difficulty of an undergrad degree?

[nev]

I would like to know about how difficult are the courses in a psychology undergraduate degree? Are they harder than a degree in biology or chemistry?
Sorry for my crazy question....I'm just curious..
Nev

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Sanman]

Depends on the department. the professor, and the class. There is no definite answer. It also depends on you, what is hard to one peron isn't hard to another.

 

[nev]

I understand.......I'lll have to research on it

 

[nev]

do psychologists with undergratuate degrees get employment easily? I asked this question earlier but my question then was pertaining to psychologists with masters and doctoral degrees..

 

[Annakei]

do psychologists with undergratuate degrees get employment easily? I asked this question earlier but my question then was pertaining to psychologists with masters and doctoral degrees..

One can only be called a psychologist at the doctoral level, tha tbeing PsyD or PHD. Ma level practioners are usually called "psychotherapists" or just "therapists". It depends on the field, MSW: Social Worker, MA: LPC-Licensed Professional Counselor-both are able to conduct psychotherapy indivudually but are not referred to as psychologist.

It is my belief that an undergraduate degree in psychology opens the doors for many opportunties post undergrad. There was a thread on this a while back, perform a search with "BA" or "psychology" in the title.

 

[Sanman]

I'd say that an undergraduate degree in psychology, as in most of the arts and sciences, doesn't particularly qualify you for any job track. You can make it what you will. My suggestion for good post-BA employment is a good background in whatever field you choose and a solid internship(s). Often enough, the internship will lead to the job.

 

[twiggers]

Hey,

I have several friends who decided not to continue their education after getting their BA in psychology. In California, they could not find a job for more than 8-10$ an hour. IN California that is pretty much minimum wage.
On the other hand, another friend graduated with a marketing BA and got a job in San Francisco making over 60K right out of undergrad.

I took premed classes while taking psych classes, and found the psych classes much much easier than the math/chemistry, etc. BUT...everyone is different!

 

[Delvonik]

As someone above said, there is no definite answer to your question because everyone is different and there are alot of factors influencing one's perception of difficulty.

But I would say that a majority of people taking a psychology course find it easier than a mathematics course of the same level. It's no secret that the social sciences are (insultingly) termed the "soft sciences." A friend of mine who lives in France and who happens to study mathematics and computer sciences told me that he knows of no equivalent term over there, and I am glad to hear it; it is not especially useful and certainly not very respectful to say "xology is harder and therefore superior to yistics." But while there is no room for absolute statements about difficulty, psychology texts of most kinds can be digested more easily when someone has achieved a certain degree and variety of reading comprehension but the content of physical science and mathematics courses can be almost unintelligible to someone without a strong background in those studies. One has to look at the cognitive skills engaged when studying different things, and the duties and qualities of the people who are specialists in different fields.

I say all of this carefully because one can't help but be aware of the tension surrounding this subject. And anyway, what's said above doesn't necessarily have anything to do with your personal experiences with the difficulty of your courses. Even though we can speak of strong tendencies, our perception of difficult involves how a subject is presented, our past experiences with it, our current attitudes towards it, etc.

Regardless of the course, try to find something in it that excites you!