10 Career Goals for Psychology Majors (With Benefits)

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Updated June 6, 2025

Psychologists provide different forms of treatment to help people manage their mental health. In this profession, psychology professionals help identify emotional and behavioral patterns of the brain, provide diagnoses and offer counseling to those with emotional, social and behavioral conditions. Psychology majors and recent graduates working toward a successful career as a psychologist can benefit from outlining the goals they hope to achieve. In this article, we discuss the importance of career goals for a psychology major and provide you with 10 achievable objectives to consider.Related: 19 Different Types of Psychology Majors

Why is it beneficial for psychology majors to set career goals?

It's beneficial for a psychology major to set and achieve career goals to help them get their ideal job, advance in their career and feel fulfilled in their work. For example, the goals of a psychologist may involve developing and providing patients with a variety of helpful tools to help them with mental disorders.With a list of goals and objectives, a psychology major can plan and prepare for each milestone. Setting goals can also allow professionals to advance their expertise and establish their careers to further help their clients and serve a wider range of individuals.Related: 22 Different Types of Psychology

10 career goals for psychology majors

Here are 10 goals a psychologist may consider having:

1. Help patients

As a psychology major, you can help people improve their lives by providing them with therapy and treatments to improve their well-being and outlook on life. As a psychology major, you typically see patients who have mental health illnesses and work to help them by implementing counseling techniques or psychotherapy, which is long-term talk therapy.You can help patients with a variety of problems, including the ability to overcome addictions, learning how to handle stressful situations or managing and coping with negative thoughts and behaviors. Helping others is a great career objective if you want to make a difference in the lives of others.

2. Increase knowledge

You can also help others by administering effective treatments after a patient receives a diagnosis and an assessment has been conducted to determine ways to an individual's mental health. While there are various fields of study for psychologists, every psychologist can strive to determine the best course of treatment for each patient. Increasing your knowledge and expanding your expertise throughout your career and staying up to date on the latest breakthroughs in psychology can help you develop a unique, customized plan for each client.

3. Educate your colleagues

As a psychology major, it may be beneficial for you to collaborate with other students and professionals, so they can learn from your experience in the field. When you work among other experts in similar disciplines, such as other physicians, nurses and social workers, you can help provide an additional resource when assisting them with treating a patient. When you educate and collaborate with others that study behavior and cognitive conditions, you can help them identify additional treatments at a faster rate.Related: 15 Entry-Level Jobs in Psychology

4. Expand your research

Psychology majors study a variety of human behavior by exploring how people behave, think, feel, learn and interact with others. This allows you to expand your research to develop treatments and therapies. When you participate in research you can run experiments to see how others react to various treatments and how they perform in various situations. With research, you can learn how the brain functions and can work toward finding new innovative treatments for those with cognitive ailments.

5. Gain knowledge of applied science

As a psychology major, you can benefit from learning applied sciences, which involves taking existing scientific knowledge and applying it to new theoretical discoveries. You can use this method to better understand how patients with mental illness interact with others, perceive the world and make decisions. While not every psychologist uses applied psychology, you can benefit from learning about theories that may later be beneficial to improving treatments and therapies.

6. Learn from other psychologists

Psychology majors may often network with other psychologists and graduate students from their respective fields of study. This can allow you to learn new treatments and counseling methods to assist with helping your patients. By networking with other professionals who study the brain, you can expand your knowledge by meeting and discussing new treatment solutions. With a network of other psychologists, you can benefit from having a support group that can be helpful when you encounter problems to which you might need answers.

7. Assist in identifying illness

A psychology major can advance into a career where they can help individuals determine and identify the cause of their mental illness. This may include discovering why a person experiences depression or why they have anxiety. By studying the mind and its behaviors, psychology majors can help provide patients with the knowledge and proper treatments that may be necessary to better understand themselves and improve their well-being.

8. Provide ethical services

It can be rewarding for a psychology student and psychologist to be ethical throughout their career. This may include honoring patient confidentiality agreements and considering the best interests of the patient in every circumstance. You may also adhere to a code of ethics for confidentiality laws and regulations. It can be beneficial for a psychology major to adapt and practice a code of ethics early on in their career to be trustworthy and credible and establish a good reputation.

9. Advance your career

A psychology major can progress in their career in order to eventually obtain senior-level positions or start their own private practice. This may include working as a consultant for a government agency or becoming a research specialist in a respective discipline. Some other career advancements may include working as an administrator for a private practice or educational institution. While it may require more education, you can also advance your career by teaching at a college or university. In general, many higher positions may require a doctorate degree in the respective field of study.Related: 100 Psychology Careers To Consider

10. Advance your critical thinking skills

Psychology majors can learn and grow a career by using critical thinking skills to diagnose patients, run experiments and determine accurate conclusions. Critical thinking strategies include approving and disapproving theories and hypotheses. This may include continually asking questions, gathering data and analyzing evidence to help find treatments for those with varying mental health conditions.

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