.
In terms of learning about psychology, you can do that without studying it formally. I studied psych for 5 years, taking more courses than I needed to to satisfy my degree requirements. My program was a research intensive program that had several excellent seminar courses that included excellent discussion groups for analyzing research, relevance to broader society, etc. That part of the education was particularly excellent, but it wasn’t a part of the main psych program. It was the highest end program – it only had 14 ppl per year and the lowest GPA in the room was probably like 3.5. But aside from this – i.e., focusing on just the standard psych courses – I’d say one could have gotten about 60% of the value I achieved in several years of study from reading a few books totaling like 1000 pages.
If you want to learn about effective therapies, I’d look into cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness meditation, dialectical behavioral therapy, and applied behavior analysis. I’d also look into videos by Jordan Peterson. He’s a controversial figure because he comments on issues pertaining to the current crazy culture wars (and I LOVE HIM!), but agree or disagree with him on the culture war stuff, he’s absolutely brilliant as a psychologist. FOr many he’s emerging as one of the most important thinkers alive today, as he brilliantly interweaves considerations of religion and the deepest philosophies of meaning with our cognitive evolutionary heritage, current social issues, first-person experience and psychology, and gives incredible recommendations for how to improve your situation.