Golden State Career Videos

Education and Training
A Ph.D. degree is the usual minimum educational requirement of hospitals, college level institutions, and government agencies. In addition, most organizations require completion of an approved internship. A few clinics and therapeutic organizations may hire well-qualified applicants with only MA degrees. The public school system requires Psychologists to hold the pupil personnel services credential with specialized advanced training in psychology. Some colleges and universities offer a master's degree to those
completing these requirements.

The Ph.D. degree usually requires at least four years of integrated graduate study, field experience and an original research dissertation. Very high standards are required for admission to any of the programs accredited by the American Psychological Association. Currently there are 10 to 20 applicants for every opening in a Psychology Doctoral Program. Undergraduate courses should be in psychology, other social sciences, physical sciences, biological sciences, humanities and statistics. There are very few jobs in psychology at the bachelor's degree level. Clinical Psychologists who work in the public sector or in private practice must be licensed by the Board of Psychology. They must have a Ph.D. in psychology from an accredited university or a doctoral degree deemed equivalent by the Board. Training in human sexuality, child abuse, and drug/substance abuse are other requirements. In addition they must have completed 3,000 hours of supervised professional experience -- 1,500 of these hours must be after completion of the Ph.D and under the direction of two different supervisors.

Skills & Other Requirements
Skills that psychologists use may include the ability to collect, interpret, and apply scientific data related to human behavior and mental processes, and to study the way people think, feel, or behave in order to understand, explain, or help them change their actions or manage stress. Psychologists specialize in a wide variety of areas such as clinical, social, counseling, industrial, school, educational, behavioral, experimental, rehabilitation or vocational, forensic, and neuropsychology. Depending on their specialty, other important skills may include the ability to diagnose or evaluate mental and emotional disorders of individuals and conduct programs of treatment for behavior modification, use psychotherapy, psychological testing, hypnosis, and other techniques, examine people's interaction with others and with the social environment, gain understanding of individual and group behavior, work with people who have problems of every-day living but usually are not mentally or emotionally ill, resolve questions of personnel, management, marketing, and production.