PhD/PsyD Less Amount of Applied Psychologists?

[PsychMajorUndergrad18]

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Hello Everyone,

One thing has been bothering me for awhile and that is the extensive amount of applications to Clinical or Counseling Psych programs and the smaller amount of applicants to programs like I/O, Social, Quantitative and Experimental Psychology programs. I wanted to ask you all what do you think is the cause behind this thread? Also what do you think should be done to get more applicants into other (less popular) areas of Psychology?

I think there are a couple of reasons as to why this happens (although I may but completely wrong)

1) Clinical And Counseling Psych programs are more advertised in the media and in general
2) Every other undergrad psych major wants to become a Clinical Psychologist and either open up there own practice or become a Professor

Thanks for all of you guys (and gals!!) input!!

 

[erg923]

This bothers you? Really? Lol

Most people I know have no desire to work in academia and all the pressures that come with it. And, really, what does someone do with a phd in social psychology other than work and teach at a college?

 

[Harry3990]

Exactly like erg said...the non-clinical programs are preparing you for academia. There is a finite number of decent jobs at universities (tenure track), and they are far fewer in number than the variety of clinical jobs. This job market (i.e., academia) is already flooded regardless though, so I certainly wouldn't hope it gets even more flooded.

 

[PsychMajorUndergrad18]

I've heard of a good amount of social Psychologists working as consultants and doing market research. So the general consensus is that not a lot of people go into these fields because its a only academic kind of area?

 

[Spydra]

When I was an undergrad I really liked Personality and Social Psych and pondered them as careers. I was able to connect with a number of them in the field and they all advised me to consider something else because job options are limited. I/O and Quant Psych bore me to tears so I knew neither would work for me. Experimental would let me do research, but its just not as versatile as a Clinical degree.

 

[erg923]

I've heard of a good amount of social Psychologists working as consultants and doing market research. So the general consensus is that not a lot of people go into these fields because its a only academic kind of area?

I think you heard wrong. This happens, no doubt, but that's a very finite amount of jobs, and a Ph.D seems like overkill for that kind of job that in most scenarios.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Hello Everyone,

One thing has been bothering me for awhile and that is the extensive amount of applications to Clinical or Counseling Psych programs and the smaller amount of applicants to programs like I/O, Social, Quantitative and Experimental Psychology programs. I wanted to ask you all what do you think is the cause behind this thread? Also what do you think should be done to get more applicants into other (less popular) areas of Psychology?

I think there are a couple of reasons as to why this happens (although I may but completely wrong)

1) Clinical And Counseling Psych programs are more advertised in the media and in general
2) Every other undergrad psych major wants to become a Clinical Psychologist and either open up there own practice or become a Professor

Thanks for all of you guys (and gals!!) input!!

Reason 1) is probably due in large part to Reason 2)
Reason 2) is likely because humans are biologically programmed to be social animals and thus it is more fun working with people than timing rats in a maze.
How many medical researchers compared to medical practitioners are there? Probably very similar principles at work.

 

[deleted343839]

I've heard of a good amount of social Psychologists working as consultants and doing market research. So the general consensus is that not a lot of people go into these fields because its a only academic kind of area?

I know some people like this and they nearly all applied for (or held) academic jobs before they went into market research, etc. In my experience it is mainly clinical and I/O psychologists who enter grad school with a goal to make a career outside of higher ed. The other fields (social, developmental, cognitive, etc.) are usually considered more academic than applied, though there are some jobs for PhD psychologists in industry and many of them are more interesting to me than faculty jobs.