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If Psychology is the most useless degree...

...Then why do so many people want to do it?

I heard that you can't really make anything of a degree in psychology unless you get a PhD in it.

Yet so many people are interested in the course. My theory is that these people don't really know what to do with their lives and just chose psychology because they want to go to University but don't know which direction (career wise) they want to go in.

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Too many people find it interesting, apparently.

Fortunately, I was never one of them.
Well psychology isn't exactly easy, and I'm sure it can get you into a lot of jobs that are unrelated to psychology itself.
Reply 3
Im not sure about the degree being useless but this thread certainly is

p.s dont mix up usefulness with popularity.
Reply 4
There are plenty of degrees that don't lead you directly to a specific career area, but that doesn't make them "useless" Plenty of graduate-entry jobs don't require a specific degree.
There are, however, far more Psychology graduates than jobs for Psychology graduates.

Which is why so many of them end up going into jobs they could have gone into without the trouble of a university education.
Reply 6
why is Psychology is a useless degree? :confused: isn't the understanding of human behavior important? :confused: :confused:
Reply 7
Invictus_88
There are, however, far more Phychology graduates than jobs for Psychology graduates.

Which is why so many of them end up going into jobs they could have gone into without the trouble of a university education.


Just because a job isn't directly related to the content or subject matter of somebody's degree doesn't mean that they could have got the job without a degree.
My main interest is human computer interaction so mixing psych with computing made more sense to me than straight up computing.

Many people take it for so many different reasons.
Well, I want to be a forensic Psychologist, so it's not at all useless to me.
Reply 10
Few degrees are 'useless', psychology isn't one of them.
*River
Just because a job isn't directly related to the content or subject matter of somebody's degree doesn't mean that they could have got the job without a degree.


Quite. My point was badly put.

It remains that there are so many psychology (and classics, and philosophy, and history, and anthropology) graduates relative to the appropriate graduate-level positions that many are having to take work they could have got before university.
I am sure there are people doing Psychology who don't have the love or ambition to take it further. Just like all subjects.

Equally, I'm sure the ones that do have ambition and love for it - have enough ambition to get a career out of it.... just like all subjects.
You definitely need post-grad qualifications to become 'a psychologist'; but the degree give you the same skills as any other, enabling you to go on and do many different types of graduate programs/get a graduate job at the end of it.

I've found that psychology is actually really good as a mix of science and arts subjects as it requires you to be able to write decent essays and do a lot of wider reading whilst at the same time designing, carrying out and reporting experiments.

I think a lot of people do it at undergrad level because it's a fascinating subject that people may not have had the chance to study before. It also gets a lot of media coverage (although admittedly the popular view of psychology is possibly not the most accurate as there is actually a lot of science and maths involved - the course really isn't much to do with psycho-analysis!).
Reply 15
Who says it is the most useless degree?

A psychology degree is necessary to become a psychologist, so if you want to do that, it is one of the most useful things you can have.

Lots of the skills learned through doing a psychology degree are relevant to a other graduate careers. Research skills, understanding people's behaviour, etc are relevant to careers in business, marketting, social research, education, counselling.

Yes I'm sure lots of people do choose psychology because they don't really know what they want to do with their life (but then lots of english, maths, physics, geog students dont know what they want to do with their life either). Maybe the people who study psychology just find it interesting.
Reply 16
I always laugh when I read threads such as this. I ask myself all the time what will I do after University? Will I go on and be a professional psychologist or will I fall by the wayside?

The bottom line is that to have a career in psychology you really need some sort of post graduate training etc. This may put some people off or be a cause for concern. Thing is how many other degrees could you say the same of?

It may be the case that you leave and end up in a graduate job (or worse) but I think there are many degrees that leave people in an equal or worse position than that of psychology. Let's be honest, how many people do you know who say graduate with say a degree in sociology or economics and then actually walk into a job that does exactly as it says on the tin.

Many will end up in local government type jobs but they won't necessarily be 'economists' or 'sociologists'
The fact that it is a degree makes it useful.
Reply 18
RightSaidJames
The fact that it is a degree makes it useful.


Well said :yep:
*River
Just because a job isn't directly related to the content or subject matter of somebody's degree doesn't mean that they could have got the job without a degree.

Many of these allegedly graduate level jobs people would have been better off finishing at A-levels and working their ways up / getting an apprenticeship in terms of total earnings.

Even some people doing Maths degrees are returning to work in Asda - despite being a small minority.

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