Why is psychology by far the most common social science/humanities major?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people who study psych are looking to fix something in themselves.

+1
or understand themselves....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking at this list, psychology is far ahead of the others:

Psychology 103,801
Political science 33,845
English 32,098
Economics 29,275
Sociology 27,294
History 23,382
Anthropology 8,227
Philosophy 5,644

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shocking stats. We hear so much here about humanities majors who thrived in the business world, but nothing about Psych majors that did. I never heard a colleague in 30 years at a Fortune 10 company who admitted to being a Psych major. Pray tell about some famous Psych major captains of industry.

I work in marketing research and know a lot of psychology majors. And I routinely hire interns for my departments and they are probably psych majors about half the time. Higher job levels, yes, probably have an MBA or other advanced degrees related to the field (I do, with a marketing undergrad). But a psych major with good stats classes and research methods is a good start for marketing research jobs at research firms, ad agencies, and in-house.

market research is one of the lowest paid professions in marketing.

-signed a former market research major who learned how to code instead

I make the same salary as my software engineering DH so it's worked out fine for me.

keyword. Look at the statistics. As a market researcher, you should be a numbers person.

DP: The PP only made a claim about themselves. If we all went by statistics, we would all end up in the same jobs and the statistics would change. In my view, the more meaningful information is do you see a path forward with your particular set of strengths/connections/situation to the work and salary you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at this list, psychology is far ahead of the others:

Psychology 103,801
Political science 33,845
English 32,098
Economics 29,275
Sociology 27,294
History 23,382
Anthropology 8,227
Philosophy 5,644

Why?

Isn't that obvious? It's easy and girls go into it. We're not talking astrophysics here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shocking stats. We hear so much here about humanities majors who thrived in the business world, but nothing about Psych majors that did. I never heard a colleague in 30 years at a Fortune 10 company who admitted to being a Psych major. Pray tell about some famous Psych major captains of industry.

I work in marketing research and know a lot of psychology majors. And I routinely hire interns for my departments and they are probably psych majors about half the time. Higher job levels, yes, probably have an MBA or other advanced degrees related to the field (I do, with a marketing undergrad). But a psych major with good stats classes and research methods is a good start for marketing research jobs at research firms, ad agencies, and in-house.

market research is one of the lowest paid professions in marketing.

-signed a former market research major who learned how to code instead

I make the same salary as my software engineering DH so it's worked out fine for me.

keyword. Look at the statistics. As a market researcher, you should be a numbers person.

DP: The PP only made a claim about themselves. If we all went by statistics, we would all end up in the same jobs and the statistics would change. In my view, the more meaningful information is do you see a path forward with your particular set of strengths/connections/situation to the work and salary you want.

Sure, you can follow your own path, but statistically, it's not going to lead you to a high paying job. We all live somewhat by statistics to some degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shocking stats. We hear so much here about humanities majors who thrived in the business world, but nothing about Psych majors that did. I never heard a colleague in 30 years at a Fortune 10 company who admitted to being a Psych major. Pray tell about some famous Psych major captains of industry.

I work in marketing research and know a lot of psychology majors. And I routinely hire interns for my departments and they are probably psych majors about half the time. Higher job levels, yes, probably have an MBA or other advanced degrees related to the field (I do, with a marketing undergrad). But a psych major with good stats classes and research methods is a good start for marketing research jobs at research firms, ad agencies, and in-house.

market research is one of the lowest paid professions in marketing.

-signed a former market research major who learned how to code instead

I make the same salary as my software engineering DH so it's worked out fine for me.

keyword. Look at the statistics. As a market researcher, you should be a numbers person.

DP: The PP only made a claim about themselves. If we all went by statistics, we would all end up in the same jobs and the statistics would change. In my view, the more meaningful information is do you see a path forward with your particular set of strengths/connections/situation to the work and salary you want.

Sure, you can follow your own path, but statistically, it's not going to lead you to a high paying job. We all live somewhat by statistics to some degree.

To some degree is the key point though. There are just often too many confounding factors. For instance, market research could be seen as one of the easier business majors (I don't actually know anything about market research as a field, I'm speaking hypothetically) so the low salary might be confounded with the fact that it on average tends to attract those who less driven or capable and couldn't cut it in accounting or analytics or whatever. But if you aren't similar to the average market research major, but really are drawn to market research, you're more likely to also be a higher earner. A field with average low pay could have a wider standard deviation and a higher ceiling than a field with a higher average pay--and if most of the people who major in your area are schlubs and you're not, you'll have a higher chance of attaining those higher levels.

[Anonymous]

Without reading majority of posts, I believe majoring in Psychology, often times, is due to a child/young person, not really knowing what they want to study or do in life. That's ok though, as it's normal. Many adults never figure it out either, prolly me included. I think it's interesting course work and can be applied to many occupations. We're all people, so whatever you pick up in your studies can/should help you along the way no matter your path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:40% of the courses even STEM students take are humanities. The idea that the only way to develop logic, critical reading, writing is by reading ancient history or psychology is nonsense. I am all for a good liberal arts education but colleges are already requiring even STEM students to take many of these classes. Do you need 120 credit hours studying humanities to understand humans and develop critical skills, like logic, critical reading, writing?

Maybe at Yale or Columbia that's true. I really doubt your IT major at some random state college is getting an extensive humanities education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shocking stats. We hear so much here about humanities majors who thrived in the business world, but nothing about Psych majors that did. I never heard a colleague in 30 years at a Fortune 10 company who admitted to being a Psych major. Pray tell about some famous Psych major captains of industry.

I work in marketing research and know a lot of psychology majors. And I routinely hire interns for my departments and they are probably psych majors about half the time. Higher job levels, yes, probably have an MBA or other advanced degrees related to the field (I do, with a marketing undergrad). But a psych major with good stats classes and research methods is a good start for marketing research jobs at research firms, ad agencies, and in-house.

market research is one of the lowest paid professions in marketing.

-signed a former market research major who learned how to code instead

I make the same salary as my software engineering DH so it's worked out fine for me.

keyword. Look at the statistics. As a market researcher, you should be a numbers person.

DP: The PP only made a claim about themselves. If we all went by statistics, we would all end up in the same jobs and the statistics would change. In my view, the more meaningful information is do you see a path forward with your particular set of strengths/connections/situation to the work and salary you want.

Sure, you can follow your own path, but statistically, it's not going to lead you to a high paying job. We all live somewhat by statistics to some degree.

To some degree is the key point though. There are just often too many confounding factors. For instance, market research could be seen as one of the easier business majors (I don't actually know anything about market research as a field, I'm speaking hypothetically) so the low salary might be confounded with the fact that it on average tends to attract those who less driven or capable and couldn't cut it in accounting or analytics or whatever. But if you aren't similar to the average market research major, but really are drawn to market research, you're more likely to also be a higher earner. A field with average low pay could have a wider standard deviation and a higher ceiling than a field with a higher average pay--and if most of the people who major in your area are schlubs and you're not, you'll have a higher chance of attaining those higher levels.

I'm the PP. I was a marketing major with a focus on research. I am more of a math-y person. I learned to code some years later, and that's when my pay really started to go up.

But for those who are not math-y, I think a BBA with a psych minor is better than a pure BBA with a market research focus. Way more marketable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School psychology is an in demand career and not very well-known. The public education system is certainly not selling itself as a desirable sector to enter right now, but (as a former teacher) work life balance is way better as a school psychologist than being a teacher. I'll never get rich but I'm satisfied with my pay ($90k) especially when considering the other masters-level careers I could've gotten in psychology (i.e., social worker, ABA therapist, etc.) or as a teacher. It's a 3 year program with your last year being a full time internship (some districts offer full pay, some a stipend, some unpaid...but fortunately that's becoming less common).

Clinical psych PhD programs are harder to get into in medical school, and generally the career isn't all that high paying given the amount of education required.

+1 I have worked in schools for over 20 years and school psychologist looks to be a pretty good gig.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychology is an in demand career and not very well-known. The public education system is certainly not selling itself as a desirable sector to enter right now, but (as a former teacher) work life balance is way better as a school psychologist than being a teacher. I'll never get rich but I'm satisfied with my pay ($90k) especially when considering the other masters-level careers I could've gotten in psychology (i.e., social worker, ABA therapist, etc.) or as a teacher. It's a 3 year program with your last year being a full time internship (some districts offer full pay, some a stipend, some unpaid...but fortunately that's becoming less common).

Clinical psych PhD programs are harder to get into in medical school, and generally the career isn't all that high paying given the amount of education required.

+1 I have worked in schools for over 20 years and school psychologist looks to be a pretty good gig.

its a terrible gig

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Psychology and sociology majors do worse on the LSAT and the GRE than other liberal arts and social science majors.

False I was a psych major and went to a T3. It's number five for majors getting into law school: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, psychology is among the top five majors overall, in addition to being a popular choice for pre-law students. Psychology provides the research and writing skills, analytical competency, and fundamental education in human behavior needed for law school.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot more psychologists than other social scientists and most (obviously) major in psychology. There's far more psychologists than professors of psychology, that's obviously not true for history, political science or sociology.

Plus there's masters degrees in counseling, most of whom go in with psych degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shocking stats. We hear so much here about humanities majors who thrived in the business world, but nothing about Psych majors that did. I never heard a colleague in 30 years at a Fortune 10 company who admitted to being a Psych major. Pray tell about some famous Psych major captains of industry.

I was a Psych major. I'm no captain of industry, However, I leaned about people and the way they think and react to different situations. I also learned about facial/body clues that showed what the person across the table was thinking.

It was invaluable to me as a lobbyist and later, as a corporate negotiator for things big and small. Did I make billion off a Psych degree? No, not even close. Did I make a comfortable living, yes. Enough to retire when I was 57. To each their own. Use the tools that you have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Psychology and sociology majors do worse on the LSAT and the GRE than other liberal arts and social science majors.

Psych and Sociology are in the top ten majors that get into law school. https://www.edsmart.org/best-majors-for-law-school/#:~:text=Sociology%20is%20a%20great%20major,racial%20discrimination%2C%20and%20LGBTQ%20rights.