‘Should I Major in Psychology?’ Factors You Should Consider

By Dr. Matthew Loux and Derek Loux  |  02/03/2025

Entering a university is an exciting time, yet it is also one that brings anxiety when you’re choosing courses, majors, and minors. Some students consider an undergraduate degree in engineering, criminal justice, or nursing. These degrees involve a definite path toward specific occupations.

A psychology degree, on the other hand, is more open-ended. A psychology major provides the knowledge to prepare for multiple career paths. As a psychology student, you’ll not only gain a deep understanding of the human mind, but you’ll also understand how human behavior affects lives and society.

Is a Psychology Degree Right for You?

If you’re considering the study of psychology, it is well worth the time and effort you invest in it. Psychology is a good degree to pursue if you are curious about how people behave, feel, or think.

For example, students in psychology programs learn about famous human behavior experiments like the Stanford Prison Experiment. This harrowing story dives deep into how and why some people may change and do terrible things, based on their environment.

If your professional goals involve creating positive change in society, the knowledge you'll gain from psychology programs key to altering situations, treatments, and observations for helpful actions. As a student, you’ll gain a foundation in research methods, and many psychology professionals conduct research to help society. This psychology research offers clues for understanding and treating mental illness.

Problem solving is also a critical component of a psychology major, since it takes analytical and problem-solving skills to understand human behavior. If you enjoy working with others, you may be a good fit for a psychology degree. Psychology work often involves interacting with others, so having strong communication skills and interpersonal skills is vital.

Psychology graduates may also choose to specialize in a subfield. These subfields include:

• Developmental psychology
• Personality psychology
• Psychopathology
• Social psychology
• Industrial/organizational psychology
• Forensic psychology
• Social science
• School counseling

Other Benefits of Becoming a Psychology Major

If you choose to pursue a psychology degree, there are other benefits associated with earning this type of degree. These benefits include:

• Improving your personal growth and development
• Gaining academic and practical skills
• Contributing to society
• Learning flexibility and adaptability in a global society

Improving Your Personal Growth and Development

Helping others is not the sole reason for earning a psychology degree. Other positive outcomes from this learning path are self-understanding and interpersonal skills. Self-knowledge improves your personal well-being and interpersonal skills, which enhances everyday life and society as a whole. 

Learning theory and application in psychology programs can cause introspection and a desire to improve your life and find happiness. You learn to satisfy the desire for personal growth.

For instance, psychological principles can help you focus on the positive aspects of life, reducing stress and the negative impacts it brings. Additionally, psychology helps you to build empathy and compassion for others who struggle in various ways. 

Additionally, understanding psychology can help you in navigating society and improving relationships with others.

Gaining Academic and Practical Skills

Majoring in psychology is useful for helping you to design and conduct research, which is important to advance mental health treatment. Conducting research while obtaining your psychology degree will help you learn how to analyze data and interpret the results. This research experience can apply to many different career opportunities.

In addition, critical thinking skills, empathy, and communication skills are essential in the psychology field or other fields to help with problem-solving and patient treatment.

Contributing to Society

By studying psychology, you can contribute to society in a variety of ways, including improving others’ mental health. You can play a vital role in addressing mental health challenges through treatment and support for individuals and communities. As mental health professionals, psychologists help to:

• Promote well-being and development
• Foster stress reduction strategies
• Enhance people’s quality of life
• Treat mental health issues
• Provide family therapy

Psychologists can help expand the understanding of human behavior to provide advancements in healthcare, education, and social policy. They often conduct research to address social issues and develop interventions to reduce violence or poverty. Psychologists can also advocate for mental health policies and awareness to help reduce the stigma of mental health and improve access to healthcare.

Learning Flexibility and Adaptability in a Global Society

The more you learn as a psychology major, the greater your ability to adapt to a changing global world. As the world becomes a melting pot of cultures and rising mental health epidemics, a psychology major can help you navigate complex challenges of intercultural communication.  

Potential Career Paths in Psychology

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the psychology field offers diverse career paths:

• School psychologists help students develop resiliency and reduce adverse health outcomes. For example, school psychologists help students who struggle with learning barriers and help to create a positive environment for education.
• Clinical psychology, research, and substance abuse counselors apply abnormal psychology to serve the needs of mental health patients. They use psychological principles to analyze factors affecting mental health. In addition, understanding substance abuse and the human psyche is key to slowing the spread of the growing drug epidemic. 
• Management consultants use their psychological knowledge and real-world experience to understand conflict and serve as an intermediary. They are skilled at resolving conflicts by understanding different perspectives and satisfying multiple egos.
• Criminal profilers understand abnormal psyches and related behaviors. The insights they provide shed light on why a person acts as a deviant as compared to the average person. Criminal profilers help build profiles that law enforcement uses to find and apprehend suspects.

Some careers require an advanced degree in psychology. For example, if you're a psychology major and your professional goals include treating patients in a clinical environment as a clinical psychologist, you will need a graduate degree.

This type of work also requires clinical experience, a professional license, and a specialty focus. You can build specialized experience through courses taken as part of a bachelor’s degree program.

Psychology Degrees at American Public University

American Public University (APU) offers a set of degree programs for students interested in studying different types of psychology or conducting psychological research:

• An online bachelor of arts in psychology
• An online master of arts in psychology

Courses in these degree programs are taught by highly skilled faculty members. Students who enroll in these programs can take courses in personality theories, research methods in psychology, and psychopathology. Other courses that APU offers include perception, learning and cognition, cyberpsychology, multicultural issues in human behavior, and lifespan development.

For more information about APU’s psychology degrees, visit our arts and humanities degree program page.

Note: The bachelor’s degree in psychology does not provide licensure; preparation for licensure; or professional certification required for mental health counselors, practitioners, or psychologists. The master’s degree in psychology does not provide licensure to engage in clinical practice, preparation for licensure, or professional certification, and this program has specific admission requirements.