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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because there are a lot of crazy folks. Never met a sane psychologist.

I’ve never met sane kids of psychologists.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting and relatively easy

+1. It’s the easiest

And if you don’t got to grad school, you are basically useless. I know many who have trouble getting jobs.

It’s a lame major unless you go to grad school.

Just like history English communications anthropology sociology etc.

My bosses always thought my English degree was useful. I'm the one who could persuade people through storytelling to give us millions in budget for marketing to help us meet organizational goals.

But yeah, I should have learned to program a computer, I guess? lol Actually, I did learn that on my own time.

One example doesn't mean shit.
Typical english major I guess.

I work with statistics all the time, and I think you are overstating. One example can often matter. Black swan examples kill blanket arguments all the time. And every individual is an outcome, not an average. So hearing examples and seeing if their context aligns with your own can be very relevant to making good judgments--often more valuable than just seeing averages based on one or two relatively reductive variables (e.g., major and salary at one point in time).

Your data analysis is lacking. One example is just that. Statistically, a person with just an undergrad in English or Psych major doesn't get paid all that much.

Recall in scientific lab experiments, if you get an anomalous data point, you throw that data point out.

dp

+1 good grief. There are stats out there that shows an undergrad degree in English makes very little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting, easy, and you might get a masters and make a lot of money as a LCSW. My therapist make s$200 and hour.

LCSW have masters degrees and could only make that much per hour in a very HCOL area after taking the time to develop a successful private practice (not easy.)

dp.. pick an area with lots of people with money.

anecdata of one:

My niece went to a B rated state U for her undergrad and grad. She went off on her own after like 3 years at a group practice, and charges $200/hour. She had so many patients that she had to hire another therapist for her own practice. She works less than 40 hours per week and is pulling in $200K.

Not bad for someone who almost flunked out of HS due to her ADHD and other issues. But, she is a go-getter and very personable. She may have an average IQ, but she has a high EQ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Humanities generally include languages, history, language arts (eg literature and poetry), philosophy, performance arts, and visual arts.

What humanities are NOT is a catch-all for any non-STEM major, nor a synonym for liberal arts.

really? I wuldn't have put fine and performing arts in the humanities.
is there anything else, then, besides

STEM
Humanities
Social Sciences?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting and relatively easy

+1. It’s the easiest

And if you don’t got to grad school, you are basically useless. I know many who have trouble getting jobs.

It’s a lame major unless you go to grad school.

Just like history English communications anthropology sociology etc.

isn't that also true of most of humanties, though - so basically you can only major in STEM but that's too hard to get a spot in a college in?

[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 never hear of people who have majored in psych - Gen X. Is this a new thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most psych stuff at the undergraduate level is mechanical, obvious, boring and easy.

The humanities, like English, philosophy, and the arts, provide a much better way to understand humans and develop critical skills, like logic, critical reading, and well-supported arguments, conveyed both in presentations and in writing. Biology could be a nice STEM supplement.

This. My son wants to be a therapist, but he’s not pursuing a psychology major. Philosophy and religion (human values), English (human narrative), and biology (mind/body connection) provide a much better preparation for a professional degree. Sure, throw in a psych class on personality and therapeutic modalities, but the mechanistic stuff is boring and not helpful. Even if you’re not headed for clinical work, the above is a better way to study human psychology.

As to why so many major in psych? It’s easy, making it the quintessential female/wifey and jock degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I think posts like this are intended to make anyone whose kid is not going into STEM think they are wasting their money.

Well it's certainly one of the rudest threads I've read on here, and that's saying a lot. SMH.

But, If I were a psychologist, I'd find it interesting.

[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?

It's an easier major, an interesting subject and a socially relatable/respectable field . Obviously, so is psychiatry but that takes more time, money, effort and luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most psych stuff at the undergraduate level is mechanical, obvious, boring and easy.

The humanities, like English, philosophy, and the arts, provide a much better way to understand humans and develop critical skills, like logic, critical reading, and well-supported arguments, conveyed both in presentations and in writing. Biology could be a nice STEM supplement.

This. My son wants to be a therapist, but he’s not pursuing a psychology major. Philosophy and religion (human values), English (human narrative), and biology (mind/body connection) provide a much better preparation for a professional degree. Sure, throw in a psych class on personality and therapeutic modalities, but the mechanistic stuff is boring and not helpful. Even if you’re not headed for clinical work, the above is a better way to study human psychology.

As to why so many major in psych? It’s easy, making it the quintessential female/wifey and jock degree.

Attention DCUM - this person has it ALL FIGURED OUT. They’re clearly the only one whose son is doing it THE RIGHT WAY. Take a lesson!

[Anonymous]

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

Yup or their family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Psychology is not a humanities discipline. It is a social science. There is an immense difference: great things about both ways of approaching knowledge, but it is a disservice to both to lump them together indiscriminately. (And before you ask, I'm in higher education, in a college of arts and sciences.)

+1000.

[Anonymous]

To be fair, a lot of young people want to study what intrigues and fascinates them. I went into medicine and regret playing safe instead of going for literature or philosophy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting, easy, and you might get a masters and make a lot of money as a LCSW. My therapist make s$200 and hour.

LCSW have masters degrees and could only make that much per hour in a very HCOL area after taking the time to develop a successful private practice (not easy.)

I actually wonder how much of that they keep. They might be part of a group and they give the group a portion. Then, there are insurance fees (for themselves). We used to have to factor in all of the admin and overhead costs for our billable labor in another industry. Your LCSW isn't really making 200/hr unless you are paying a lot more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I think posts like this are intended to make anyone whose kid is not going into STEM think they are wasting their money.

Well it's certainly one of the rudest threads I've read on here, and that's saying a lot. SMH.

But, If I were a psychologist, I'd find it interesting.

My kid's top two interests are kinesio/exercise science and psych. According to DCUM, my kid will always be poor. Sure, I'd love for my kid to have a lucrative career, but I'm not sure how I can ensure my kid part of the medical team for an NFL team. :p