Category: Education & Training

Definition of Best school psychology graduate programs

The responsibility of shaping the future of a nation in terms of nurturing its children and guiding the youth comes in the province of a school psychologist who is professionally trained to work and collaborate with tripartite stakeholders-students, teachers and families.

The School Psychologists work in a variety of settings like elementary schools, secondary schools, high schools, colleges, universities and educational institutes in order to positively influence the life of youth by focusing on their physical, mental, emotional and behavioral health. They are trained to work with children and youth throughout their academic lives and help in improving their academic performance.

Besides, they are the experts who effectively deal with issues, of school-going and college-going students, like bullying, smoking, drug abuse, alcoholism, family trauma etc. that might impact the physical and mental health of children.

Working with teachers and school administrators, they create a safe, learning and supportive academic environment. They screen students through psychological testing for learning disabilities, memory lapses, emotional worries and behavioral problems. A school psychologist is a trained professional to execute ability testing, aptitude testing and personality assessments for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. They also work with families, parents and siblings to help students struggling with family and parental discord issues. In short, their role is to strengthen the links between home, school and society in order to enhance the student’s ability to excel in academics.

Requirements for school psychology graduate programs or master programs

To become a school psychologist, one should earn a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in school psychology programs. Advanced doctorate level education in forms of PhD and PsyD are essential to do research work in the domain.

To start with, students intending to pursue a career as school psychologist should take up a school psychology bachelor’s degree program as their major. Apart from school psychology, students majoring in counselling psychology, general psychology, health psychology, sociology, educational psychology, developmental psychology and clinical psychology are also eligible for pursuing school psychology specialization in their higher studies. Thus, in contrast to a discipline like forensic psychology where a student needs to undergo specialized subject training from the beginning, an aspirant of school psychology as a career may come from diverse backgrounds. After pursuing psychology major with school psychology as an elementary subject, a student can go for entry-level positions in schools.

License requirements to work as a school psychologist

They can also take up short-term internships to have experience about the workings of professionals in school settings. However, majoring does not give an undergraduate psychology major ‘license’ to be legally called as a school psychologist. Every state has its own norms to issue the license or certificate approved by NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) to a school psychologist for doing practice. In lieu of earning a license to practice, a student must undergo graduate level master’s program or a specialist degree called EdS in school psychology with counselling as one of the elementary subject. During the master’s coursework, education and psychology are taught simultaneously. Students are rigorously trained to assess, evaluate and provide appropriate interventions to issues related to school and college-going pupils. On completion of graduate master’s school program, one can apply for issue of license to practice as a school psychologist. Norms to issue license for a professional vary from state to state. Some states ask for a compulsory fixed hour internship before issuing a license. Student should check up with the local regulatory authority and fulfill the prescribed norms for the issue of license. Thus, as an actual fact, a total of 6-7 years, including 4 year undergraduate bachelor’s degree, 1-2 years master’s program and 1-2 years of internship, is required to become a professional school psychologist.

Must have skills to make a successful school psychologist career

School Psychologists have a great future in the coming times. The key competency of an effective school psychologist lies in his ability to connect to people of diverse age groups ranging from elementary and middle level school children to high school and college going youth. They should have good counseling skills to understand the problems and solve them. Active listening, interpersonal skills, decision making and crisis interventions are some of the other arenas in which a social psychologist should excel.

The career promises a good start-up salary for the beginners and fixed working hours which makes it a rewarding and attractive career for many.

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Top forensic psychology graduate programs

Investigative Forensic Psychology deals with assessment, diagnosis, treatment and interventions related to criminal behaviors. A psychologist expert in forensic science deals with criminals, offenders, prisoners and professionals working in the field of law, judiciary, administrative and penal systems. They address psychosocial problems of various stakeholders who are directly or indirectly related to civil or criminal litigation. A student interested in pursuing forensic psychology graduate program should consider enrolling to a forensic psychology school that gives specialized and integrated knowledge in broadly three domains:

Requirements in graduate programs in forensic psychology

Though knowledge of each one of the specialized psychology domains listed above is essential for a forensic psychologist, it is the interface of the three that makes a person skilled in performing the role of a forensic behavior expert.

To become a chartered / licensed forensic psychologist, one should pursue a Masters in Forensic Psychology as a psychology graduate program. Students majoring in psychology (who are psychology major students) can study elective course of forensic psychology as one of their subjects (though many psychology schools do not offer that). Earning a master’s in forensic psychology is not sufficient to be called as an expert in the domain. Even after pursuing a graduate program, one needs to be a licensed practitioner in forensic behavior. This requires a rigorous coursework of dual or joint degrees in the disciplines of law and psychology.

Specialization in forensic behavior generally starts at masters, doctorate or post-doctorate programs. Besides psychology, students majoring in disciplines of law, political science, journalism, sociology and related fields can also pursue forensic psychology as their graduate course work. However, it is important that knowledge of clinical psychology is essential for having specialization in forensics as one has to deal with abnormal and delinquent behaviors of criminals. Thus, many students after completing their masters and doctorate (PhD or PsyD) in clinical psychology take up specialized course in forensic psychology to become an expert of the field. Forensic psychology is one of the common postdoctoral specializations of many clinical psychologists. Likewise, law students after completing their major and graduate programs take up doctoral and post-doctoral coursework in forensics to be expert in the domain.

Curriculum that makes forensic psychology graduate programs rankings best for any forensic school

The practice of forensic psychology involves psychological assessment and profiling of people involved in legal cases. The clinical assessment, risk assessment, cognitive evaluation, case taking, criminal profiling and report writing are some of the common training arenas of forensic science students. Besides, psychology students need to choose a range of electives to gain complete understanding of psychology-law interface. Electives like Child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, criminal proceedings, psychology of victims, civil commitment, mediation & arbitration are related to the discipline of study. They are also trained in topics like psychology of police investigation, deception, eyewitness testimony and false memory. The course content also requires them to be trained in tests like lie-detection, brain mapping, polygraph testing, narco-analysis etc. It is essentially important that education and training of forensic psychologists should make them capable of applying psychology principles in the aid of legal inquiries.

Am I ready for a job in forensic psychology?

The job of a forensic psychologist is stressful and tense as the person has to be the witness of many traumatic experiences of people. A student aiming to become a forensic behavior specialist must be capable of building relationship with offender community and show problem-solving and decision making skills. S/He should have good listening and communication skills and demonstrate resilient behavior to bounce back from adversities. A non-biased, fair and non-judgmental approach for wrongdoers is equally essential.

After this brief know how on this subject, the psychology fact can be safely concluded that this rapidly growing sub-discipline of psychology is not a splendid profession but a solemn occupation meant for courageous hearts and audacious minds.

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Should I major in Psychology? – What can I do with a Psychology Major

A ‘Major’ is a specific degree that gives you specialization in the field of study. Psychology major is one of the most popular majors students pursue in their higher education worldwide. Earning a Major in Psychology will award you the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.

It is important that students wishing to major in Psychology must evaluate their core skills of working effectively with a diverse range of people and understanding their issues from a variety of perspectives. The field of Psychology focuses on human and animal behavior and the mental processes behind it. It is an applied field that makes use of theoretical knowledge in practical settings for the benefit of mankind. A student should consider majoring in psychology only if s/he is curious about the patterns of human behavior and thinking and emotions behind those patterns.

What is psychology major? – Psychology major requirements

A student entering in a college or university after completing the high school is titled as studying at undergraduate level, the one studying in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree. Earning a bachelor’s degree requires about four years of higher education. In the first two years of undergraduate studies, the prerequisite courses meant to build a foundation for higher education are taught. This includes literature, general knowledge, arts, social science, science etc. On completion of two-years of study, a student earns Associate transfer degree to do a Major in a specific field. For this, a certain number of credit grades and grade point average are needed that fulfills the basic requirement of the major of your choice. In general, someone interested in pursuing psychology facts should not have a grade less than ‘C’ in introductory courses.

Major areas of psychology – psychology major description of electives

As a major psychology student, you have to adhere to it’s requirements. You are required to study various elective courses that may vary depending upon the institution, psychology colleges or a university that you have chosen. In general, the psychology major requirements is to study a course on Introductory Psychology, Research Methods and Statistical methods in Psychology. Besides, elective courses are to be chosen from a list of courses offered by the department of a university or school psychology programs. Some of the discipline-specific elective courses offered by various universities and college for psychology are listed below:

Is psychology a good major?

The Psychology major course is designed with an intent to make students familiar with broad content domains of psychology. Students become skilled in analyzing and critically evaluating the ideas in psychology after completing their psychology major degree. They become proficient in conducting and reporting independent research in their area of focus.

Psychology major jobs – psychology major careers

Although a major in psychology does not make you a licensed psychologist who is authorized to work professionally in clinical, organizational, academia and other settings, it does make one ready to take up lot of entry-level positions in various fields. Some of these include counselor, mental health program officer, social worker, well-being clinician, rehabilitation counselor, school social worker, correction officer, behavioral analyst, child care specialist, market research analyst, applied statistician, public relation officer and many others. Thus, the avenues to various career fields are wide open after pursuing psychology major programs. Completing major, one can also choose to join a graduate school to become a practicing licensed psychologist, to become consultant, researcher, university professor, clinician or a counselor. The job market is also open to enter in the fields of law, business, social work or research. In short, the field makes you practically ready for the employ-ability, the reason that makes this subject most popular choice among the college students.

What else to do with a psychology major

Moreover, if someone wants to pursue higher studies post their major, they may suitably go for masters (MA in psychology). The choice and expertise ranges widely from forensic psychology graduate programs or forensic psychology masters programs offered by forensic psychology schools, business psychology, child psychology, occupational psychology, criminal psychology, counseling psychology, sports psychology, health psychology programs, clinical psychology and various types of psychology degrees by specific psychology schools. World gets open with options.

More topics in psychology will be covered from time to time. Feel free to bookmark this site to come back later to check more which may help you in shaping up your career or enhance your knowledge in psychology. Good Luck!

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