A question about Psychology

[Jelly]

Well, I'd like to be a psychologist when I'm older, and I was wondering if anyone knew what sort of qualifcations/GCSE's I would need?

[Alys Kinch]

*grins* pass a psych test.

[Haxorsist]

I guess it depends on the country. In Scandinavia you have to get a master's degree in psychology, but in the US for example, I think you need a doctoral degree. Sooo, where will you be shrinking brains? :D

[Jelly]

England/Britain  :D

[Haxorsist]

Can't help you there, but if you'd ever consider Norway, it's a five year master's course, and admittance is based on your GPA. So that's kinda all you have to do, pass high school. Our psychologists are obviously terrible...

 

J/K. =)

[Alys Kinch]

why don't you get a course book from the institute that you want to attend? that should give you and idea of where you will have to start. possibly initiate contact between yourself and the proffesor that teaches the major.

[Jelly]

Institute? What's that?

[Alys Kinch]

school, college, university, institute of higher education.

[Niamh Sedai]

Heya Jelly :)

 

You don't need specific GCSE's to be a psychologist. You don't even need AS/A Levels, though you can do psychology at that level and I think a lot of psychology undergraduates have done it. You would need a degree to be a proper psychologist though- at the very least a Bsc.

 

You want to start looking at GCSE's and A Levels which are relevant though. A science would probably helpful- Chemistry or Biology (though if you're doing GCSE's you'll be doing them already). You can do psychology, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'd be wasting your time as you'd be repeating your material as you progressed. History, Geography- anything which shows you can remember facts and be analytical. Languages look great on any Uni application at any level.

 

Good Luck and I hope that gave you some stuff to think about :)

[Cadsuane]

Psych programs (at least in the US) have their students learning statistics and analyzing data, and as you study, both in school and for your own education as a psychologist, you will be reading journal articles that spout lots of stats, and you'll need to know what they mean so you can figure out if the study was actually useful, or if they're presenting mediocre results in the most flattering way possible. I'd recommend being comfortable with highschool math and basic stats before you go to uni, so that you are not playing catch up when you get there.

[Jelly]

Thankyou everyone :)

[Niamh Sedai]

Oh and I also advise looking at UCAS.

 

www.ucas.com

 

That's the University and College Admissions Service. I'm assuming that as you live in the UK, you're likely  to go to Uni here. If you Course Search for psychology you can look at what Grades different Unis require for you to get at A Level and see if they want any specific subjects.

 

*hugs*

[Sirayn]

Based on my admittedly brief experience of learning psychology, I recommend maths. One unit of A-level psychology is entirely based on statistics - it's called Research Methods and it concerns data handling, standard deviation etc. Maths will also teach you to be deeply suspicious of the ways psychological studies present their findings. ;) Repeat after me: correlation is not causation!

[Dwynwen]

I don't know about England, but I'm almost done with my doctorate in clinical psychology here in the U.S.  Over here, requirements for licensure vary by state.  Most require you to get a doctorate, then spend at least one year accruing postdoctoral hours before you can take the national boards and the state boards.  The American Psychological Association has resources that explain everything for us, so I would imagine that the British Psychological Society would explain everything you need to know on their website:  http://www.bps.org.uk/

[Jelly]

Thanks ;D