12 career opportunities for psychologists

We review the main job options available for psychologists to practice.

Psychology is a profession that arouses a lot of interest nowadays, and although many students when they decide to study psychology think that practically all the options to become a psychologist are clinical psychologist, the reality is quite different. Psychology is a profession with many areas of application..

In this article we review the 12 most common career opportunities that can serve as a guide to focus your professional future.

Career opportunities in psychology

The mind is everything to people. This means that psychology fits into many disciplines. For example, education, sports or organizations.

But what are the opportunities for psychology? What career opportunities does psychology have? What professional work can psychologists do? Below you can find a list of 12 career opportunities in psychology.

1. Organizational psychologist

Organizational psychology is a field of application of psychology in which many recent graduates find work, because there is a great demand for psychologists specialized in this field. Generally, people associate the job of an organizational psychologist with that of a human resources professional, which is not exactly the case.This is not exactly the case.

The Human Resources department is one of the options for engaging in organizational psychology, but there are others. For example, you can work in the marketing department or in market research, discovering ways to better access the kind of customers and consumers that the organization wants to contact.

It should also be clear that the profile of the Human Resources professional is varied.. Psychologists tend to fit into areas of this department such as personnel selection, training and even, in some cases, occupational risk prevention in areas such as occupational health.

However, a human resources professional can also be involved in personnel administration (e.g., payroll), labor law or compensation and benefits work, tasks that are not exactly the domain of a psychologist. are not exactly the domain of a psychologist..

It is important that you know this difference so that you can orient your resume in one direction or the other. In our article "Top 10 Masters in Organizational Psychology and Human Resources" you will find all the information you need to specialize in this field.

2. Educational psychologist

The figure of the psychologist also fits perfectly in the educational field.. Since practically its beginnings, psychology has been interested in how people learn and how we develop.

The science of behavior brings a lot of knowledge and many tools to education, for example, regarding how we can perform better or how we can counteract the learning difficulties that some students have.

• If you want to go deeper into this topic, just visit our article: "Educational psychology: definition, concepts and theories".

3. Social and community psychologist

The social psychology professional investigates and intervenes in the dimension of the collective, the group and the relationships between people.The social psychologist investigates and intervenes in the dimension of the collective, the group and the relationships between people in a context. In fact, the social psychologist can perform multiple functions and can work in other fields such as organizational or sports psychology.

However, this type of psychologist is also an expert in certain fields of action such as community intervention, gender-based violence, youth community intervention, gender violence, youth (sexual orientation, drug problems, etc.) or (sexual orientation, drug problems, etc.) or family and minors, among others. They may also work as researchers or teachers.

4. Clinical psychologist and health psychology

Clinical and health psychology is very popular and, generally, most people associate the figure of the psychologist with this role. However, clinical psychology and health psychology are not the same.

While clinical psychology focuses on the clinical psychology focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of mental problems (schizophrenia, schizophrenia, schizophrenia, schizophrenia, schizophrenia). (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, paranoid disorder, etc.), the health psychologist deals with the cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects associated with health and physical illness.. For example, improving the quality of life of a Cancer patient.

• To learn more: "Top 10 Masters in Clinical and Health Psychology".

5. Sexologist

The sexologist is a psychology professional specialized in sexologyHe/she has acquired competences and tools to improve the quality of people's affective-sexual life. They do not treat sex problems as purely physiological phenomena, but also take into account the cognitive and emotional aspects of these to achieve a more complete vision of what should be treated from the intervention.

These professionals deal with issues such as erectile dysfunction, sexual education of people or the restoration of sexual life after an illness, or offer advice to improve the intimate life of couples.

6. Psychotherapist

Psychotherapy is a space for reflection with a psychologist in which the patient confronts the problems that beset his or her life. In other words, the latter comes to the therapist to reflect together and find out what is going on with regard to certain non-clinical problems. certain non-clinical problems.

The psychotherapist uses a set of knowledge, techniques and methods to help the patient to discover himself and to initiate a process of cognitive and habit restructuring to improve his quality of life and interpersonal relationships.

Unlike the clinical psychologist, who may work, for example, with schizophrenic patients, psychotherapists treat more emotional problems, day-to-day difficulties or family or couple problems.

7. Coach

Coaching is a very popular discipline in the last few decades, often dealing with more superficial problems than those usually encountered in the past few decades. more superficial problems than those usually treated by a psychotherapist..

Generally, the coach's work is focused on improving people's quality of life through self-discovery, planning realistic goals, correct communication and confronting limiting beliefs. confrontation with limiting beliefs.. In this way, people can maximize their potential not only in their daily lives, but also in different fields such as work, education or sports.

However, it must be clear that although all psychologists have the training of a coach, not all coaches have the training of a psychologist and, in fact, do not have to be psychologists.

8. Sports psychologist

The profession of sports psychologist has also has also been on the rise in recent decadesThe profession of sports psychologist is also on the rise in recent decades, as athletes, coaches and managers of sports teams have realized that in this sector, psychological variables are just as important as physical, technical or tactical aspects.

Sports psychologists work mainly on variables such as motivation, emotional management, stress, self-confidence, attention or activation level.

• You can learn more about the functions of a sports psychologist in this article: "10 reasons to have a sports psychologist in your life".

9. Forensic psychologist

A forensic psychologist collects, analyzes and presents psychological evidence that will be taken into account in legal proceedings.. Therefore, in addition to possessing skills as a psychologist, he or she also masters the concepts, rules and dynamics of the legal system in which he or she works.

The forensic psychologist evaluates, for example, the psychological state of a defendant to determine if his criminal act is the result of a psychopathology; or performs a psychological evaluation of one of the parents of a minor to determine if he is fit to have custody of the child. Unlike other professional careers, in this field the interests and intentions of the person being evaluated are not the most important thing to take into account.

10. Neuropsychologist

The neuropsychology is a specialization that is between the neurology and the psychology, for what it treats the study of the mental processes and the functioning of the enc mental processes and the functioning of the encephalon when there is some alteration in this one..

It could be said that it is useful, for example, to know the extent and treatment of brain injuries, malformations, dysfunctions and diseases that affect the functioning of the nervous system.

These psychologists play their role in academic, clinical and research environments, and are present in neuropsychological rehabilitation programs. In addition, they can apply psychotherapeutic techniques and rehabilitation procedures. to return the patient to a normal level of functioning after illness or injury or, in some situations, to enjoy a proper quality of life.

11. Researcher

Psychologists may also engage in research in various fields related to psychology. research in different fields related to psychologywhether it be clinical psychology, social psychology or sports psychology.

One of the advantages of this professional field is the incredible variety of topics that can be addressed from research in psychology: personal relationships, cognitive biases, decision making, differences in personality and intelligence of individuals, effects of educational methods ... and the list goes on and on, since everything related to human behavior and mental processes is virtually endless.

In addition, there are different research methods depending on one's approach and preferred topics. For example, there is the qualitative approach, heavily based on interviews and on-site observations, and the quantitative approach, which is based on the conversion of the observed behavior into numbers and categories defined from the outset. Beyond this classification of types of research in psychology there are other criteria for differentiation, such as experimental research and research based on data correlations. of data.

12. Docent

Psychologists can also can also work as teachers in a variety of contexts.. Some may opt for university training and others, on the other hand, may undertake training in coaching, mindfulness or stress management courses.