Why psychology might not be the subject of students’ dreams

• I have very vivid dreams and I want to find out what they mean.
• My friends always ask my advice about their relationships, so I think I’m good at psychology.
• I feel stressed about my studies and studying psychology will help me to deal with this.
• If I could read people’s minds, I would become more successful.
• I’ll be a better sportsperson if I am aware of the mind games that my opponents use.
• It will help me track down serial killers when I join the police force.

These, and numerous others, are not good reasons to choose to study psychology at university.

Getting psyched up

As university counsellors, we have probably all had conversations with our students about the differences between psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and other courses or jobs beginning with “psych”.

If a student is thinking about studying, for example, engineering, then they are likely to have an interest in specific subjects such as physics and mathematics, or at least an awareness that these are a part of the course. By contrast, everyone has some level of personal experience of ideas that come under the “psychology” umbrella, through their own relationships, thinking processes, feelings and motivations.

There is therefore more of a need to unravel what studying psychology at university involves and how it differs from, say, doing a personality quiz on TikTok, watching Inside Out 2 or wondering what a recurring dream about getting lost in the supermarket really means.

Psychology: looking beneath the surface

First and foremost, psychology is a science, and so some appreciation of the role of experimental methods and analysis of results is important. While it is possible to study psychology as a bachelor of arts (BA) subject as well as a bachelor of science (BSc), there will be a mathematical element to both courses.

Second, studying psychology at degree level doesn’t lead directly to a job as a “psychologist”. Most jobs within the field of psychology – things like child psychology, sports psychology and clinical psychology – require some further training or study.

Moreover, there is often confusion between psychology and psychiatry. The latter is a clinical subject that is a specialism gained through studying medicine, rather than via a psychology degree.

As with so many other potential courses of study, a good starting point for students is to look in more detail about what is covered in a psychology degree, and at what options and routes are available. University websites will also have case histories of their graduating students and will often offer links to chat with current psychology students.

A typical BSc psychology degree will involve classes in research methods and data analysis, cognitive, behavioural and developmental psychology, and health and clinical psychology, with options such as neuroscience, linguistics and human-computer interaction.

Studying psychology as a BA will cover the same broad areas as the science route, but the focus will be less on topics related to biology, medicine and mathematics and more on things like human development, language and human interaction. While this is a simplification, students who go down the BA route are often interested in careers in law, human resources, market research, teaching and social work rather than those that revolve around clinical or health issues.

For those who find it hard to make up their minds or like to think outside the box, there are also numerous joint honours degrees (pairing psychology with subjects as diverse as art, business, criminology and philosophy) and double degree options, which broaden the range of careers and pathways available.

Positive psychology

I began this piece with reasons not to study psychology, but there are some very good reasons why psychology, with its blend of science and arts, lends itself to a whole range of careers that might or might not have “psychology” in the title.

Alongside some of the careers mentioned in this article, psychology graduates go on to work in areas such as:

• Counselling psychology
• Mental-health practitioner
• Forensic psychology
• Health psychology
• Occupational psychology
• Social research
• Neuroscience
• Art therapy
• Marketing
• Media

In summary, psychology degrees offer great opportunities and flexibility for open-minded students who have interests across a range of subjects and disciplines.

And psychology can lead to a wide range of jobs – the jobs of their dreams, but not jobs about dreams – but they need to do their research first.

Useful resources

Careers in psychology

Studying psychology at university

Jobs after studying psychology

How to become a psychologist (video)