Professional School Psychology

Psychology is the study of how people behave and how the mind works. Few fields open as many doors. The specializations run wide, yet they share one basic aim: to make sense of some corner of human activity and ease the problems that show up there. Most people in the field lean toward either hands-on practice or research, and you'll find them scattered across very different workplaces. Where someone lands often depends on their specialty. Clinics, schools and research labs are common, but psychologists also turn up in law offices, newsrooms, sports organizations and forensic work.

No two psychology programs teach the subject the same way. Each school weights the curriculum differently and brings its own philosophy to the classroom. That makes it worth slowing down before you commit. Ask for a course catalog and read through what the department actually offers, course by course. And confirm one thing that students sometimes overlook until it's too late: whether the program satisfies your state's requirements for licensing or certification in the area you plan to enter.

Broadly, the discipline splits into basic and applied science. On the basic side you get areas like social, abnormal, experimental and cultural psychology. The applied side gathers up clinical, occupational and health work, among others.

Underneath those two headings sit a staggering number of sub-fields, covering just about any topic you could name. Some researchers work within experimental branches such as developmental, perceptual, emotional or social psychology. Others carve out tiny, specific niches: mathematical psychology, ecological psychology, even traffic psychology. Among the more familiar or widely practiced areas are behavioral medicine, cognitive psychology and psychotherapy.

Because the sub-disciplines vary so much, so do their educational requirements. Someone who likes untangling practical, real-world problems might be a good fit for human factors or industrial/organizational psychology, for instance. So the choice of major really comes back to you. Think carefully about what holds your interest and what kind of work you want to be doing before you settle on a direction.