Psychology Majors Research Articles

La Difusión Enciclopédica de la Psique en América Latina: Diccionarios Para la Enseñanza (1916-2000)

This paper presents a review of the many dictionaries of psychology published in Latin America between 1916 and 2000. Information was retrieved from publishing house catalogs, databases, archives and libraries, and academic curricula, as well as through consultations with specialists in the history of psychology. The article mainly highlights those works that have become widely disseminated in the region. Within this framework, it foregrounds works produced by local authors, as well as foreign works translated into Spanish and Portuguese. The paper also makes reference to various thematic dictionaries, such as those of social psychology and psychoanalysis. Overall, it is argued that the widest dissemination of dictionaries in Latin America took place after the mid-twentieth century, when universities introduced psychology majors and an audience of psychology specialists had emerged.

A Place for Comparative Psychology in Undergraduate Curricula

Establishing a place for comparative psychology within the curricula of undergraduate psychology programs in the U.S. can be challenging. Psychology majors typically take a core set of required classes and select the remainder from a menu of options or from purely elective courses offered by faculty that are primarily focused on human behavior. It is within this context that many of us who teach comparative psychology find ourselves competing for space in our undergraduate programs. In this paper I describe a way to make comparative psychology more visible in undergraduate psychology programs. Specifically, I outline a strategy for mapping undergraduate courses in comparative psychology onto the American Psychological Association’s (2013) guidelines for the undergraduate major. The aim is to bring our unique contributions into focus, offer clarity on common course objectives, and hopefully offer something useful for assessing undergraduate student learning.

Can Psychology Majors Prepare for a Career in Business? Part I: There Is HOPE

Can Psychology Majors Prepare for a Career in Business? Part I: There Is HOPE

Psychology Students’ Expectations Regarding Educational Requirements and Salary for Desired Careers

This study investigated the accuracy of psychology majors’ expectations regarding careers. Psychology majors, including 101 women and 35 men ( Mage = 23 years; standard deviationage = 6.25), indicated a desired career and estimated the level of education needed and the expected annual salary for the career. Students’ expectations were compared with Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Students completed the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale Short Form to assess the career efficacy and expectations. Students overestimated education needed for a career, but salary estimates did not differ from market statistics. Students’ confidence in career choice and expected income was related to career efficacy. Results highlight the importance of career advising and support for psychology students entering the job market.

Affordances and Alignments

Challenges abound in providing accurate and useful information to prospective and declared psychology majors about their career options and how to make decisions that will lead to satisfying and rewarding postgraduate lives. One component of this challenge is that by majoring in psychology, career affordances (i.e., the opportunities and limitations inherent to psychology) lead to generalized opportunities that are available to many different disciplinary majors. Another component of this challenge is the alignment between students’ self-reflection and understanding about career goals being aligned with accurate and available information about the desired careers. Understanding how affordances and alignments affect psychology major advising may provide a fruitful framework in moving forward to provide the best professional development resources possible.

Tapping Into Alumni as a Source of Authentic Information and Advice on Careers in Psychology

This article describes how my psychology department utilizes our alumni to educate current and prospective students about careers in psychology. I explain how we developed an alumni careers website and on-campus alumni careers sessions for students. High school students and our psychology majors reported that they found this information valuable, but they also valued a broader list of psychology job titles. Nevertheless, students appreciated the fact that the alumni careers information was more reflective of real-world jobs of our university’s graduates as compared to the list of job titles.

Traditional and New Approaches to Career Preparation Through Coursework

Traditional career preparation courses provide students with a variety of benefits. Students taking these courses report a better understanding of psychology-related careers, less indecision about their future careers, and are more knowledgeable about themselves in relation to careers. Yet only 37% of undergraduate psychology programs offer formal career preparation through the curriculum. Given the lack of experience and training faculty have on career preparation issues, they may be uncomfortable developing such courses. This article addresses considerations one should make when developing a career preparation course for undergraduate psychology majors as well as potential topics and assignments for the course. It also outlines how to place career preparation within the major using modules when career preparation courses are not available.

Preparing Psychology Majors to Enter the Workforce

Undergraduate psychology programs have not always provided the same level of support for their job-seeking students than they have for those preparing to become psychologists. This is a particularly unfortunate situation because, according to the American Psychological Association's Center for Workforce Studies (American Psychological Association, 2017), only 13% of the 3.4 million people in the United States who have earned a bachelor's degree in psychology have gone on to earn a higher psychology degree. The first part of this article uses quotations from seven national reports on the psychology curriculum to identify the genesis and gradual amelioration of this unfortunate situation. The remainder of this article focuses on strategies that psychology faculty can use to help their job-seeking students successfully accomplish Goal 5: Professional Development of the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major. These strategies include referring advisees to professionally trained advisors and becoming aware of careers in which baccalaureate-level psychology majors have entered or can prepare to enter and the sets of knowledge, skills, and characteristics important for success in these careers.

Using the Internet to Facilitate Career Choices in Psychology-Related Fields

Career planning for psychology majors has broadened to include a diverse array of opportunities (e.g., medicine, law, education, government, and military). The Internet has made it possible for students to learn about and quickly obtain information regarding these new career options. This article describes various career resources on the Internet and highlights which websites might be best for students with a clear career direction, as well as those for students who are unclear about what the future holds. The websites described include large sites not affiliated with a college, university, or professional organization. Other websites described are affiliated with a(n) (a) psychology department, (b) department of the federal government, (c) for-profit company or nonprofit organization, (d) professional organization, and (e) online career management site.

Embedding Career Issues in Advanced Psychology Major Courses

Despite the popularity of the psychology major, complaints regularly arise about the value of majoring in psychology. This article reviews the workforce advantages that accrue to successful psychology students and encourages new strategies for emphasizing the professional development goal in the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major (2013). Recommendations include infusing career preparation in advanced classes, designing career-focused capstone courses, and conducting a climate check on department support for fostering realistic and appropriate career aspirations in undergraduate psychology majors.

Helping University Students Succeed at Employment Interviews: The Role of Self-Reflection in e-Portfolios

In the context of a Transition to Work course for fourth-year psychology majors, we had students use an e-portfolio to self-reflect on the learning experiences they deemed most significant during their degree. Such significant learning experiences can be drawn upon when answering behavioral job interview questions. We examined whether students would show improvement in mock behavioral interview performance over time, and whether any potential improvement was related to performance on self-reflective course assignments. Students indicated that the majority of their significant learning experiences had taken place outside of the classroom (e.g., paid and unpaid work, extracurricular activities). Across the duration of the course, students improved on all metrics of interview performance, and final interview performance was predicted by student grades on a self reflective e-portfolio, but not other course assignments.

Stability of and Factors Related to Medical Student Specialty Choice of Psychiatry.

Targeted efforts are needed to increase the number of medical students choosing psychiatry, but little is known about when students decide on their specialty or what factors influence their choice. The authors examined the timing and stability of student career choice of psychiatry compared with other specialties and determined what pre- and intra-medical school factors were associated with choosing a career in psychiatry. Using survey data from students who graduated from U.S. allopathic medical schools in 2013 and 2014 (N=29,713), the authors computed rates of psychiatry specialty choice at the beginning and end of medical school and assessed the stability of that choice. A multivariate-adjusted logistic regression and recursive partitioning were used to determine the association of 29 factors with psychiatry specialty choice. Choice of psychiatry increased from 1.6% at the start of medical school to 4.1% at graduation. The stability of psychiatry specialty choice from matriculation to graduation, at just over 50%, was greater than for any other specialty. However, almost 80% of future psychiatrists did not indicate an inclination toward the specialty at matriculation. A rating of "excellent" for the psychiatry clerkship (odds ratio=2.66), a major in psychology in college (odds ratio=2.58), and valuing work-life balance (odds ratio=2.25) were the factors most strongly associated with psychiatry career choice. Students who enter medical school planning to become psychiatrists are likely to do so, but the vast majority of students who choose psychiatry do so during medical school. Increasing the percentage of medical students with undergraduate psychology majors and providing an exemplary psychiatry clerkship are modifiable factors that may increase the rate of psychiatry specialty choice.

I Remember That From My Pins!: Using Pinterest to Encourage Active Learning

Social media is integral to students’ lives. Pinterest, an online social network for “Pinning” (sharing) links and images, is the fastest-growing social media tool in history. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effectiveness of a semester-long active-learning assignment using the Pinterest platform. Forty-nine students (42 female; 18 psychology majors) enrolled in a Lifespan Development course contributed data to this investigation. Students used Pinterest to apply their knowledge of developmental theory and research to two celebrities or fictional characters of their choice. At the end of the semester, students completed a short questionnaire in which they reported on their experiences with the project. Participants also consented to have their academic achievement data (course grades) analyzed in aggregate. Results indicate that students enjoy the Pinterest platform and that they perceive learning more from the assignment than from other assignments in this and other courses. However, some students reported struggling with practical concerns of the platform, including difficulty in adjusting to an unfamiliar platform. Results suggest that Pinterest can be used to encourage student learning but that instructors must take care to ensure that assignments in this medium are inclusive of a broad range of students.

Validation of the Psychological Research Inventory of Concepts

The current set of three studies further evaluates the validity and application of the Psychological Research Inventory of Concepts (PRIC). In Study 1, we administered the PRIC to a sample of introductory psychology students and online (Mechanical Turk) participants along with measures assessing theoretically related concepts. We found evidence of concurrent validity by demonstrating that PRIC scores relate to education, cognitive effort, and general psychological knowledge. In Study 2, we demonstrated that advanced psychology majors score higher on the PRIC than college graduates who did not major in psychology, suggesting that the PRIC assesses domain-specific knowledge and may be useful in assessment of the undergraduate psychology major. Finally, in Study 3, we demonstrated that scores on the PRIC increase from the start to the end of a research methods course. Together, these studies provide further evidence that the PRIC may be a useful index of learning research methods and statistical knowledge important for the undergraduate psychology degree.

Psychological Literacy in Applied Psychology Disciplines

Undergraduate psychology majors need a broad base of knowledge in order to be viewed as competent graduates. In addition to acquiring basic knowledge, the American Psychological Association (APA) has guidelines for applied knowledge as well. In order to ensure a broad base of knowledge, teachers therefore need to know what the important psychological concepts are not only in both basic and applied areas of psychology. We examined key concepts across five applied areas of psychology and identified 30 key concepts that occur in two or more applied areas of psychology. It is evident from our findings that there is notable intersection between applied psychology and basic psychological science but also important applied concepts that stand alone from basic psychology. We discuss how these findings are directly relevant to APA’s undergraduate learning goal of psychological literacy.

Undergraduate Neuroscience Majors: A Missed Opportunity for Psychiatry Workforce Development.

This study sought to determine whether and to what extent medical students with an undergraduate college major in neuroscience, relative to other college majors, pursue psychiatry relative to other brain-based specialties (neurology and neurosurgery) and internal medicine. The authors analyzed data from AAMC matriculation and graduation surveys for all students who graduated from US medical schools in 2013 and 2014 (n = 29,714). Students who majored in neuroscience, psychology, and biology were compared to all other students in terms of their specialty choice at both time points. For each major, the authors determined rates of specialty choice of psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, and, for comparison, internal medicine. This study employed Chi-square statistic to compare odds of various specialty choices among different majors. Among medical students with an undergraduate neuroscience major (3.5% of all medical students), only 2.3% preferred psychiatry at matriculation, compared to 21.5% who chose neurology, 13.1% neurosurgery, and 11% internal medicine. By graduation, psychiatry specialty choice increased to 5.1% among neuroscience majors while choice of neurology and neurosurgery declined. Psychology majors (OR = 3.16, 95% CI 2.60-4.47) but not neuroscience majors (OR 1.28, 0.92-1.77) were more likely than their peers to choose psychiatry. Psychiatry struggles to attract neuroscience majors to the specialty. This missed opportunity is an obstacle to developing the neuroscience literacy of the workforce and jeopardizes the neuroscientific future of our field. Several potential strategies to address the recruitment challenges exist.

A Survey of Ethics Training in Undergraduate Psychology Programs at Jesuit Universities

Training in ethics is fundamental in higher education among both faith-based and secular colleges and universities, regardless of one’s academic major or field of study. Catholic colleges and universities have included moral philosophy, theology, and applied ethics in their undergraduate curricula for generations. The purpose of this investigation was to determine what, if anything, Jesuit college psychology departments are doing to educate psychology majors regarding ethical issues. A survey method was used to assess the psychology departments of all 28 Jesuits colleges and universities in the United States. A total of 21 of the 28 schools responded and completed the survey. Five schools (23%) reported that they offered a course specifically on ethics in psychology, and three (14%) additional schools offered related courses. Of the eight (38%) that offered ethics-related courses, only one required its majors to take it, and only if they were enrolled in the mental health or forensic psychology tracks. For two (10%) of the schools, the ethics in psychology course counted as a university core ethics requirement; for two others (10%), the class met an elective university ethics requirement for psychology majors.

Factors Affecting Stigma Toward People with Schizophrenia and Video - Based Interventions for Stigma Reduction

Having a mental illness can be a stigmatizing feature in the eyes of the general public, which can negatively impact the lives of people who already suffer from a mental illness. The purpose of the current study was to determine what factors may contribute to mental illness stigma; specifically, stigma toward people who have schizophrenia. Several factors were examined as being potentially related with mental illness stigma: racial background, gender, college major, GPA, previous contact with someone with schizophrenia, and knowledge about mental illness. Based on past research findings, it was hypothesized that Caucasian female students who are psychology majors with a GPA above 3.0 would hold the lowest level of stigma, compared to other groups. It was further hypothesized that those who had previous contact with people with schizophrenia and a relatively high level of knowledge about mental illness would also display lower levels of mental illness stigma. The study also assessed whether exposure to video interviews of people with schizophrenia or educational videos about schizophrenia could decrease mental illness stigma toward this group. Participants consisted of 264 college students from the University of California, Merced. Results indicated that Caucasian participants displayed lower levels of stigma, compared to Asian and Hispanic participants, and that psychology majors displayed marginally less stigma than non-psychology majors. Additionally, participants who had prior contact with schizophrenic individuals displayed lower levels of mental illness stigma than those who had no prior contact. Furthermore, participants who displayed a higher level of knowledge about mental illness exhibited less stigma as well. Contrary to past findings, there were no significant effects of gender or GPA on mental illness stigma. Lastly, it was found that showing participants a video featuring an interview of someone with schizophrenia was successful in subsequent levels of mental illness stigma. However, a video interview of a family who had relatives with schizophrenia and an educational video about schizophrenia did not significantly affect mental illness stigma.These results and their implications were discussed as they pertained to demographic factors that impact mental illness stigma, as well as video-based interventions aimed at lessening stigma. Negative stigma towards mental illness can result in higher risks of misinformation about mental health, higher rates of social isolation for those with mental disorders, as well as higher chances of comorbid illnesses such as depression and anxiety in people with mental illnesses. Because of the negative outcomes that can result from high levels of negative mental illness stigma it is important to examine the underlying factors mentioned in this study.

Careers for Psychology Majors: What Every Student Should Know

Careers for Psychology Majors: What Every Student Should Know

Career Possibilities for Undergraduate Psychology Majors: Spotlight on Public Health

Career Possibilities for Undergraduate Psychology Majors: Spotlight on Public Health