Applied psychology is an extremely popular choice of degree.
This is because there are so many career paths available once you have attained a degree in applied psychology. It is also due to the fact that psychologists have long been respected members of the academic community.
Theories involving personal and group dynamics, for example, have helped us to better understand our unique place in the world. Organizations the world over have come to rely on psychologists to help both individuals and teams excel in their performance. Families rely on these professionals to help correct certain cognitive impairments that might manifest over time.
The list can go on and on, so let us focus it in on a discussion of seven exciting career paths to consider in Applied Psychology.
1. Clinical Psychology
Individuals, families, and groups suffering from a host of mental health problems depend upon psychologists to effectively deal with and overcome their issues. This is perhaps the most popular career path in applied psychology, and it is the one that continues to be in high demand.
It is important to have professional psychologists equipped and prepared to deal with a range of mental health-related disorders, so this may very well be a field that you are interested in pursuing.
2. Educational Psychology
Schools are a social institution with an entirely unique set of needs. Children need guidance on a range of academic-related issues, with secondary school and university students need help on pursing career choices. The possibilities here are endless.
Students also need to be tested for special educational services, and families counselled on how to best provide for this child’s unique academic needs. Educational psychologists can help facilitate all of this.
3. Sports Psychology
You might be wondering what psychology can possibly have to do with sports. Just talk to a world-class athlete about performance related issues and you will quickly discover the important role that applied psychologists can play.
An athlete who has hit a wall in his or her performance, for example, will call upon a sports psychologist to help them overcome any barriers that might exist. Teams will use a psychologist to help solve internal issues that might be impacting performance and their ability to win.
This is an exciting career field that is growing in popularity as sports become even a bigger business around the world. It all begins with you earning a degree in applied psychology.
4. Health Psychologist
Health psychologists are concerned with our mental wellbeing. They typically look at how our environment, family, genetics and personal choices affect our mental state. Alongside other medical professionals, you will work in a clinical setting to examine the best course of action for an individual.
A health psychologist has other roles such as studies in research areas and even teaching. The main goal of a health psychologist is to help individuals to live a better life, through their understanding of human psychology.
5. Forensic Psychology
If you are the type of person that likes to solve mysteries and crimes, this is a career field that might be of interest to you. Forensic psychologists do much more than just examine evidence at crime scenes. They work to get inside the minds of criminals in an effort to determine the type of person that could have committed any given crime.
The work of forensic psychologists has proven invaluable to the law enforcement community in their efforts to catch criminals and make sure that they are justly punished for their deeds. You can learn more about this as you study in a graduate level applied psychology program.
6. Business Psychologist
What does applied psychology have to do with business? Quite a lot it seems. All businesses are made up of individual employees and these people all have different attitudes, needs, traits and behaviours. They will react in various ways to rewards and stimulation and their morale will be affected by various circumstances.
Your role is to analyse this in order to improve employee performance and job satisfaction. A business psychologist can also advise on marketing campaigns, productivity strategies, and company restructuring. They are also handy to have onboard for hiring the right employees or dealing with any workplace harassment issues.
7. Human Factors Psychologist
A human factors psychologist might sound like a made-up role but it is a vital multidisciplinary field that includes psychology, engineering, design, statistics and cognitive science.
It looks to improve the working environment for individuals and involves designing ergonomic products or the ideal work environment. If you are interested in design or engineering, then human factor psychology is an exciting way to use your applied psychology degree.
This is just a sampling of the many career paths you can embark upon with a degree in applied psychology. The field is dynamic and it is one that enables you to help others while benefitting society as a whole. If you are interested in pursuing one of these exciting career paths, contact an institution of higher learning near you.
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Thank you for the excellent article. In fact, you are right, now there are so many development options associated with psychology. And as far as I know, almost any of your examples are worthy of attention, since you can put together a good career in these industries. Earlier I did not even suspect about such a wide variety of psychology. For example, with a business psychologist, I first encountered my job. Then our psychologist also looked for opportunities to properly motivate us. I think that this is a great way to improve the performance of the team, is not it?:) After all, if your team will be satisfied with the work and get everything that it wants, it will be more productive during working hours. Which of course will affect the success of the company.