Customer Reviews

Career Paths in Psychology: Where Your Degree Can Take You

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In this volume, the most current APA career guide available for psychology, Robert Sternberg lends his name to a collection of articles covering the fourteen major career options in psychology. Sternberg writes no more than a three page Introduction and a five page Epilogue. The tone throughout is moderately persuasive. Each contributor has been hugely successful in his or her niche, and accordingly, tends to downplay problems while elevating opportunities.

The articles are not of equal quality, but all tend to cover much of the same ground. A general overview of the career is offered. Entry requirements, including skills and personality traits, are discussed. Each addresses details such as potential compensation, "a day in the life of ...", and a short review of the advantages and disadvantages of working in the field. Those chapters not dealing with academia and counseling tend to have more detail. Some even have recommended reading lists. All have references.

The fourteen careers include academia (separate chapters on the different academic departments, i.e., psych, school psych, and business), counseling (private practices, schools, community organizations and hospitals covered in separate chapters), government research, public school work, industrial/organizational psych, consumer psych, human-factors psych, military psych, and health psych.

Those considering a career in psychology should note that a doctorate is considered the entry level education requirement. I am avoiding the temptation to capitalize every word of the preceding sentence. Without a PhD there are few, if any, career options available in psychology.

Acceptance into an APA accredited doctoral program is quite competitive. In the few programs I have personally evaluated, less than ten percent of the applicants are accepted. The head of one psych department warned me that it was easier to get admittance into medical school than it was into psychology.

Assuming a four year undergraduate education, immediate entry into a doctoral program, and a one year post-doctoral fellowship (generally required to compete for the best positions), a career in psychology is likely to be a nine to eleven year investment. If you are thinking of making this investment, read this book. Better yet, drop by the graduate psychology department of an APA accredited program and chat with a professor. Find a graduate student to interview.

All things considered, psychology is more of a calling than a career. If you can be happy doing something else, maybe you should.

I can not rate this book more highly! It contains information on many different fields of psychology and includes, salary guidelines, whose hiring, what the educational requirements are. It is the perfect guide to introduce psy. students to what fields of psy. are out there. It even has a chapter on military psy. This is the best book anywhere on careers in Psychology! My hat is off to the author!

I definitely recommend this book for any undergraduate who is a psychology major and is planning a career in psychology. The authors of each article cover their fields rather extensively, outlining a day in the life, average/median salaries, the responsibilities and educational tracks to their jobs, and more information on related careers in the field. It has many traditional psychology careers (academia, counseling, clinical in a hospital) as well as non-traditional "different" subfields (community, health psych, i/o psych, government research).

However, I only recommend it if you already have an idea that you want to go into the field of psychology but are having trouble deciding on a subfield. The book is really for people who already have a sort of basis in psych and know that they are interested, but need more information. If you still think that all a psychologist does is "couch work," it's DEFINITELY for you.

This book is a great overview, useful for understanding some of the different paths one can take with a degree in psychology. It has a lot of "up close and personal" details with people who have been very successful in their particular fields. This book is excellent for anyone who is considering a major or career in psych as well as those who are about to graduate or have already done so, but may feel a bit overwhelmed as far as the next step. It was particularly useful to me in choosing what grad school program to pursue. It is has a lot more info and detail for academically related careers (as opposed to more socially oriented ones). If you read it and begin to see that this is not your leaning (as I did), try a book about careers in social work or as a counselor. Nevertheless, it was useful in revealing what I was not particularly interested in and pointing me toward my true interests - quite helpful!

I read this book from the standpoint of a working person interested in getting into psychology. It gives a good overview of the different branches of psychology, and talks about days in the lives of psychologists, educational requirements, salaries, etc. Most of the jobs discussed require a PhD, so for me these jobs would be long term goals, but even so - reading this book was a good way to think about what branches of psychology appeal to me.

I have been thinking about going back to uni to study psychology and since there are so many fields, I decided to buy this book to see which field would best suit me or be most interesting.
Many people major in psychology these days but this book is definately for those who are looking to obtain a MA/MS or higher, working as 'psychologists'.
I read a review saying how it was not in-depth enough and that it lacked in details but how much of one profession can ever be squeezed into a book, yet alone most of the career paths in psychology.
It covers all the basic areas and environment where a psychologist can work and each chapter is written by a psychologist working in that setting. It definately gives you an idea of what it's basically like to be working in that particular field, highlighting most expectations that you are likely to come across.
It can get a little confusing after reading five different chapters but if you're looking to see which profession in psychology might suit you or like best, then this book is the way to go.

I found this book to be very useful because each chapter describes and discusses a different field of psychology and includes current opportunities and pay ranges. At the end of each chapter first-hand experience is shared by a Psychologist that is currently practicing or formerly practiced in the specific area of psychology being discussed. This book is a valuable resource for students pursuing or interested in pursuing a career in psychology; assisting in clarifying areas of specialty, expectations, and opportunities.

A great book to read what are your options are for your career. Great information source.

What a great book this is. It really helped me figure out what to do and in this difficult eceonomy, what I can do right now.

It's an OK text book. I know I would never buy a book like this for my own sake. However, since it's a PsyD program assigned textbook, I have to go through it. Get bored several times during the reading. It's alright informative; I did learn a little information after reading it. So i think it's alright.