Looking for your first job or finding a new one can be a daunting task at any time, but it can be particularly grueling when you’re facing a tight job market. If you are not quite sure exactly what type of job to look for with your degree, then be sure to check out this list of psychology-related professions . Many of these jobs require direct education and experience in psychology. Other professions are focused in different areas, yet are often open to those with a background in psychology. Of course, each profession has its own unique set of qualifications and requirements, which may involve graduate study in psychology or another field. If you are still in the early stages of career planning, then be sure the take the psychology career quiz to discover which options are best suited to your needs and interests. Alison Doyle, About.com’s Guide to Job Searching, has a lot of great tips and resources to help job seekers. Learn how to develop a targeted cover letter , and then begin writing your resume . Finally, spend some time preparing for your interview in order to present your best possible self to potential employers. Image: Catherine Lane/iStockPhoto This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: ‘You Say What You Like, Because They Like What You Say’ – http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/731-you-say-what-you-like-because-they-like-what-you-say.html

Definition: Behavioral therapy uses the principles of behaviorism to increase desirable behaviors and reduce or eliminate unwanted ones. Unlike many other forms of therapy, behavioral therapy is focused on taking an action-based approach to changing specific behaviors. Some methods used in this type of therapy including aversion therapy, flooding, systematic desensitization, extinction, and contingency management. Learn more about how this approach works in this overview of behavioral therapy . Image courtesy Piotr Bizior This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: ‘You Say What You Like, Because They Like What You Say’ – http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/731-you-say-what-you-like-because-they-like-what-you-say.html

While many students in the U.S. are probably thinking about the upcoming summer break, it will soon be time to start thinking about final exams. While there are no sure-fire shortcuts when studying for a psychology test, there are things that you can do to get the most out of your study time. By following these relatively simple strategies, you can be sure that you’ll be ready when test day arrives. Learn more about how to study for a psychology test . More Test-Taking Tips Photo by Hannah Boettcher This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: ‘You Say What You Like, Because They Like What You Say’ – http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/731-you-say-what-you-like-because-they-like-what-you-say.html

Marketers utilize a number of different techniques to gain compliance from consumers, including one that is known as the “low-ball” technique. I was recently shopping for a new cell phone plan and experienced this particular compliance strategy first hand. The salesman pitched what sounded like a really great plan for mobile phone service. As we were preparing to sign the two-year service agreement, the salesman suddenly mentioned some additional hidden fees that made what had started out as a great deal turn into a not-so-great deal. This low-ball strategy works by first getting the consumer to make a commitment before raising the terms of making that commitment. The hope is that since you have already dedicated yourself to the decision, you will stick with it even when the costs increase. While I walked away from the cell phone contract once it became clear that we would actually be paying much more than the salesman initially claimed we would be, many consumers find themselves going along with sales pitches that utilize this clever compliance technique. Some other strategies that are frequently used to gain consumer compliance include the “foot-in-the-door” technique (getting you to make a small commitment before requesting a much larger one) and the famous “that’s-not-all” technique (“…but wait, that’s not all! Buy now and you’ll get an extra for FREE!”). Learn more about how compliance works, when and why we are more likely to comply, and some more techniques that are often used in this article on the psychology behind compliance . Image: Lotus Head This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Thatcher’s Tyrants – The Tanks, The Guns, The Christmas Cards .

Definition: Self-concept is the image you have of yourself, including your physical appearance and personality characteristics. Many factors can influence our self-concept, including our childhood experiences, how other people respond to us, and how we relate to other people. Psychologists have suggested that there are a number of different components of self-concept, including our social behavior, physical condition, emotional awareness, family relationships, and academic performance. Learn more about the psychology behind self-concept . Image courtesy Piotr Bizior This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Thatcher’s Tyrants – The Tanks, The Guns, The Christmas Cards .

Today marks 157th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud . Or at least, today marks the day most frequently identified as the day Freud was born. The day on which Freud himself believed he was born. The traditional date differs from the one given in town records where he was born, which list March 6, 1856 as the correct birth date. In an article published on the Psychology Today website, psychologist Jesse Bering described a bit of the history behind the discrepancy: “The story goes something like this: in 1968, a researcher was surprised to discover that records from Freiburg, Moravia, the town where Freud was born, indicated Freud’s birth date as being March 6. It remains unclear as to whether this discrepancy between the date celebrated as his birthday and that which is noted in the town’s register is a simple clerical error or, as at least one scholar suggests, belies a more scandalous affair. Freudian historiographer Marie Balmary has argued that, despite what even Freud himself thought to be true, March 6 is in fact Freud’s real birthday. Balmary alleges that Freud’s parents adopted the phoney May 6 date to hide the fact that Freud’s mother, Amalie, was already pregnant when she married his father Jakob.” He’s been described as one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century, but he is also one of the most controversial. His life and legacy continue to fascinate, but his theories are often dismissed as outdated and unscientific. While he can be a polarizing figure in psychology history, there is no question that Freud left an indelible mark on psychology as well as other disciplines. On the anniversary of his birth, take a moment to learn more about his life and influence. Photo by Max Halberstadt This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Thatcher’s Tyrants – The Tanks, The Guns, The Christmas Cards .

If you have ever spent any time browsing forums devoted to psychology, you have probably noticed that there are a few common questions that people ask on a regular basis. In many cases, students interested in a career in psychology are the ones posing such questions. Fortunately, we have some of the answers to these frequently asked questions. Check out the links below to learn more: This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Thatcher’s Tyrants – The Tanks, The Guns, The Christmas Cards .

Psychologist and educational theorist David Kolb developed a four-stage learning cycle designed to describe how learning by experience takes place. This experiential learning cycle contains four different phases: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. According to Kolb, we can begin at any point in this cycle. Learning, he suggests, is essentially a process that involves looping around and around this cycle. It is the four phases of this cycle that serve as the basis for Kolb’s learning styles. While learning styles are often criticized as overly simplistic or lacking in empirical research, Kolb’s model remains one of the most popular today. Each of the four learning styles is characterized by preferences in two areas of the learning cycle. For example, people with an assimilating learning style prefer to learn though abstract conceptualization and reflective observation. In other words, they like to think about abstract ideas and combine these thoughts with their own observations. The accommodating learning style, on the other hand, is characterized by preferences for concrete experience and active experimentation. These learners like to gain hands-on-experience and then experiment with different methods and ideas. Assimilators tend to be watchers, while accomodators tend to be doers. Learn more about all four styles as well as some of the major support and criticism for the theory in this overview of Kolb’s learning styles This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Thatcher’s Tyrants – The Tanks, The Guns, The Christmas Cards .

Raymond Cattell was an American psychologists whose work influenced psychology in a number of different ways. Not only did he introduce the concepts of fluid and crystallized intelligence , he is also well-known for his 16-factor model of personality. Perhaps his greatest achievement was his work pioneering the use of factor analysis and multivariate analysis. In one 2002 review, Cattell was ranked as the 16th most eminent psychologists of the twentieth-century. Learn more about his life, career, and theories in this brief biography of Raymond Cattell . Image: Cattell Family/Wikimedia Commons This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Thatcher’s Tyrants – The Tanks, The Guns, The Christmas Cards .

One of the most frequent requests I receive is for assistance choosing a psychology graduate program. Which program is right for me based on my interests and goals? Can you help me select a social psychology program? Which school in Texas has the best psychology program? For obvious reasons, I cannot answers all of these questions. Not only is it impossible to be familiar with every single program that is available, I also have no way of fully understanding your unique situation, including your educational background and goals. When you are trying to select a psychology graduate program, there is no quick and easy shortcut, adviser, or online tool that can definitively tell you “Hey, this is the perfect program for you!” Simply put, you need to do the research yourself. Only you know exactly what you are looking for and what your criteria are. The search can be tough, but making the effort will be well worth it. Start by making a list of things that you are looking for in a psychology graduate program. What type of degrees are you interested in? How long are you willing to spend pursuing your degree? You might also want to consider whether or not you might be interested in earning your degree online. Once you have a list of factors that are important to you, it is time to start the hunt for the perfect school. One option is to check out online directories to find programs that suit your needs. If attending school in a specific geographic location is important, you might contact schools in that area to find out which programs are available. After you have compiled a list of potential programs, then next step is to compare and contrast to determine which ones best meet your already established criteria. If you need additional assistance, consider checking out this list of things you should consider before picking a psychology graduate program as well as our psychology graduate school FAQ . For those of you who have already chosen a program, be sure to visit the Graduate School site here at About.com for lots of great admissions tips including when to apply, how to get letters of recommendation, and how to write a great admissions essay. Image: Tiffany Szerpicki This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Thatcher’s Tyrants – The Tanks, The Guns, The Christmas Cards .