Can I work while studying?
Whether you are earning a traditional or an online PhD in psychology, there will be plenty of excellent job opportunities that give you in-depth patient interaction and an authoritative standing in the psychology community. These jobs will carry more responsibility than those available to a psychology undergraduate or a student looking at lower level psychology certifications.
If you have a clinical psychology degree online, you can apply for a yearlong hospital internship during your fifth or sixth year of study, where you’ll work as a therapist or researcher under professional supervision.
If your PhD in psychology is in counseling or you are currently working toward your social psychology doctorate online, your job opportunities will be different. Graduate psychology departments like the one at Rider University suggest that social psychology majors work at child protective services or hospitals, or they open up their own counseling service.
Many of the same options are available if you are earning an education psychology PhD on-campus or looking at school psychology doctoral programs online. Both concentrations allow you to work as school therapists or counselors for groups like prisoners or the mentally handicapped.
Traditional PhD students may have a more difficult time working because of the pressing demands of their dissertation and coursework, but if you are enrolled in one of the top online PhD psychology programs, you will have to rely on your work experience to pursue a career track in psychology because there are no accredited online psychology doctorates.
Are there any scholarship opportunities for traditional or online students?
A doctorate can be expensive whether you are attending a modest traditional college or one of the best online doctoral programs in psychology. Luckily, institutions like the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Foundation offer scholarships to support both traditional and online doctoral programs for psychology.
These organizations offer scholarships like the $3,000 Ruth G. and Joseph D. Matarazzo Scholarship and the $1,000 Peter and Malina James & Dr. Louis P. James Legacy Scholarship. Despite the fact that you cannot pursue an accredited online doctorate in psychology, you can still apply for these scholarships because they are more dependent on the strength of your dissertation and your dedication to psychological academia. It is important for you to consider that the applicant pool will be large and competitive since students at any graduate level can apply, regardless of their educational platform
Many of these scholarships require a 3-page letter of recommendation from a graduate advisor and a 3-page dissertation outline.
Are there any notable people who have earned PhDs?
While you look at PhD psychology online programs or more traditional schools, refer to how certain influential psychologists earned their degrees. Granted, they predate the Internet, but studying famous psychologists will give you a sense of the best psychology programs in the country and show you how psychology has evolved over time.
If you are pursuing a school psychology degree, take time to learn more about Steven Pinker’s studies on visual cognition after he earned his doctorate from Harvard University in 1979.
Widely regarded as the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud graduated with his doctoral degree in 1881 from University of Vienna. Freud used talk therapy and free association to develop theories about the human subconscious.
Carl Jung earned his doctorate from University of Basel and championed the practice of dream analysis as well as the concept of individuation, which states that the integration of the subconscious and conscious is key to a person feeling whole.
Ivan Pavlov received his doctoral degree from the Academy of Medical Surgery in 1878. He studied the gastric function and salivary glands of dogs to trace the connection between cognitive functions and anatomical systems.
G. Stanley Hall was the first American to receive a PhD in psychology and went on to become the first president of the American Psychological Association. His studies on child cognition helped found educational psychology.
Do you recommend any blogs that I should follow?
As you look at traditional and online doctorate degrees in psychology, it is important to stay up to date on the latest psychological studies as well as the responsibilities you will have as a doctoral student. These psychology blogs are run by students pursuing either traditional or online psychology and collectively provide an accurate depiction of life as a PhD student.
Dana C. Leighton, a PhD student from the University of Arkansas at Lafayette, writes Psychology and More, a blog on which she posts about interesting ideas and facts she learns from her classes while providing a window into the life of a doctoral student.
The Frontal Cortex is a blog from a Columbia University graduate and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. In his blog, he views pop culture through the prism of psychology, with recent articles detailing the psychology of casinos and how the brain perceives art.
University College London researcher Jeremy Dean reposts psychological studies from academic journals and relates psychological principles to everyday life on his blog, PsyBlog.
Doctoral School Blog is a blog that teaches you the skills needed to be a principal investigator and research associate while providing tips for writing your dissertation. The blog also highlights various research opportunities.
Cal Poly Dolly is the blog of Nichol Elise, a full-time student at California Polytechnic State University. On it she recounts her everyday life as a doctoral student, including her preparation for her dissertation and her views on cognitive processes.
