Psychology Researcher

[4EverBluDevils]

Do you need a PhD to be a psychology researcher, or will a Masters do? Also, can I get my degree from an online school if it's research instead of therapy or do I need to go to a brick and mortar school?

Thanks!

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[WisNeuro]

Any kind of decent academic researcher job is going to require a PHD. Unless you're content being a lab coordinator type of position and topping out at a pretty low salary. Also, an online degree is still pretty useless for a research degree. What kind of hands on research opportunities and publication opportunities can an online degree offer you? If you don't have a solid publication record in grad school, you will not be able to get a good research job. You'll need the resources (IRB, subject pool, infrastructure) that a B&M has. Online degrees are only good for giving you a useless piece of paper that costs you 6 figures and harms your job prospects.

 

[Temperance]

By attending a brick and mortar school, you will be mentored by a professor who guides you in their lab as you do increasingly independent research. You might be left to your own devices in an online program. Even if you reached out to potential research mentors while attending an online school, academic researchers will wonder why you didn't go to a traditional program (e.g., not good enough to be admitted, questionable judgment).

 

[Ollie123]

There are settings where you can do psych-type research with a master's (e.g. behavioral neuroscience working in pharma, IO, certain "industry" research giants like RTI, RAND, etc.). This is generally not going to be what people typically think of when they think of psych research (e.g. animal lab work for big pharma, "program evaluation" of state public health campaigns). There is also the CRC route. In all cases though, the experience as someone with a master's is almost universally going to be very different from someone with a doctorate. There are always exceptions, but you will almost never be running the show, setting the agenda, etc. and will be more a mid-level manager type. Far less (often zero) control over what you research.

There is virtually no point in an online doctorate or master's. It is as likely to close doors as it is to open them.