1. An Online Vocational-Exploration Resource for High School Psychology Students
Drew C. Appleby, PhD (Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis)
The resource described in this poster was originally created for college-level psychology majors to help them answer one of their most common questions, “What can I do with a bachelor’s degree in psychology?”. However, it can also be used by high school psychology students to explore occupations in psychology and psychology-related fields. It contains 300 careers psychology majors can prepare to enter, which are organized into the 15 broad occupational categories highlighted in YELLOW below. Those that can be entered with a bachelor’s degree are printed in RED, and those that require a graduate degree are printed in GREEN. Careers whose futures are promising because they are expected to grow rapidly in the next several years, will have large numbers of job openings, or are new and emerging occupations are followed by . Persons employed in 56 of these careers are psychologists who are engaged in the science or practice of psychology and who hold the appropriate graduate degree. The remaining 244 psychology-related careers (i.e., those that require the demonstration of psychological knowledge and skills, but which do not carry the title of psychologist) are divided almost equally into two categories: those that can be entered with a bachelor’s degree and those that require a graduate degree. Each career is followed by a set of hotlinks to websites containing information such as required skills and knowledge, work activities and environment, degree requirements, pay scale, and projected need for this career in the future. Students can access this resource under the Advising tab at High school psychology teachers can use this resource to create assignments and projects whose purpose is to enable their students to accomplish the Vocational Applications component of APA’s National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula by identifying “careers in psychological science and practice,” “careers related to psychology,” and “degree requirements for psychologists and psychology-related careers.”