I am a junior in college studying psychology. I have been studying psychology ever since the second semester of college and I absolutely love it and have always planned on going to graduate school to obtain a masters in a specific psych field. The only problem is, I am graduating in three semesters… I need to take the GREs this winter and start looking into graduate programs but since I haven’t found my niche yet, I don’t know what kind of program to look for. For a while I was very interested in school psychology, but after taking an educational psychology and theories of learning class, I realized it wasn’t for me. Next semester I am taking a research course and I had always planned on choosing a topic related to the field I wanted to earn a masters in, because the independent study would show my true interest in it. But now I have no idea what to do. I’m lost, does anyone have advice? I know for a fact I want to continue my education in psychology, I just don’t know which field of psych. Thank you
First, there are only 3 kinds of Master’s degrees that follow graduating with a Psyc Major.
MSW- Master’s in Social Work
MFT- Master’s in Family Therapy
and IO – Master’s in Industrial Organizational Psyc.
You can have a focus (race and ethnicity, gender studies, LGBT Studies, etc etc within the first 2 Master’s programs).
I guarantee that if you have an MSW you will never be without a job but note that this is government paid job. Most of the time you will work for the state or city. MFT will usually lead people into becoming therapists.
I would go with MSW with focus in child development. There are a lot issues surrounding child abuse/ child abandonment/ and correctional issues with children. This field can also work on educational techniques, child development, ethnic relations (depending your location and job type).
Hope this helped!