looking for some basic info.

[red135]

Hi,
I've never ventured into this section of SDN before and I'm embarrassed to admit I know virtually nothing about the PhD process or anything that goes along with it.
I was wondering if you could tell me the basic undergrad requirements for admission into a Psychology PhD program (or direct me to where I can find out). I'm sorry if this is something that could easily be accomplished by using the "search" fxn, but I'm so clueless that I don't really know what I'd type in
Thanks for helping me!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[red135]

I should probably be a little more specific...
I'm currently looking at my undergrad institution's graduate Psychology website, but it doesn't mention anything about undergraduate prerequisite courses - what are they?

 

[Ollie123]

It varies by area and by program.

When you say "Psychology PhD" are you referring to clinical? Social? Industrial/Organizational?

 

[red135]

Honestly, I don't even really know; I think I'm referring to social. Am I wrong in concluding that there is no real defined "set" of prereqs (aside from the standard psyc./math classes that come with a BS/BA)? Also, I would just like to learn a bit about the possibilities (other than research) after getting a psyc. degree... or, does research really mean what it connotes to me (i.e. stuck in a lab)? Are psychologists generally independent, or do they work together on projects?
Thanks for responding

 

[erg923]

Honestly, you need to do a search and read about all the fields.

First, is all the branches of experimental psychology. "Experimental psychology" is the umbrella term that encompasses different specialty areas of psychology that are non-clinical. That is, areas where you are not trained to see ot treat psychiatric patients. Mamy times the research is focused on the processes underlying normal behavior, although many research will focus on a mental illness or abnormal behavior, even though you are not trained to treat it...just research it. Sometimes programs will have more elaborate of longer names for these specialty divisions, but generally, experimental psychology is divided into 5 or 6 core areas titled: Cognitive psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, neuroscience/cognitive neuroscience, and animal learning.

Second is the applied areas of psychology. Clinical psychology and Counseling psychology are the branches where, in addition to research training, you will be trained to see patients for therapy and to assess and diagnosis mental illness. Clinical also has subdivisions within it such as clinical forensic psych, clincial neuropsychology, clincial health psychology, clincial child psych, etc. Clinical programs often have these as formal or informal specializations within the clinical program. Counseling psychology is much the same as clinical, although it focuses less on severe psychopathology. After finsihing grad school, clinical and counseling psychologists can do pure clincial work, or pure research, or both. Depends on your preferences. Although faculty positions at universities are competitive, and if that is your goal, you have to plan for that while in grad school and really pump out good research. Or at least alot of it...

The standard prereq for most grad programs in psych are undergrad level courses in experimental psych and/or research design, stats, abnormal psych (for clinical programs), developmental psych, and personality theories. Academic research in psychology is competitive, but often very collaborative.

 

[BorntoRun]

I think it would be really useful for you to find some psychology professors and graduate students to talk to, to get a sense of what they research, how they spend their time, and what an undergrad would need to do to make it into graduate school in that sub-area (if you do decide that's what you want to do). This forum is primarily for students in clinical psychology, but there are at least a dozen other areas that might be of interest to you. Do you have a psychology advisor? Is there a psychology professor who taught a class you particularly enjoyed that could take the time to speak with you about psychology? Depending on the school, career services will sometimes have useful information as well.

 

[red135]

Is clinical psychology more interpersonal interaction-oriented as opposed to research-oriented? What is the typical lifestyle like?
I think I'll head over to the career center on Monday to see if they can offer any insight

 

[erg923]

I am not sure what you mean by that, but yes, you will probably need to interact with people more in clinical vs experimental psych, because when you do clinical work you are treating patients. So yes, its is important to have good interpersonal skills and and a warm, empathetic style for clincial work. However, just because you are doing research, does not mean you will not be interacting with patients, right. Experimental people and research oriented clincial psychologists still do resesrch with psych populations (i.e., clincial trials), even though they are not treating them clinically. So I think interpersonal skills are equally as important in both clincial and research work. However, I would not necessarily make the mistake of assuming the clincial psychology Ph.D. programs are more social, or more "warm and fuzzy" than experimental programs. Generally, they are not.

 

[KillerDiller]

Is clinical psychology more interpersonal interaction-oriented as opposed to research-oriented? What is the typical lifestyle like?
I think I'll head over to the career center on Monday to see if they can offer any insight

The lifestyle in clinical psych grad school involves 60-80 hour work weeks and can accurately be described as "brutal"...but if you catch me in a better mood when I don't have presentations and papers coming due I may tell you differently.

 

[thewesternsky]

The lifestyle in clinical psych grad school involves 60-80 hour work weeks and can accurately be described as "brutal"...but if you catch me in a better mood when I don't have presentations and papers coming due I may tell you differently.

And it's not much better in experimental psych programs, assuming you want to do well (i.e., publish). I'm eating dinner in front of my computer in the lab for the third night in a row right now. Okay, done venting (and done eating cold french fries, *sigh*), and back to prepping stimuli.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

The lifestyle in clinical psych grad school involves 60-80 hour work weeks and can accurately be described as "brutal"...but if you catch me in a better mood when I don't have presentations and papers coming due I may tell you differently.

Pretty much.

I have internship applications to finish, wrap up a conference presentation, write another app for a conference, prepare 3 lectures, and study for a pharma class....all in the next few days. And I'm done with my req. classes, research is signed off, and this is suppose to be a "lighter" schedule.