I am considering a masters degree in psychology. ?

Question

My goal is to start my own business. I like the idea of deal with adolescents who have been involved in abuse cases. Could someone please explain what kind of psychology I should study and how I would go about doing my dream job. I am 15 years old and will start taking college courses in 11th grade. what courses should i try to take. I would like it if people only answered if they have a degree in some sort of psychology.

Thanks so much for your time in reading this

Britt

Answer 1

Psychology is primarily verbal logic with a little bit of statistical methods thrown in, the hardest math you will encounter is roughly only a couple of notches above Algebra (college level).  Well, college level here in the U.S. outside upper middle or upper income neighborhoods, High School level everywhere else.  Hey, if you're acing Algebra and seem poised to take "AP" Calc, don't worry about the math.  Statistics is easy; provided you have a Chinese professor ;-)

The subject you will need to study the hardest, therefore, is English.  Again Psychology uses a lot of verbal logic; whereas most sciences out there are heavily reliant on equal parts verbal logic mixed with mathematical, Psychology is almsot exclusively verbal outside statistics.  Also stats it only uses to quantify results from experiments more than anything else, and all science does that.  Far as math formulae for splicing atoms, finding the chemical properties of a rare kind of element that will blow up the planet if you mix it wrong, but will cure cancer if you mix it right, that kind of stuff, don't worry about it.  You will see it in other sciences, but not Psychology at the undergrad level.

One Psychology class I need to warn you about, that you should stay the h**l away from if you can avoid it, is Psychology of language.  Linguistics, a branch totally separate from English or any grammar, is MURDEROUSLY hard.  Believe me, when I tell you, that people are not wrong in saying Noam Chomsky is the smartest man on the planet.  Considering what he holds a degree in, he probably is.  I would rather take a Physics class suffering from down syndrome, epilepsy and an anneurism, with only 4th grade math, than take Psychology of Language again.  It mixes Psychology with Linguistics concepts.  Just try to crunch that into your brain, I dare you!  It was one of those where the professor opens with "only one of you will get an A, most of you will get D's, and likely three of you will get F's, so if you are a lazy student you better drop this class when this first lecture is over....." courses.  Avoid Psychology of Language, the way you would avoid a college guy whose voice hasn't even broken yet and he still sounds prepubescent.  Avoid it like you would avoid a creepy middle aged guy walking around campus hitting on girls and who probably masturbates to P***** Cat Dolls albums in his minivan.  Avoid it, like you would avoid both those types of males.  I can not stress enough, how murderously hard that class is.

Again; the course you will most need from High School, is English, work your very hardest, and if at all possible try to get into AP English.  The better your linguistics skills, and if you start taking classes where they teach you how to play around with verbal logic, the easier Psychology will be.  As far as "starting your own business," what you want to do there, is open your own clinic, but to do so, you will need to get together with a bunch of other grads.  Also, just a couple of business management courses will do the trick, the truth is, all "business management" is, is, yeah, more Psychology.

Over summer school once, I took a course in Human Resources, and another called "Leadership Seminar," both hardcore Business Major courses.  My discovery?  It was all Psychology.  All of it; outside accounting, marketing and stats, the great majority of business classes copy heavily from Psychology literature.  In fact I think that outside accounting, marketing and probably abnormal psych and neurobiology, much of the business major is roughly the same.  Of course the emphasis in the Business Major is how Psychology applies to the world of Business.  Virtually all the management classes though, are all Psychology.  What you will need then, is probably something akin to Leadership Seminar, however, you will have to take them as humanities courses over the summer for "personal enrichment," that way you can exploit a loophole in the registration system to take courses without the prerequisites.  You can't get away with it with math or science, however with "humanities" courses, or courses the school does not deem too important for its name, you can get away with it.

In High School, you will need English, a total mastery of it if possible, because Psychology is primarily vergal logic.  You will need math skills for stats although nothing too heavy, and later on in college you will need a Leadership class so you are not caught off guard when the time comes to run your clinic.  However, know this much about leadership; all a leader is, is someone who has their act straight, and has a high level of discipline.

If a person's act is not straight, that is they have social issues, that is they do not know how to respect other people, if they have discipline issues or they study leadership for self serving reasons, they won't be a good leader.  To run it as a business you will need to establish a clinic, but you can't "run it," you will need partners.  If you establish a strong circle, from that circle, as more and more people get hired, the circle gets bigger and bigger.  Pretty soon you will have a whole operation going.

However to do it, is not easy, if it was everyone would be a billionaire.  They say the roof the Parthenon in Greece only showed its glory from the pillars that supported it.  That is how it is with leaders; King Arthur had his knights of the round table, King David had his loyal captain who was so loyal, he remained his friend even when his own son betrayed him, not just him, but others as well, a close inner circle.  Leaders are made, and their greatness or smallness is ultimately reliant on the inner circle they make for themselves, and it is the bonds of loyalty within that circle which ultimately give them that strength.

According to the Mallory myths, King Arthur was undone because his best friend betrayed him.  Had Guinevere been with someone other than Lancelot, Camelot would have endured.  However it precisely because Lancelot was one of the pillars supporting Arthur, that that whole operation collapsed with Guinevere's betrayal.  If you wish to run a heavy, ambitious operation like that, be sure to establish strong friendships, rare bonds of loyalty that can weather just about anything.  Only with such a bond can you hope to have your operation go anywhere.

The reason Japan is the third largest economy in the world, despite its small size, has to do with the fact that most Japanese know how to be loyal friends.  White people however, will betray even each other to get ahead, and this can have a demoralizing effect on a company.  You wish to have high productivity, be sure to establish that crucial circle; you can't do anything on your own if you are planning something that big.

good luck.

Answer 2

At 15, the world is your oyster.  First, go for a bachelor's in psychology or English to keep your options open.  Next, arrange internships, job shadowing experiences and/or informational interviews with people doing the type of work you want to do.  Find out (a) if that setting is how you imagine it to be and (b) what the backgrounds are of most people in those settings.

Finally, if you're going for self-employment, minor in Business.  Running a business is a completely different discipline than counseling, and you'll need training and experience in both.

Answer 3

Go to apa.org and read.  There is alot of info on careers in psychology.  Look at clinical psychology.  Most programs are geared to the Ph.D.  Make sure the program is accredited.  In college take biology, math, statistics if they offer it...psychology is very research oriented.  Connect with a psych prof, get involved in his/her research, you will need recommendations to get into graduate school.  Good luck! (college psych prof)

Answer 4

You might wanna look into becoming a social worker.

You can get a masters, you can still do therapy and make decent money,  and get out and about into the world.

I'm trying to decide if I should go for social work or not.