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6.5: Introduction to Thinking and Intelligence

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Why is it so difficult to break habits—like reaching for your ringing phone even when you shouldn’t, such as when you’re driving? How does a person who has never seen or touched snow in real life develop an understanding of the concept of snow? How do young children acquire the ability to learn language with no formal instruction? Psychologists who study thinking explore questions like these.

Cognitive psychologists also study intelligence. What is intelligence, and how does it vary from person to person? Are “street smarts” a kind of intelligence, and if so, how do they relate to other types of intelligence? What does an IQ test really measure? These questions and more will be explored in this chapter as you study thinking and intelligence.

In other chapters, we discussed the cognitive processes of perception, learning, and memory. In this chapter, we will focus on high-level cognitive processes. As a part of this discussion, we will consider thinking and briefly explore the development and use of language. We will also discuss problem solving and creativity before ending with a discussion of how intelligence is measured and how our biology and environments interact to affect intelligence. After finishing this chapter, you will have a greater appreciation of the higher-level cognitive processes that contribute to our distinctiveness as a species.

What Is Cognition?

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe cognition
• Distinguish concepts and prototypes
• Explain the difference between natural and artificial concepts

Imagine all of your thoughts as if they were physical entities, swirling rapidly inside your mind. How is it possible that the brain is able to move from one thought to the next in an organized, orderly fashion? The brain is endlessly perceiving, processing, planning, organizing, and remembering—it is always active. Yet, you don’t notice most of your brain’s activity as you move throughout your daily routine. This is only one facet of the complex processes involved in cognition. Simply put, cognition is thinking, and it encompasses the processes associated with perception, knowledge, problem solving, judgment, language, and memory. Scientists who study cognition are searching for ways to understand how we integrate, organize, and utilize our conscious cognitive experiences without being aware of all of the unconscious work that our brains are doing (for example, Kahneman, 2011).

Upon waking each morning, you begin thinking—contemplating the tasks that you must complete that day. In what order should you run your errands? Should you go to the bank, the cleaners, or the grocery store first? Can you get these things done before you head to class or will they need to wait until school is done? These thoughts are one example of cognition at work. Exceptionally complex, cognition is an essential feature of human consciousness, yet not all aspects of cognition are consciously experienced.

Cognitive psychology is the field of psychology dedicated to examining how people think. It attempts to explain how and why we think the way we do by studying the interactions among human thinking, emotion, creativity, language, and problem solving, in addition to other cognitive processes. Cognitive psychologists strive to determine and measure different types of intelligence, why some people are better at problem solving than others, and how emotional intelligence affects success in the workplace, among countless other topics. They also sometimes focus on how we organize thoughts and information gathered from our environments into meaningful categories of thought, which will be discussed later.

CONCEPTS AND PROTOTYPES

The human nervous system is capable of handling endless streams of information. The senses serve as the interface between the mind and the external environment, receiving stimuli and translating it into nervous impulses that are transmitted to the brain. The brain then processes this information and uses the relevant pieces to create thoughts, which can then be expressed through language or stored in memory for future use. To make this process more complex, the brain does not gather information from external environments only. When thoughts are formed, the brain also pulls information from emotions and memories ( Figure ). Emotion and memory are powerful influences on both our thoughts and behaviors.

In order to organize this staggering amount of information, the brain has developed a file cabinet of sorts in the mind. The different files stored in the file cabinet are called concepts. Concepts are categories or groupings of linguistic information, images, ideas, or memories, such as life experiences. Concepts are, in many ways, big ideas that are generated by observing details, and categorizing and combining these details into cognitive structures. You use concepts to see the relationships among the different elements of your experiences and to keep the information in your mind organized and accessible.

Concepts are informed by our semantic memory (you learned about this concept when you studied memory) and are present in every aspect of our lives; however, one of the easiest places to notice concepts is inside a classroom, where they are discussed explicitly. When you study United States history, for example, you learn about more than just individual events that have happened in America’s past. You absorb a large quantity of information by listening to and participating in discussions, examining maps, and reading first-hand accounts of people’s lives. Your brain analyzes these details and develops an overall understanding of American history. In the process, your brain gathers details that inform and refine your understanding of related concepts like democracy, power, and freedom.

Concepts can be complex and abstract, like justice, or more concrete, like types of birds. In psychology, for example, Piaget’s stages of development are abstract concepts. Some concepts, like tolerance, are agreed upon by many people, because they have been used in various ways over many years. Other concepts, like the characteristics of your ideal friend or your family’s birthday traditions, are personal and individualized. In this way, concepts touch every aspect of our lives, from our many daily routines to the guiding principles behind the way governments function.

Another technique used by your brain to organize information is the identification of prototypes for the concepts you have developed. A prototype is the best example or representation of a concept. For example, for the category of civil disobedience, your prototype could be Rosa Parks. Her peaceful resistance to segregation on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, is a recognizable example of civil disobedience. Or your prototype could be Mohandas Gandhi, sometimes called Mahatma Gandhi (“Mahatma” is an honorific title) ( Figure ).

Mohandas Gandhi served as a nonviolent force for independence for India while simultaneously demanding that Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian leaders—both Indian and British—collaborate peacefully. Although he was not always successful in preventing violence around him, his life provides a steadfast example of the civil disobedience prototype (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2013). Just as concepts can be abstract or concrete, we can make a distinction between concepts that are functions of our direct experience with the world and those that are more artificial in nature.

NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL CONCEPTS

In psychology, concepts can be divided into two categories, natural and artificial. Natural concepts are created “naturally” through your experiences and can be developed from either direct or indirect experiences. For example, if you live in Essex Junction, Vermont, you have probably had a lot of direct experience with snow. You’ve watched it fall from the sky, you’ve seen lightly falling snow that barely covers the windshield of your car, and you’ve shoveled out 18 inches of fluffy white snow as you’ve thought, “This is perfect for skiing.” You’ve thrown snowballs at your best friend and gone sledding down the steepest hill in town. In short, you know snow. You know what it looks like, smells like, tastes like, and feels like. If, however, you’ve lived your whole life on the island of Saint Vincent in the Caribbean, you may never have actually seen snow, much less tasted, smelled, or touched it. You know snow from the indirect experience of seeing pictures of falling snow—or from watching films that feature snow as part of the setting. Either way, snow is a natural concept because you can construct an understanding of it through direct observations or experiences of snow ( Figure ).

An artificial concept, on the other hand, is a concept that is defined by a specific set of characteristics. Various properties of geometric shapes, like squares and triangles, serve as useful examples of artificial concepts. A triangle always has three angles and three sides. A square always has four equal sides and four right angles. Mathematical formulas, like the equation for area (length × width) are artificial concepts defined by specific sets of characteristics that are always the same. Artificial concepts can enhance the understanding of a topic by building on one another. For example, before learning the concept of “area of a square” (and the formula to find it), you must understand what a square is. Once the concept of “area of a square” is understood, an understanding of area for other geometric shapes can be built upon the original understanding of area. The use of artificial concepts to define an idea is crucial to communicating with others and engaging in complex thought. According to Goldstone and Kersten (2003), concepts act as building blocks and can be connected in countless combinations to create complex thoughts.

A schema is a mental construct consisting of a cluster or collection of related concepts (Bartlett, 1932). There are many different types of schemata, and they all have one thing in common: schemata are a method of organizing information that allows the brain to work more efficiently. When a schema is activated, the brain makes immediate assumptions about the person or object being observed.

There are several types of schemata. A role schema makes assumptions about how individuals in certain roles will behave (Callero, 1994). For example, imagine you meet someone who introduces himself as a firefighter. When this happens, your brain automatically activates the “firefighter schema” and begins making assumptions that this person is brave, selfless, and community-oriented. Despite not knowing this person, already you have unknowingly made judgments about him. Schemata also help you fill in gaps in the information you receive from the world around you. While schemata allow for more efficient information processing, there can be problems with schemata, regardless of whether they are accurate: Perhaps this particular firefighter is not brave, he just works as a firefighter to pay the bills while studying to become a children’s librarian.

An event schema, also known as a cognitive script, is a set of behaviors that can feel like a routine. Think about what you do when you walk into an elevator ( Figure ). First, the doors open and you wait to let exiting passengers leave the elevator car. Then, you step into the elevator and turn around to face the doors, looking for the correct button to push. You never face the back of the elevator, do you? And when you’re riding in a crowded elevator and you can’t face the front, it feels uncomfortable, doesn’t it? Interestingly, event schemata can vary widely among different cultures and countries. For example, while it is quite common for people to greet one another with a handshake in the United States, in Tibet, you greet someone by sticking your tongue out at them, and in Belize, you bump fists (Cairns Regional Council, n.d.)

Because event schemata are automatic, they can be difficult to change. Imagine that you are driving home from work or school. This event schema involves getting in the car, shutting the door, and buckling your seatbelt before putting the key in the ignition. You might perform this script two or three times each day. As you drive home, you hear your phone’s ring tone. Typically, the event schema that occurs when you hear your phone ringing involves locating the phone and answering it or responding to your latest text message. So without thinking, you reach for your phone, which could be in your pocket, in your bag, or on the passenger seat of the car. This powerful event schema is informed by your pattern of behavior and the pleasurable stimulation that a phone call or text message gives your brain. Because it is a schema, it is extremely challenging for us to stop reaching for the phone, even though we know that we endanger our own lives and the lives of others while we do it (Neyfakh, 2013) ( Figure ).

Remember the elevator? It feels almost impossible to walk in and  not  face the door. Our powerful event schema dictates our behavior in the elevator, and it is no different with our phones. Current research suggests that it is the habit, or event schema, of checking our phones in many different situations that makes refraining from checking them while driving especially difficult (Bayer & Campbell, 2012). Because texting and driving has become a dangerous epidemic in recent years, psychologists are looking at ways to help people interrupt the “phone schema” while driving. Event schemata like these are the reason why many habits are difficult to break once they have been acquired. As we continue to examine thinking, keep in mind how powerful the forces of concepts and schemata are to our understanding of the world.

In this section, you were introduced to cognitive psychology, which is the study of cognition, or the brain’s ability to think, perceive, plan, analyze, and remember. Concepts and their corresponding prototypes help us quickly organize our thinking by creating categories into which we can sort new information. We also develop schemata, which are clusters of related concepts. Some schemata involve routines of thought and behavior, and these help us function properly in various situations without having to “think twice” about them. Schemata show up in social situations and routines of daily behavior.

Review Questions

Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on the study of ________.

• human development
• human thinking
• human behavior
• human society

Which of the following is an example of a prototype for the concept of leadership on an athletic team?

• the equipment manager
• the star player
• the head coach
• the scorekeeper

Which of the following is an example of an artificial concept?

• a triangle’s area

An event schema is also known as a cognitive ________.

Critical Thinking Questions

Describe a social schema that you would notice at a sporting event.

Explain why event schemata have so much power over human behavior.

Personal Application Question

Describe a natural concept that you know fully but that would be difficult for someone else to understand and explain why it would be difficult.

[glossary-page] [glossary-term]artificial concept:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]concept that is defined by a very specific set of characteristics[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]cognition:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]thinking, including perception, learning, problem solving, judgment, and memory[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]cognitive psychology:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]field of psychology dedicated to studying every aspect of how people think[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]concept:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]category or grouping of linguistic information, objects, ideas, or life experiences[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]cognitive script:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]set of behaviors that are performed the same way each time; also referred to as an event schema[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]event schema:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]set of behaviors that are performed the same way each time; also referred to as a cognitive script[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]natural concept:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]mental groupings that are created “naturally” through your experiences[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]prototype:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]best representation of a concept[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]role schema:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition]set of expectations that define the behaviors of a person occupying a particular role[/glossary-definition]

[glossary-term]schema:[/glossary-term] [glossary-definition](plural = schemata) mental construct consisting of a cluster or collection of related concepts[/glossary-definition] [/glossary-page]

• Introduction. Provided by : OpenStax CNX. Located at : https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:3DT0XBfK@3/Introduction . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• What is Cognition?. Provided by : OpenStax CNX. Located at : https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:u8MlFxBQ@3/What-Is-Cognition . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

3 Activities to Enhance Your Analysis in Critical Thinking

Here is a second set of exercises to help enhance critical thinking..

Posted April 16, 2021 | Reviewed by Davia Sills

At the beginning of the calendar year, I posted a piece on this blog asking if any readers wanted to develop their critical thinking as a kind of New Year’s Resolution. Over the past few months, I’ve received some positive feedback about the post and decided that continuing with the proposed series of exercises seems warranted!

So, if you’re interested in enhancing your critical thinking skills, please start with the first set of exercises in that previous post . If you have already completed those, please find the second set below. Remember, when we are given opportunities to think about our thinking , we are engaging our metacognitive processes, and that’s a foundational part of critical thinking !

We are almost always sure to come across a topic that requires critical thinking within newspapers, magazines, social media posts, and web articles. For these exercises, find such an article and analyze the structure of the argument presented within the article. Please note, almost any long text reflects an argument in the sense that it is trying to convey a point in light of either reasons or objections. An easy way of identifying whether or not an argument is present is by seeing if the piece includes words like: because, but, however, yet, therefore, or thus.

Identify the role that each statement, or proposition, plays in the piece—for example, the central claim, core reasons and core objections (for the central claim), as well as supporting reasons (i.e., reasons for reasons or reasons for objections), rebuttals (i.e., objections to objections).

Re-construct the argument using only propositions that are appropriately signaled within the article through relational cues—words like because, but, however, yet, therefore, and/or thus.

Following this re-construction, ask yourself:

1. What kind of argument structure do these propositions create?

2. What is the central claim in the argument?

3. What are the primary supports and objections?

Finish your analysis by asking yourself:

1. Was the author of the original article, for the most part, being subjective or objective?

2. If any objective propositions were presented, what evidence is provided to support them?

3. If there was subjectivity, how was the author biased?

4. Can you offer any credible reasons to dispute the author’s judgments or claims?

5. Can you offer any credible reasons to further support the author’s judgments or claims?

These activities are a great way to start working on the critical thinking skill of analysis, as they help you to identify the structure of an argument and, subsequently, construct or deconstruct arguments for the purpose of developing your own lines of reasoning. They also usher in the concept of evaluating arguments, particularly with respect to bias , which we discussed in the first post . In the following post, we will delve further into the skill of evaluation.

Christopher Dwyer, Ph.D., is a lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon in Athlone, Ireland.

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3 Module 3: How Psychologists Think About the Field of Psychology

In most of this unit we described how psychologists think about the world and how they discover knowledge about human behavior and mental processes. Here we turn our gaze inward, so to speak, and examine how psychologists think about their own discipline.

We, like many psychologists, were originally drawn to the discipline because of our observations and curiosity about everyday phenomena. Even now, we are continually fascinated by the events and behaviors that we witness daily. Even more so, we are intrigued by how these everyday phenomena fit into the discipline of psychology. The field of psychology is divided into several subfields; each subfield is concerned with topics that are loosely related to a set of similar everyday phenomena.

If you decide to become a psychologist, or more likely, if you decide to major in psychology, you will have to think about the discipline in a new way, too. Specifically, you will have to consider what career options are available to you.

This module is divided into two parts. One section describes the organization of the field, and the other section describes career options for psychology majors.

3.1  Psychology’s Subfields and Perspectives

3.2  Career Options for Psychology Majors

READING WITH A PURPOSE

Remember and understand.

By reading and studying Module 3, you should be able to remember and describe:

• The major psychological subfields: biopsychology, clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, personality psychology, social psychology (3.1)
• The minor psychological subfields: community psychology, consumer psychology, educational psychology, health psychology, human factors/engineering psychology, forensic psychology (3.1)
• The main psychological perspectives: biological, cognitive, learning, psychodynamic, sociocultural (3.1)
• Skills that employers value (3.2)
• Common careers available to undergraduate psychology majors (3.2)
• Career options for students with master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology (3.2)

By reading and thinking about how the concepts in Module 3 apply to real life, you should be able to:

• Demonstrate how different classes are helping you are acquiring the skills that employers value (3.2)

Analyze, Evaluate, and Create

By reading and thinking about Module 3, participating in classroom activities, and completing out-of-class assignments, you should be able to:

• Outline how psychologists from different perspectives might approach a specific research question (3.1)

3.1 Psychology’s Subfields and Perspectives

• Think of about a dozen questions that interest you about human behavior and mental processes. Do your questions all seem similar to you or all seem dissimilar? Try to organize them into distinct groups.
• If someone asked you to subdivide the field of psychology, how would you do it? Do you think that your division would be the same as a psychologist’s?

As students begin to learn about different disciplines in college, many are surprised to discover how complex the organization within each discipline can be. For example, think about biology. It is divided into several subfields, such as animal physiology, biochemistry, cellular biology, molecular biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and neurobiology. The subfields are related to each other in complex ways, and several of them are related to other disciplines, such as medicine, biotechnology, and natural resources (and psychology).

Psychology is no different. It has several major and minor subfields, divisions of the discipline based on topics. Some of the subfields are themselves divided into sub-subfields. In addition, some subfields are beginning to merge, thus creating new combination subfields. To give you an idea of the complexity, the American Psychological Association has 54 divisions; most are devoted to specific subdivisions or subfields. Altogether, the divisions in the field of psychology make an extraordinarily complex discipline.

That is not the end of the complexity, though. Psychologists who are interested in the same topics or who labor within the same subfields may adopt different perspectives. The division of psychology into perspectives provides an alternative way to organize the field.

Psychology’s Subfields

Psychology has a small number of major subfields, reasonably broad groupings of psychologists who are interested in similar topics within the discipline. The subfields correspond to the department divisions that you will find in a large university’s psychology department and to course names of many second and third year psychology courses. They also correspond roughly to the major units within this book.

Here are descriptions of the subfields, along with some of the major topics covered in each:

Biopsychology (or biological psychology ). Concerns itself with the biological underpinnings of behavior and mental processes. Biopsychology can hardly be called a subfield, however, as its content is distributed across the entire discipline. Any time psychologists are interested in the brain areas, brain and nervous system activity, physiological states, hormones, or evolution, they are working in the subfield of biopsychology.

Clinical psychology . Uses psychological theory to understand and treat psychological disorders and promote adjustment and personal development. Many clinical psychologists provide therapy to individuals; others conduct research and teach.

Cognitive psychology . Studies knowledge—what it is and how it is learned, understood, communicated, and used. Cognitive psychology is the psychology of everyday thinking. It includes such topics as reasoning and problem solving, memory, language, judgment and decision making, and perception.

Developmental psychology . Examines how people change and how they stay the same throughout the life span. Like biopsychology, developmental psychology cuts across all of the other subfields. For example, a developmental psychologist with an interest in biopsychology might be interested in what happens to children’s brains as they mature. A specialist in cognitive development might be interested in the differences in memory ability for children, adolescents, young adults, and older adults. A social or personality development psychologist might examine whether a personality trait such as shyness tends to change or stay constant throughout a person’s lifetime.

Industrial/organizational psychology. Applies psychology to the workplace. It is roughly divided into human resources topics and organizational psychology. Human resources topics include selecting, training, rewarding, and retaining workers. Organizational psychology is essentially applied social psychology. It is concerned with such topics as group functioning, leadership and management, motivation, and job satisfaction.

Personality psychology. Focuses on characteristics of individual people, such as personality traits. Personality psychologists and social psychologists (see below) are interested in many of the same topics, so the two subfields are very closely related.

Social psychology. Seeks to understand how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. Topics of interest include aggression, prejudice, persuasion, romantic attraction, friendship, group processes, and helping behavior. Social psychologists have a particular interest in how situational factors influence these phenomena.

Some minor subfields are also important to know:

Psychological Perspectives

Psychologists who work in the different subfields tend to be interested in different phenomena or topics. For example, a cognitive psychologist might be interested in how information gets put into memory, while a social psychologist might be interested in how stereotypes develop. At the same time, psychologists who work in particular subfields develop characteristic approaches. For example, cognitive psychologists tend to prefer experiments as their research method, and they (obviously) focus on the cognitive causes of behavior.

Division by topic is not the only way to organize psychology. Another way is on the basis of different perspectives, the approaches or lenses through which psychologists may view a single phenomenon. For example, consider the phenomenon of depression. The subfield that is most directly related to depression is clinical psychology, of course. Depression is of interest to psychologists in a variety of subfields, however, and it can be viewed through several perspectives:

Biological perspective. Similar to the subfield of biopsychology, the biological perspective seeks to explain psychological phenomena by discovering the biological causes, such as brain and nervous system activity, brain structures, hormonal influences, and so on. A psychologist who takes a biological perspective on depression might note that it is related to an irregularity in the neural transmission process, the process through which individual cells in the nervous system send chemical signals to other cells.

Cognitive perspective. Similar to the cognitive psychology subfield, the cognitive perspective seeks to explain psychological phenomena by discovering the causes that are related to patterns and styles of thinking. From a cognitive perspective, a psychologist might note that particular patterns of thinking, such as blaming oneself for failures, seem to be related to depression.

Learning perspective. Many phenomena can be understood as examples of learning from experience. The learning perspective often focuses on observable behavior. A psychologist with a learning perspective might emphasize how a depressed person is rewarded for his or her passive behavior.

Psychodynamic perspective. In the early 20th century, Sigmund Freud developed the psychoanalytic perspective, which views human personality and behavior as a reflection of conflicts between hidden desires and social restraints. The original psychoanalytic perspective was extremely influential throughout the first half of the 20th century. It has developed into the modern psychodynamic perspective. This newer perspective retains the key assumptions about conflicts from the original psychoanalytic perspective but drops some of the more controversial aspects, such as Freud’s emphasis on childhood sexuality. A psychodynamic psychologist might emphasize how depression results from negative feelings left over from unresolved conflicts.

Sociocultural perspective. The sociocultural perspective examines the role of social forces and culture on psychological phenomena. An important piece of the sociocultural perspective is the cross-cultural view. It examines the role of culture on psychological phenomena by exploring the similarities and differences between people throughout the world. A psychologist who takes a sociocultural perspective might note that the decline in social connections that has affected the United States since 1960 correlates with the increase in depression over the same period. A psychologist taking a cross-cultural approach might compare rates of depression in different parts of the world.

No one perspective provides the answer to every psychological question. All can be correct simultaneously. Together, they give a more complete picture of a phenomenon than each perspective can alone. For example, in the study of depression, the answers suggested by all of the perspectives provide a much fuller explanation than any one perspective can by itself.

The Intersection of Subfields and Perspectives

To summarize (because the distinction between subfields and perspectives can be hard to keep straight):

• The organization of psychology into subfields reflects psychologists’ interests in different topics. Psychologists who are interested in similar topics work in the same subfield.
• The organization of psychology into perspectives reflects psychologists’ preferred approaches to studying a topic. Psychologists may be interested in the same topic but study it from different perspectives.

This book tends to be organized around subfields, grouping topics more or less the way professional psychologists do. But sometimes you can see signs of the psychological perspectives. For example, because the biological perspective has become so important in recent years, we often include a description from that perspective for a topic more often linked with a subfield like cognitive psychology or clinical psychology. Occasionally, particularly for complex and important phenomena, such as depression, we will draw from multiple perspectives.

• For each of the questions you generated in #1 in the Activate section, try to pick which subfield seems the most appropriate source of answers.
• Try to summarize how psychologists from two different perspectives might view each of the questions that you generated in #1 in the Activate section.

3.2 Careers Options for Psychology Majors

• What is your major or your intended career? (Which way are you leaning if you haven’t decided yet?) Why have you chosen the major and career that you have?
• What kinds of skills that you are acquiring in college will help you to succeed in your intended career?
• Have you ever heard anyone say that you cannot get a job with a bachelor’s degree in psychology? Do you believe that statement?

Most of the people who read this book will not major in psychology. Indeed, out of the more than 1 million U.S. students who take General Psychology every year, only about 94,000, or at most 9%, go on to major in psychology (Goldstein, 2010; NCES, 2010). On the other hand, 94,000 is a very large number; psychology is a common college major.

In the event that you are one of the people who are intrigued by their first course in psychology and decide to make it your major (or have already decided to major in psychology), this section provides some information about what majoring in psychology will do for you in your future career and about whether an undergraduate degree or an advanced degree is necessary for success. Even if you do not major in psychology, you can use the information in this section to start thinking about how to make the most of your undergraduate experience and about the many different career options that are available for almost any major.

In preparation for writing this modules, we previewed a well-known textbook in psychology (we won’t tell you which one because we are about to criticize it). In their section on career options for students with degrees in psychology, they devoted five times as much space to graduate degrees as they did to undergraduate degrees (and the pictures were better too). That might seem sensible at first, as there are more graduate degrees to talk about and it is the career path that many future psychology grads are interested in. The truth is, however, that the majority of students who major in psychology do not end up going to graduate school. By focusing on the graduate school path, nearly to the exclusion of the more common undergraduate-only path, textbooks contribute to one of the most damaging myths about the psychology major, that you have to go to graduate school to get a job. That has never been true, as you will see.

What Useful Skills Do Psychology Majors Develop?

Many types of employers, in many different fields, routinely hire psychology majors because of the skills they cultivate in pursuit of their degree. Eric Landrum and Renee Harrold (2003) conducted a survey of 87 businesses that hire psychology majors and found that a few of the most important skills are:

• Ability to listen
• Ability to work on a team
• Ability to get along with other people
• Willingness and ability to learn

More recently, many researchers have identified that these skills, along with several others are still essential for successful college graduates to possess. For example, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (2018) has identified the following top-ten skills that employers seek in college graduates:

• Problem-solving skills
• Written communication skills
• Strong work ethic
• Analytical/quantitative skills
• Oral communication skills
• Detail-oriented
• Flexibility/adaptability

Whether you end up majoring in psychology or not, you should look for opportunities to develop these kinds of skills. You should be aware, however, that psychology courses not only give you opportunities to practice these skills, as do many other college courses, but also often give you the theoretical knowledge to apply them in new situations.

Careers with an Undergraduate Psychology degree from A to Z

“You can’t get a job with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology.” That “fact” first surfaced for us back in 1982 when one of the authors was first considering majoring in psychology. It is still a common caution today. The only problem is, it is not true. Approximately 45% of psychology majors go on to earn a degree beyond a bachelor’s degree (Carnevale, Cheah, & Hanson, 2015). That means a majority of psychology majors have a bachelor’s degree only, and clearly they do not all remain unemployed. Indeed, in an extensive survey of college graduates from 1993, the National Center for Education Statistics found that fewer than 5% of academic major graduates (including psychology majors) were unemployed in 2003, which was below the overall unemployment rate of 6%. Although social science majors began their careers earning below-average salaries, by 2003 many had caught up to—and in some cases passed—their peers who had majored in career-oriented fields, such as business (Choy & Bradburn, 2008).

If you still do not believe us, we offer you, as more evidence, a list of careers you can have with an undergraduate psychology degree from A to Z:

• Advertising Assistant
• Benefits Manager
• Community Relations Representative
• Delinquency Prevention Social Worker
• Employment Agency Counselor
• Fund Raiser
• Group Worker (leads groups within social service sector)
• Human Resource Advisor
• Information Specialist
• Job Developer
• Keeper (of animals); this one might seem like a stretch, but a knowledge of animal behavior is essential in this industry. Some very important principles of human psychology also apply to animal behavior.
• Labor Relations Manager
• Market Research Analyst
• News Writer
• Occupational Analyst
• Personnel Interviewer
• Queen of a Small Country, but you might have to marry a King. OK, we admit it. we could not find a psychology-related position that starts with Q, but trust us, we could have listed about 20 more that start with P.
• Recreational Therapist
• Sales Representative
• Teacher; e.g., high school, but of course, you would need to obtain a teacher certification as part of your education.
• Union Business Representative
• Volunteer Coordinator
• Wage/Benefits Analyst
• X-Men; we reserve Wolverine (one of us went to the University of Michigan), but the rest of the spots are available. Again, we could not find a real occupation that starts with X, but unless you are interested in working with X-rays or xylophones, who could?
• Youth Corrections Officer
• Zoo Communications Researcher; seriously, one of us was almost hired for this position at the Brookfield Zoo (near Chicago), but we all have Ph.D’s.

The sources we used to compile this list were: Majoring in Psychology by Jeffrey Helms and Daniel Rogers (2011) and Occupations of Interest to Psychology Majors from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, an online publication by Drew Appleby (2006). To find a couple of job titles, we consulted the US Department of Commerce’s Dictionary of Occupational Titles ourselves (and the zoo position is based on personal experience).

As you might have noticed from the list, a psychology major is an especially important route to jobs in the business world. Approximately one-third of social science majors who do not enroll in graduate school have careers in business ten years after graduation (Choy & Bradburn, 2008).

What About Pay?

Many students base their choice of major solely on the expected salary. We would like to caution you to be careful about choosing a major this way. For example, many students choose engineering because it is the highest paying major, and shun education because it is the lowest paying major. First, you should realize that money will likely not bring the level of happiness that many people expect it to (but that is a story for another module. The important point for this section is that these salary expectations are only estimates, or more technically, they are medians when a single number is given. So if petroleum engineers earn a median yearly salary of $136,000 over the course of their careers (which is true, Carnevale, Cheah, & Hanson, 2015), it does not mean that all petroleum engineers make $136,000. It does mean that half earn more than that, and half earn less, sometimes much less (this is the definition of the median, remember). Suppose you choose a major for which you are ill-suited. Do you think that you will be among the high earners or the low earners in that field? Now, we are not trying to talk anyone out of majoring in engineering, or business. We are trying to talk you into choosing a major that suits you, one that will lead to a career that you will find meaningful and satisfying.

Let’s consider some actual numbers to drive this point home (from Carnevale, Cheah, & Hanson, 2015). The bottom 25% of business majors earn $43,000 per year (averaged over the course of their careers). The top 25% of education majors (a famously low-paying major) earn $59,000. Students who major in business solely because it pays well but have no real interest in the field, stand a very good chance of ending up in that bottom 25%. On the other hand, students who pick a major that they love have a very good chance of being a top performer, and therefore, relatively high earner in that “low paying” field.

Liberal Arts Education

As the cost of a college education continues to increase, observers have begun to question its value in general. A common target of critics is the “Liberal Arts” education. A Liberal Arts education is a well-rounded education that cuts across many different disciplines, rather than one that focuses on preparing students for one specific career. History, humanities, philosophy, and psychology, for example, are generally considered Liberal Arts degrees. A business degree, on the other hand, is by far the most common career-oriented major (and the most common college major, period). Many observers (along with quite a few parents and students with whom we have spoken) believe that because college is intended to prepare students for careers, it should be specifically focused on career training.

It is undeniable that business majors have an easier time getting their first job (Choy & Bradburn, 2008), but do not sell Liberal Arts education short. Research has found that social sciences, humanities, natural science, and mathematics majors improved the most during their college careers in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing. Business, education, social work, and communications majors improved the least. In the first few years after graduation, students who showed the least improvement in these skills were three times more likely to be unemployed, and more likely to live with their parents and have credit card debt, regardless of their college major (Arum, Roksa, & Cho, 2011; Arum et al., 2012).

We should tell you that the main point of the Arum et al. research was that college students in general tend to improve very little in these important skills. So, whatever your major is, look for opportunities to develop and practice them. The researchers gave the following advice:

• Spend time studying alone (studying with a group, although useful for building relationships with classmates, is not very effective).
• Take courses with more reading (40 or more pages per week) and writing (20 or more pages per semester).
• Seek out professors with high standards and high expectations.

What About an Advanced Degree?

It is true that if you hope to be able to call yourself a “psychologist,” or to provide individual therapy to clients, then you will need an advanced degree (master’s degree or higher). As you have just learned, however, dozens of careers (or at least 26, which is technically dozens) exist for which an undergraduate psychology degree provides excellent qualifications.

So, what about the 45% of psychology majors who do go on to earn an advanced degree? Where do they end up employed? Even here, there are many more options than most people realize. Although about half of the psychology doctorate degrees are in clinical psychology or counseling, the other half are in the other subfields (Morgan and Korschgen, 2008). People with advanced degrees in the other subfields often end up employed in the same kinds of careers (at higher levels) as those with undergraduate psychology degrees.

About 21,000 students earn master’s degrees in psychology each year (Goldstein, 2010). These degrees typically take two years beyond a bachelor’s degree. Graduates with master’s degrees can often begin their careers at a higher level in many of the same areas that are available to students with bachelor’s degrees. In addition, a master’s degree is considered the minimum qualification that will allow you to provide any substantive one-on-one counseling or therapy. You can also teach at the community college level with a master’s degree.

If you earn a master’s degree in psychology, you cannot yet call yourself a psychologist; that title is reserved for people who have earned a doctorate. The two types of doctorate degrees are a Ph.D. and a Psy.D. To earn a Ph.D., a student attends graduate school for five to seven years beyond a bachelor’s degree. It is a research degree and provides training for conducting research and teaching at the university level and clinical training for therapists (if the Ph.D. is in clinical or counseling psychology). People with a Ph.D. in psychology also find employment in business as researchers, statisticians, or industrial/organizational psychologists. They also are employed by government and school systems (as a school psychologist, for example). A Psy.D. requires three to four years beyond a bachelor’s degree. It provides training for therapy only.

One last point about advanced degrees: Psychology is also a good choice for an undergraduate major if you plan to attend graduate school in some other discipline, such as business, law, or medicine.

Where Does Psychiatry Fit In?

A psychiatrist is an MD (medical doctor) that has specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders. It takes about 8 years after your undergraduate degree to become a psychiatrist, four years in medical school and four years as a resident. As physicians, psychiatrists are the only mental health professionals who are authorized to prescribe medications. Psychiatrists can also provide psychotherapy. Often, however, they work as part of a team with a psychologist who provides the primary psychotherapy.

As we have described, an undergraduate degree in psychology qualifies you for dozens of careers in business, mental health, and social services, as well as for graduate study in several disciplines (including, of course, psychology). To be sure, any college major that offers you a well-rounded education can likewise prepare you for many fulfilling careers. The key is to make the most of your undergraduate experiences. Do not consider your coursework a series of meaningless hurdles that you must jump over; consider them opportunities to gain skills that will help you throughout your career and your life. Try to see the value of all of your classes. Not only will doing so help turn you into a more attractive candidate when you eventually do begin your career, it will help make the classes more enjoyable now.

• What kinds of skills do you think that you can learn in this class that will help you in your intended career?
• Whatever your intended major is, what are some alternative career options that you could pursue with the same major?

List four or five psychology-related careers. For each, decide which subfield seems most closely related.

Introduction to Psychology Copyright © 2020 by Ken Gray; Elizabeth Arnott-Hill; and Or'Shaundra Benson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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