Psychology Degrees: Employment, Wage, and Career Trajectory Consequences

Psychology is a very popular undergraduate major. Examining wage data from a range of degree holders reveals much about the expected career trajectories of those with psychology degrees. First, regarding baccalaureates, psychology and other liberal arts graduates—compared with those from certain pre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Perspectives on Psychological Science 2011-07, Vol.6 (4), p.321-335
Main Authors: Rajecki, D. W., Borden, Victor M. H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic degrees
Arts
Bachelors degrees
Biological and medical sciences
Career counseling
Careers
College graduates
Counseling
Employability
Employment
Falls
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Health psychology
Job hunting
Liberal arts education
Masters degrees
Men
Occupational psychology
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Salaries
Salary
Social psychology
Underemployment
Undergraduate students
Wages
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Summary:Psychology is a very popular undergraduate major. Examining wage data from a range of degree holders reveals much about the expected career trajectories of those with psychology degrees. First, regarding baccalaureates, psychology and other liberal arts graduates—compared with those from certain preprofessional and technical undergraduate programs—generally fall in relatively low tiers of salary levels at both starting and later career points. Salary levels among baccalaureate alumni groups correlate with averaged measures of salary satisfaction, repeated job seeking, and perceptions of underemployment. These patterns seem to stem from the specific occupational categories (job titles) entered by graduates in psychology compared with other graduates, calling into question the employability advantage of so-called generic liberal arts skills. Second, psychology master's degree holders also generally fall in a low tier of salary among their science, engineering, and health counterparts. Third, psychology college faculty (including instructors) fall in low tiers of salary compared with their colleagues from other academic fields. Such broadly based indications of the relative economic disadvantages of psychology degrees have implications for career counseling in the field.
ISSN:1745-6916
1745-6924
DOI:10.1177/1745691611412385