JOB SKILLS POSSESSED BY PSYCHOLOGY MAJORS

"When people consider the question, 'What am I able to do with a bachelors degree in psychology,' they are usually thinking about what kind of job they might get. But there is another way of looking at this question that you should consider as part of your career planning. That is, you should seriously think about what in fact you are able to do in terms of the skills you may have acquired while majoring in psychology" (Edwards, 1989, p. 1). These wise words are the introduction to the following lists of skills that Edwards compiled for his students at Loyola University which have been modified and expanded to fit Sweet Briar College.

Human Services Skills: These are skills necessary for successful employment in situations where direct services are provided to individuals who are in need of help.

• Perform institutional research and evaluation.

• Write reports and proposals clearly and objectively.

• Organize and lead groups, organizations, or committees.

• Recognize and understand behavioral and emotional disorders.

• Respond in an unbiased and tolerant way to individual differences.

• Collect, record, and report statistical and qualitative information.

• Perform interviews to learn about people's history, problems, and plans.

• Contribute to program or treatment planning, evaluation, and implementation.

• Communicate effectively and sensitively in both individual and group situations.

• Obtain information about problems through library research and personal contacts.

• Critically evaluate theories and research and apply the results to solve problems.

• Analyze problems on the basis of personal experience and psychological principles.

• Understand and modify your attitudes and actions in interactions with other people.

Research Skills: These are some of the types of skills essential to jobs in which information based on basic or applied research is provided to assist decision making.

• Construct and administer questionnaires.

• Use a variety of types of research equipment.

• Collect, organize, analyze, and interpret data.

• Present verbal presentations clearly and persuasively.

• Defend ideas in a clear, objective, nondogmatic manner.

• Be familiar with a variety of research methods and designs.

• Recruit research subjects and treat them in an ethical manner.

• Write reports clearly, concisely, objectively, and in the correct style.

• Use library resources to research problems and prepare literature reviews.

• Identify problems and suggest solutions on the basis of research findings.

• Create easily understood graphs, tables, and verbal descriptions of results.

• Select and compute appropriate statistical tests and interpret their results.

• Assemble, interpret, and critically analyze research findings in specific areas.

• Use computers to write reports, analyze data, and perform bibliographic searches.

• Deal effectively with financial, temporal, and personnel constraints on research.