Career Trends: August 29, 2024
Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Content Credit:
- Article by Sandeep Pereira, published on upgrad.com. Original article link.
There is no getting around the fact that psychology is one of the most important fields of our time. After centuries of studies involving not only experiments but also philosophical evaluations and reevaluations, psychology is a field that straddles both the scientific and the intuitive. Earlier psychology was mostly academia-oriented, but years of experiments and research has made psychology both scientific and conducive.
Whether you’ve been considering psychology as a career option and are wondering what kind of career will suit you best, or you’ve already started a career in a certain stream and want to see what kind of growth opportunities are available for you.
What is Psychology?
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behaviour. A psychologist examines the functioning of a brain and the associated human behaviour. The process of healing is not rapid but gradual.
Mental awareness has increased, and so have careers in psychology. Projected to grow at the rate of 14% year-on-year, psychology is a field that will always see tremendous growth because it helps to understand what causes problems in people in the first place, not just in solving them.
It is a field that will keep growing as it solves more significant problems like decision-making, stress management, and behavioural issues.
Here are the 10 most in-demand and popular jobs in Psychology:
1. Psychiatrist
- Requiring a very specific trajectory during the educational stage, a psychiatrist has the important responsibility of assigning people diagnoses (based on their evaluations) and making sure that they get the proper medicines.
- Psychiatry is not restricted to a clinic; rather everywhere, such as pediatric psychiatrists, geriatric psychiatrists, forensic psychiatrists, military psychiatrists, sports psychiatrists, etc.
- Usually, a psychiatrist is also well-versed in certain forms of counselling or therapy, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
- To become a licensed psychiatrist, you have to finish an undergraduate degree in medical school and then do an MPhil from an RCI-licensed college to be able to call yourself a psychiatrist.
2. Industrial/Organisational Psychologist
- Given that a big chunk of the workforce is occupied across industries where there is little to no emotional support to be found for the various workers.
- A healthy work environment comes from the culture; if the work culture is toxic, it creates stress in the business and the employees.
- The task of industrial and organisational psychologists is to make sure that the structures within which workers are operating can be attuned in a way so that it works out in the favour of both the companies as well as the people involved.
- Creating a healthy balance between the organisation’s productivity and the workforce requires tremendous skills and mindfulness.
- The path to becoming an organisational/industrial psychologist typically involves doing at least a master’s in organisational psychology, with a doctorate degree being optional.
3. Neuropsychologist
- Neuropsychology is a field that goes into the depth of the psychology of the brain.
- A neuropsychologist looks not just at typical psychological indicators that other psychologists use as a reference point.
- Their speciality lies in having a thorough understanding of all the different parts of the brain and how they respond to various stimuli – for instance, which part of the brain isn’t functioning well when someone says they are sad, or which part of the brain produces the feeling of euphoria when one feels a sense of excitement.
- Owing to the fact that neuropsychologists can work with complex brain chemistry, they often work with pharmaceutical companies as advisors to their many medicines.
4. School Counsellor/Psychologist
- School Psychologists work within the educational ecosystem to diagnose and treat the emotional, learning, and behavioural problems in children, faculty, or management.
- A School Counsellor/ Psychologist offers relief to everyone involved and ensures the smooth functioning of the school.
- They make a significant impact on their student’s careers and form a lasting relationship with them.
- Becoming a School Counsellor/ Psychologist is a straight career path; gain some specialisation after a Master’s degree.
5. Clinical Psychologist
- A clinical psychologist, much like a psychiatrist, understands all the conditions in which a mental disorder can present itself within a person.
- A clinical psychologist diagnoses, and evaluate mental, emotional, or behavioural disorders, and offer treatment in a clinic or hospital.
- Because of the far reaching implications of this profession, it’s one of the most popular roles within the field of psychology, and has the most number of jobs on offer as well.
6. Forensic Psychologist
- Forensic psychologists specialise in psychology as it overlaps with the field of criminality and all things related to it.
- Forensic Psychology involves the application of knowledge to answer legal questions arising from legal or criminal proceedings.
- They play a very significant role in the rehabilitation system, to make the criminals reflect on their actions and prepare them to lead a normal life.
- They are also responsible to make sure that the people are psychologically profiled to assess if they are fit to go back into society.
7. Counselling Psychologist
- Counselling psychologists are experts in making people come face to face with their problems and offering them solutions that can be of help to them in the immediate short term.
- They help people to improve their well beings, prevent and alleviate distress.
- Counselling offers insight into behaviours that psychiatry or clinical psychology won’t. It is preferable to pair them together in order to get great results.
- This insight can then be used to further delve deeper into any “concern areas”.
- The insights help better understand the pain points which one might focus upon like relationships, career, work, hobbies, etc.
8. Sports Psychologist
- Sports psychologists are psychologists who understand not only the human mind but also the human body – they understand how they interact with each other on and off the field.
- A sports psychologist is someone who, ideally, has already gone through the motions of various sports training rituals themselves, and therefore understands the specific toll that it takes on both one’s mind and body.
- They make sure the mental well-being of athletes impacts their performance, behaviour, and health of athletes.
9. Education Psychologist
- An education psychologist fills any possible gaps that are left behind within the schooling system in so far as the education of a student is concerned.
- An education psychologist makes sure that a child’s intellectual growth is taken care of.
- Often, a school system doesn’t allow for certain minds to grow at the rate that they will grow the best – and this is where an educational psychologist will be far more helpful than a school psychologist or counsellor.
10. Child Psychologist
- Children face a lot of challenges as they grow up, and parents may not always be in the best position to be able to deal with all of those issues.
- A child psychologist focuses on the well-being of the children, keeping their mental health safe.
- Child Psychology scope in India is huge with mental health awareness.
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(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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