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Psychology- well respected degree???

Hi everyone I was going to post this on the psychology but then thought I may have a gotten a bit of a biased response so here it is :smile:

. So how well respected is a psychology degree?

I'm thinking of taking it as a degree at university and then try to become forensic psychologist (I think you take a masters to do this? Any advice on that would be great btw :smile:

)

Also which are the best universities to go to????

Any help and advice would be great :smile:

Thanks

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Reply 1

david_man

Erm, in my opinion it is a very respected degree becasue it is so competative to get into the good uni's threfore you have to be an able AAA/B student, but imnot sure whether employers feel the same way.

Look at the university guides for the best uni's

Reply 2

GodspeedGehenna

S'alright.

Most people don't know what it actually entails, however, as you will see by the responses to this thread.

Reply 3

xSkyFire

The receptionist at my college did his psychology undergrad and PhD at UCL, apparently it's heavily stats based so if you really despise the infinite boredom that is stats, you may struggle..

Reply 4

GodspeedGehenna

xSkyFire

The receptionist at my college did his psychology undergrad and PhD at UCL

Putting his education to good use then, I see.

Reply 5

llacerta

If you want to become a forensic psychologist, then I guess in a way it doesn't matter whether the undergrad. degree is respected or not as it's what you need in order to do the postgrad. But then again, you might change your mind so it really depends. I'd say it's reasonably respected, but the general public have misconceptions of what it involves and most are surprised by the amount of stats. and biology that it involves.

Reply 6

Ironuts

Do you not think that asking this question in itself shows that a lot of people do not respect it as a degree? You wouldn't have many people ask whether medicine degrees of law degrees are respected.

As you might gather, my opinion of psychology isn't great. If it's done at a top uni, however, that's a completely different story.

Reply 7

ourlastmemory

It's vaguely respected but the career opportunities are, to be frank, ****.

Reply 8

xSkyFire

GodspeedGehenna

Putting his education to good use then, I see.

lol yeah he originally wanted to do medicine but did a PhD because he wanted to do "his own thing". He earns a lot now though so I don't blame him for sticking with the job S:

Reply 9

Nahdrav

Somewhere between Medicine and Sports Science

Reply 10

omgmanthissucks

if it's done at a top uni like cambridge, oxford, ucl etc then it is respected

Reply 11

username246000

xSkyFire

lol yeah he originally wanted to do medicine but did a PhD because he wanted to do "his own thing". He earns a lot now though so I don't blame him for sticking with the job S:

How is he earning a lot with his PhD, I thought his pay would be of basic teacher level if he has just completed it.

Reply 12

xSkyFire

cruciform

How is he earning a lot with his PhD, I thought his pay would be of basic teacher level if he has just completed it.

He's earning a lot as a receptionist, well over 60k, he wouldn't tell me exactly how much though.. He's in charge of all the external students and their exam entries too which is probably why he earns so much. Not just taking phone calls all day lol :p:

Reply 13

GodspeedGehenna

xSkyFire

He's earning a lot as a receptionist, well over 60k

You sure he's not bull ******** you?

Reply 14

momentofaphasia

It's a good job (as in well paying, especially child psychologists, or so I have heard) but idk if it is particularly respected in the scientific community.
I think the more important question is whether you'll enjoy it? I took a unit of psychology in my first year and hated it. It was really dull, not what I had expected, and messed with all the 'real science' I had learnt. Stopped going to lectures less than 1/2 way through in the end.

So yeah. But every time I hear the word psychology, it is immediately replied to with "Ergh, fake science". o_O

Reply 15

xSkyFire

GodspeedGehenna

You sure he's not bull ******** you?

Nah my college is really small, it's more of an exam centre. There are only about 50 internal students and like... several hundred external students who he's in charge of. I know the principal is rinsing around £150k a year, the external students pay about £60 extra per exam what it costs them, they sit quite a few exams for several A levels/GCSEs every January/June :eek:

The internal students pay a lot for tuition too :frown:

Reply 16

Xenopus

Well, the entry requirements are high because a lot of people want to do it, not because it is respected or difficult. Among people who are doing a proper science, like maths, physics, chemistry, or biology, psychology is viewed as being soft. By the rest of the people at uni, it is moderately respected, at least more than stuff like media studies, film, sport, drama, or social sciences.

Reply 17

Ebenia

If you really love doing something, you really do not care how respected the degree is. This is the situation for me. Now I finally know that I have found "my thing" and "my degree", when I do not care one bit what other people may think about it. I think psychology is extremely important and I am going to do good things with it.

So does it really matter too much? Everyone has their own perspective anyway...

Reply 18

Kelcatuk

It's respected IF you can take it all the way, if you actually make it to being a clinical/forensic/child psychologist then you're alright. But generally as a stand alone degree I think it falls just about into the upper sections of the "a degree is a degree" category somewhere below law and above media studies, probably on a level with English lit.

That's my opinion anyway, but you might say I'm biased as I am currently transferring away from psychology (not because I don't enjoy it, it's a fun subject to study, but because of the sort of things everyone has said in this thread, I know I don't have it in me to follow all the way through to being a professional psychologist)

Reply 19

Haljordanist

It appears as though I have stumbled upon this debauchery, of psychology not being respected among the scientific community, a little late. I would just like to point out for anyone that may stumble onto this thread in the future, that in the early 1930s, Albert Einstein was invited to speak at a League of Nations International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation conference in Paris, on the subject of war. He was asked to invite any scientific mind of his choosing to attend and discuss their views with him at the conference... He invited Sigmund Freud. :wink: