Hey guys, Welcome to The Poor School website. It seems to be a great decision you are willing to make a career in the psychology industry.
To give their best, our team have made discussions with experts, college faculty, and working professionals and analyzed various data sources; they have prepared a roadmap for How to become a psychologist.
It’s our request; if you are serious about becoming a psychologist, kindly follow the steps below. And most importantly, in each step, we have highlighted key points. Those points help you to make right decisions.
Steps to become a Psychologist
1. Small Encyclopedia of Psychologist
The psychologist provides treatment to patients with mental health problems such as grief, addiction, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and many more. For this, they organize various sessions to evoke patients from their problems.
Whole psychology treatment evolved around calculations which include analysis and statistics. To evaluate the improvement of the patient, they involve them in assessment. Apart from this, they discuss treatment with family members and friends of patients.
Being a licensed psychologist, they are not allowed to prescribe medication to their patients.
Average Pay for Psychologists
In terms of salary, psychologists hit the mark compared to the other professions; the average wage for a psychologist is $ 105,000. In the below map, you can see the highest paying states for psychologists.
Job Outlook for Psychologists
As per the BLS report, 6% job growth is projected between the decade 2021 to 2031. If you found the reason behind this job growth, you will see –
- The psychologist is a diversified career; it is demanded in tech companies, schools, hospitals, and government agencies for various roles, such as a counselor, business analyst, etc.
- As per MHA National Report, about 10 percent of youth in America have severe depression. To overcome this problem, our nation wants more professional psychologists.
Different Types of Licenses, Degrees and Career Options in Psychology
In Psychology, there are various career options, and each career option is associated with a particular degree and license. For newbies, it’s essential to know about them so they can make their career choice wisely. In the below infographics, we have mapped down complete information related to degrees and licenses –
Skills needed to become a Psychologist
To become a psychologist, one must have these skills with education requirements. Each skill specifies its role in becoming a good psychologist –
- Interpersonal skills
- Communication skills
- Patience
- Trustworthiness
- Empathy
- Critical thinking skills
Education requirements to be a Psychologist
To become a licensed Psychologist, one needs to have a doctoral degree. And before getting admitted to a doctorate in psychology, you must have below degrees –
Earn a bachelor’s degree
This undergraduate degree takes four years to complete. We recommend that one choose psychology as a major in their undergrad degree; making this choice helps you fulfill the prerequisites of various grad schools and enables you to acknowledge the basics of psychology.
Earn a master’s degree
Under two years of master’s degree in psychology, you will get various choices to specialize in particular areas such as counseling, marriage, and family. And after completing of master’s degree in psychology, you can also become licensed with L.P.C, L.C.S.W, and L.M.F.T and get a job in junior positions.
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Some doctoral program universities do not demand a master’s program, but most request one so checks the doctoral program after completing your undergrad studies.
Enrol in a doctoral degree program
After completing of bachelor’s degree and master’s degree, now it’s time to get admitted to the doctoral program in psychology. There is various doctoral program in psychology. Each has its specification, and all of them help you become a licensed psychologist. It depends on your choice which doctorate you will prefer –
Ph.D. in Psychology
PsyD in Psychology
In this doctoral program, you will be more specified towards research, which includes data analysis, standards for a particular test, and modulating data in different forms.
Time Period – 5 to 7 years
Jobs – Business Consultant, Health Service Administrator, Faculty Member.
Under this degree, you will emphasize counseling rather than research. In this degree, you will be working directly with people. With this degree, you can work as a clinical psychologist.
Time Period – 4 to 6 years
Jobs – Clinical Psychologist, Industry – Organizational Psychologist, Behavioural Psychologist, and Counselling Psychologist.
Ph.D. in Psychology
In this doctoral program, you will be more specified towards research, which includes data analysis, standards for a particular test, and modulating data in different forms.
Time Period – 5 to 7 years
Jobs – Business Consultant, Health Service Administrator, Faculty Member.
PsyD in Psychology
Under this degree, you will emphasize counseling rather than research. In this degree, you will be working directly with people. With this degree, you can work as a clinical psychologist.
Time Period – 4 to 6 years
Jobs – Clinical Psychologist, Industry – Organizational Psychologist, Behavioural Psychologist, and Counselling Psychologist.
EdS in Psychology
Under this degree, you will be working upcoming future of the nation, which means school students. This program teaches you to conduct evaluation, assessment, and evidence-based interventions.
Time Period – 3 years
Jobs – School Psychologist
EdD in Psychology
Under this degree, you will learn about improving school system outcomes.
Time Period – 3 to 5 years
Jobs – Survey researcher, education administrator, chief academic officer.
EdD in Psychology
EdS in Psychology
Under this degree, you will learn about improving school system outcomes.
Time Period – 3 to 5 years
Jobs – Survey researcher, education administrator, chief academic officer.
Under this degree, you will be working upcoming future of the nation, which means school students. This program teaches you to conduct evaluation, assessment, and evidence-based interventions.
Time Period – 3 years
Jobs – School Psychologist
Training to become a Psychologist
It is one of the essential segments of a psychologist career. Most universities include a supervised practicum in their curriculum; you will be working under your mentor or supervisor and learning the implementation of techniques.
Now comes another important part, the internship. Most states require approx. 1500 hours to 2000 hours of internship under a licensed psychologist.
In an internship, you will work independently compared to a supervised practicum, making you feel more confident and responsible.
This combination of supervising practicum and internship builds a strong foundation of field experience in psychology.
License Exam
Now it’s time to reconcile all the documents, which include all the degrees, supervised practicum, and internship working hours documents.
After getting ready all your documents, you have to choose which state you would prefer to work. Some states, along with Licensure exam Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP). They have other prerequisites as well.
For example – In California, along with EPPP, you must give the California Psychology Law and Ethics Examination (CPLEE). It’s better to check psychology state boards’ complete prerequisites and procedures.
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It’s better to choose the state before getting the EPPP exam for licensure.
Frequently Asked Questions
It takes about 8 to 12 years, depending on the degrees you pursue.
If you wan to become licensed psychologist, you need to have doctorate degree
Yes, psychologist earn good money, average salary of psychologist is approx, $ 93,459.
It takes two years to complete masters in psychology.
Yes, as per BLS reports, in upcoming decade 2021 to 2031, 6 percent job growth is found for psychologist.
