Your Guide to High-Demand Psychology Careers

So you’ve decided to major in psychology, but what exactly do you plan to do after you graduate? Competition for many jobs has increased dramatically and in order to compete in today’s market, it pays to carefully consider your career options and select a field that is in high demand. One exercise you may find helpful is to look through a list of psychology careers to see what your options are and then narrow down the list to those in which you are most interested in.

There are also lots of career paths in psychology beyond some of the “typical” options such as clinical or counseling psychology. In fact, some of the most interesting job options might be those that you do not hear much about such as aviation psychology or traffic psychology.

Obviously, the best job is the one that you truly love, whether it involves providing therapy, conducting research, or solving real-world problems. Before you decide on a career, spend some time thinking about what really interests you and the type of work setting you would most likely enjoy.

As of 2019, the demand for psychologists is expected to grow by 14 percent through the year 2026.

While this is not a comprehensive list of every single psychology career out there, the following are just a few of the psychology-related jobs that have a strong projected employment outlook or are considered an up-and-coming field with opportunity for growth.

We highlight a few of these careers to help convey the enormous variety of employment opportunities within the field of psychology. Some of these career options are specifically in psychology while others are less related but still rely on the knowledge and skills acquired while earning a psychology degree.

Psychology Careers

Consider some of these options as you plan your career path.

Art Therapist

Art therapists utilize the expressive and creative arts to help clients cope with psychological distress and to enhance emotional well-being. People who work in this field are trained in both psychotherapy and art. By using art, clients can communicate feelings, express creativity, explore different aspects, of personality, and cope with stress.

Art therapy is often used in a variety of situations, including:

• Adults suffering from chronic or severe stress¹
• Children with disabilities
• People who have suffered brain injuries
• People who have witnessed or experienced a traumatic event ²

Aviation Psychologist

Aviation psychology is a relatively little-known sub-specialty area of human factors psychology that involves the study of pilots, air traffic controllers, and other flight crew members. People who work in this field perform a number of different duties, which may include:

• Evaluating prospective employees
• Designing flight decks
• Selecting and training pilots
• Assessing cabin safety
• Investigating aviation accidents
• Conducting research on aviation safety
• Training flight crews in communication strategies and ways to assist passengers with in-flight anxiety

Career or Vocational Counselor

Thanks to the rapidly changing job market, many people are searching for a new job in their chosen field or even changing careers entirely. Career counselors help individuals make career decisions and utilize tools including personality assessments,³ interest inventories, and other evaluation measures.

They often start by looking at a client’s interests, job history, education, and skills in order to determine which careers are a good match. They also help clients work on building skills, practicing interviews, improving resumes, and locating job openings. Assisting clients who are dealing with job loss or employment-related stress is also common.

Clinical Psychologist

Clinical psychologists assess, diagnose and treat clients suffering from psychological disorders. These professionals typically work in hospital settings, mental health clinics, or private practices.

Clinical psychology is the single largest employment area within psychology, but there are still plenty of jobs available for qualified professionals. In order to become a clinical psychologist, you must have a doctoral-level degree in clinical psychology and most states require a minimum of a one-year internship.⁴ Most graduate school programs in clinical psychology are fairly competitive.

Consumer Psychologist

As retailers and businesses become more concerned with attracting new customers, the need for psychologists to research consumer behavior and to develop effective marketing campaigns has grown. Consumer psychologists not only study how and why people purchase goods and services, they also analyze how family, friends, culture, and media messages affect buying behavior.

Some tasks that a consumer psychologist might perform include:

• Working with consumer focus groups to determine how appealing a particular product might be⁵
• Developing advertising and marketing campaigns to appeal to a target audience
• Conducting theoretical research on shopping and buying behavior

Counselor

Counselors help people with a wide variety of problems, including marriage, family, emotional, educational, and substance abuse issues. While requirements vary, almost all states require at least a master’s degree in order to become a licensed counselor. Typical work settings include K-12 schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, mental health clinics, and private practice offices.

Engineering Psychologist

Engineering psychologists use psychology to investigate how people interact with machines and other technology. These professionals use their understanding of the human mind and behavior to help design and improve technology, consumer products, work settings, and living environments.

For example, an engineering psychologist might work as part of a team to redesign a product to make it more efficient and easier to use in a work situation. Those working in academic settings report the lowest earnings, while those working in the private sector report higher salaries.⁶

Experimental Psychologist

Do you love creating psychology experiments? Experimental psychologists use scientific methods and design research studies that explore many different topics within psychology. Social behavior, cognitive processes, personality, and human development are just a few of the topics that experimental psychologists might investigate.

People working in this field often specialize in a particular area such as cognitive psychology, educational psychology, or personality psychology. They may also be employed in a variety of settings ranging from universities, government agencies, research centers, and nonprofit organizations.

Forensic or Criminal Psychologist

Forensic psychologists apply psychology to the fields of criminal investigation and law. This has rapidly become one of the hottest psychology careers thanks to numerous portrayals in popular movies, television programs, and books.

While the field may not be as glamorous as it is depicted in the media, forensic psychology is still an exciting career choice with a lot of potential for growth. Forensic psychologists often work with other experts to resolve child custody disputes, scrutinize insurance claims, perform child custody evaluations, and investigate suspected child abuse.

If you are interested in this area of psychology, you might want to also consider the related field of criminal psychology. Criminal psychologists perform a variety of duties such as developing psychological profiles of criminal suspects, assessing convicted criminals to determine their risk of re-offending, and helping law enforcement catch online predators.

Genetics Counselor

Genetics counselors help provide information about genetic disorders to couples and families. These professionals typically have graduate training in both genetics and counseling, and many have undergraduate degrees in areas such as psychology, social work, biology, nursing, and public health.

Genetics counselors often work with a team of medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, and geneticists to offer support, guidance, and assistance to families who have a family member with a genetic disorder or who may be at risk of passing down an inherited disorder to their offspring.

Geropsychologist

As the population of older adults continues to grow, the demand for professionals to attend to their mental health needs also increases. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by the year 2030, 21 percent of the population will be age 65 or older.⁷

“Geropsychologists do everything from keeping older adults mentally and physically healthy and vibrant to working with those who are frail and have cognitive impairments,” explains Deborah DiGilio, director of APA’s Office on Aging, in an article for the APA’s Monitor on Psychology. Geropsychologists can work in a wide range of areas, from providing mental health services to aging adults to designing products that make life easier for the elderly.

Health Psychologist

Health psychologists are focused on helping people to live healthier lives. They study how psychological, biological, and social factors influence health. Two important areas of health psychology include helping people avoid illness and promoting healthy behaviors. Educating people about the causes of illness and teaching healthier habits are just two things that a health psychologist might do on a regular basis.

These professionals often work in settings such as hospitals, universities, health care centers, and government agencies. Some of the job duties they may perform include helping people to lose weight, stop smoking, eat healthily, and decrease stress.

Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

Industrial-organizational psychologists focus on workplace behavior, often using psychological principles to increase worker productivity and select employees that are best-suited for particular jobs. There are several different specialty areas within industrial-organizational psychology. For example, some I-O psychologists train and assess employees, while others evaluate job candidates. While there are some job opportunities at the masters degree level, those with a doctoral-level degree in industrial-organizational psychology are in greater demand and command significantly higher salaries.

One sub-specialty area of the field involves working in human resources management to screen and hire job applicants. These professionals are often involved in designing and administering employment screening tests and selecting job candidates that are the best fit for particular positions within a company.

School Psychologist

School psychologists work in educational settings to help children deal with emotional, academic, and social problems. Thanks to increased interest in the mental health of children and federal education legislation, school psychology has rapidly become one of the fastest growing fields.⁸

Special Education Teacher

While slightly outside of a traditional psychology career, the field of special education offers a great deal of opportunity for those who enjoy helping children. Special education teachers work with students with a variety of disabilities. In order to become a special education teacher, you must have at least a bachelor’s degree and complete a teacher training program in special education. Because of the increased enrollments in special education programs and a shortage of qualified teachers, job demand is strong and expected to grow.

Sports Psychologist

Sports psychologists focus on the psychological aspects of sports and athletics, including topics such as motivation, performance, and injury. The two major areas within sports psychology are centered on helping to improve athletic performance or using sports to improve mental and physical health. Sports psychologists work in a wide variety of settings including universities, hospitals, athletic centers, private consulting practices, and research facilities.

Traffic Psychologist

Traffic psychology is an emerging field that involves applying psychological principles to understanding driver behavior. Some areas in this field include:

• Studying the relationship between driver behavior and traffic accidents
• Designing vehicles that are safer and more ergonomic
• Searching for ways to improve traffic safety and prevent auto accidents
• Researching how people use transportation

Traffic psychology often involves a multidisciplinary approach, combining fields such as social psychology, behavioral psychology, and cognitive psychology. For example, traffic psychologists might assess how perception and cognition influence performance during a driving task. They might also look at how individual personality affects a driver’s emotions, attitudes, and risk-taking behavior while driving.

More Psychology Career Options

Did one of the careers highlighted above catch your eye? Or are you still looking for something that matches your interests and goals? After earning your psychology degree, the specific career you pursue will depend largely on your educational background. Some entry-level jobs are open to those with an undergraduate degree in psychology, while others require advanced or graduate-level study.

The following are just some of the many psychology-related job titles that you might want to explore. Some are directly in the field of psychology, while others require additional training in another field or specialty area.

In either case, having a solid understanding of the human mind and behavior can be beneficial in any of these careers.

Based upon this list of psychology careers, you can see that employment opportunities can be quite diverse. Some careers require only a bachelor’s degree in psychology, while others will require more advanced degrees such as a master’s or doctorate. Spend some time researching different options and learn more about what you will have to do to enter those fields. Ask yourself if you have the commitment and resources to pursue the educational training you will need.

What to Consider Before Choosing a Career in Psychology

As you examine the variety of psychology careers that are available, think about some of the following questions.

• How well does the career fit your personality?
• What kind of training and education are required to enter the field?
• Are the average salaries in a particular field satisfactory?
• What kinds of things do people in that particular career path do on a daily basis?
• Does the career sound interesting, challenging and rewarding?

Finding the right career in psychology takes some careful planning. It is important to start thinking about what you might want to do early on. This way you can start planning your educational map in order to achieve your vocational goals.