Bachelors In Psychology

A Bachelors In Psychology focuses on several psychological topics such as human development, abnormal psychology, childhood psychology, adolescent psychology, brain and behavior, cognitive psychology, emotion and motivation, beginning statistics, general psychology, social psychology, neuropsychology and environmental psychology.

This is by no means an exhaustive list as there are many facets of psychology.

You can see from this list that after acquiring a bachelors in psychology degree, the student would have a good foundation of why people behave and respond the way they do and some of the internal processes involved in emotion and behavior. Once you understand the type of training a bachelors in psychology degree entails, you may begin to identify careers in which this degree would be useful.

First of all, a bachelors in psychology would be useful for any type of career involving working with people. This does not mean, however, that a bachelors in psychology degree would allow one to work in any field. For example, a bachelors in psychology would be helpful for anyone working in the nursing profession, but that person would also need a nursing degree. In that case, the bachelors in psychology degree would not be an end in itself but a foundation for additional training.

Any type of teacher would do well to take classes on the age and stage of development of their teaching population but to be a teacher, he or she would need a teaching license as well. Therefore, let's look at some careers that do not require any additional college education outside of the bachelors in psychology degree.

Bachelors In Psychology - Advocacy

There are several types of advocacy jobs in which a bachelors in psychology would be essential. The first that comes to mind is that of being a victims advocate. A victim's advocate is an individual that works in the legal system and provides support for victims of crimes such as assault, domestic violence, rape, etc.

A victim's advocate helps by referring victims to appropriate programs that can meet their needs such as mental health counseling, government housing/shelters, food stamps, and victims reparations. Victim's advocates also work with lawyers to make sure victims needs and desires are being met as best as possible through any court trials or hearings. If victims are required to testify in court, victims advocates attend also to provide emotional support. Victim's advocates may also ask victims to write statements for the court process.

Another type of advocacy career that a bachelors in psychology degree would be useful for is advocating for those with disabilities such as brain injury or other mental difficulties. It can be very hard for people with disabilities to make sure their bills are being paid and that their basic needs are being met.

An advocate for this population may help by setting up a payee and advocating such that these people with disabilities are placed in a living situation that meets their specific needs with the least necessary assistance from others. These advocates also watch for signs that people with disabilities may be being taken advantage of or abused. If the advocate finds out that they are being abused, the advocate would report this because they are required to report any abuse by others to a vulnerable adult.

Other Career Options with a Bachelors In Psychology

Other types of careers open to a bachelors in psychology degree graduate are in residential treatment and or crisis treatment. People with these careers do not provide mental health counseling per se but they help individuals in crisis. Similar to victim advocacy, a person in this career advocate for individuals by helping them have family meetings to resolve the crisis, referring the patients for out-treatment, filling out paperwork such as disability or social security and applying for benefits through other available community resources.

A bachelors in psychology degree graduate may work with children, adolescents or adults in these crisis situations. They may also work on crisis hotlines.

Many of the above careers are types of case-management. Other careers that involve case-management and working with people are also options for students with a bachelors in psychology degree. Some examples of careers that involve case-management are the division of child protective services, vocational rehabilitation, and government agencies that offer programs such as heat and food assistance. A bachelors in psychology degree allows a person to teach parenting classes and/or other classes as needed. Case-management also entails helping people create goals and plans for the future.

There are many more careers available (and maybe you even want to explore graduate psychology schools for a PhD or MS) psychology schools for to someone with a bachelors in psychology. Go look around. Ask lots of questions and don't sell yourself short. You do not have to wait to work in the psychology field until you have education past a bachelors in psychology degree.