Working as a psychology researcher

Identify the content area of psychology that interests you most. What do you do extra reading about? What area do you ask the professor questions about outside of class time?
Attend a conference. Which presentations do you most enjoy?
Talk with psychologists doing work in your area(s) of interest. Find out the formal name for psychologists doing what you want to do.

Here is a list of the divisions of the American Psychological Association (http://www.apa.org/about/division.html) Which would you be interested in joining?
For example, you might be interested in the cognitive development of children. Then you would seek a degree in developmental psychology (Ph.D.)

It is common for people interested in psychology to have several areas of interest. It is also common for research interests to vary over one's career. Consider your target area as a starting point. Or apply to programs in several areas.
Identify graduate programs noted for scholarly productivity in the content area of your interests. How? Journal articles that interest you list institutional affiliations for the authors. Apply to a program that has a researcher with whom you would like to work. Caution: Check with the school to make sure that the person is still there.
Identify programs using the APA's "Guide to Graduate Study in Psychology."
Talk with a professor in your department about the researchers in your field of interest.
Register your vita with the Council on Undergraduate Research (http://www.cur.org/ugreg/login.asp) vita registration site. It will then be available to graduate programs.
Although it is typical to seek a Ph.D., you might consider entering a master's program first, such as Western Kentucky University Masters in Applied Experimental (http://edtech.wku.edu/~aexp/)

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Presented by the M.A. - Clinical Psychology (http://edtech.wku.edu/~psych/areas/clinic/) and Ed. S. - School Psychology (http://edtech.wku.edu/~psych/areas/school/) Graduate Programs of Western Kentucky UniversityContact joseph.bilotta@wku.edu

Questions or comments about the graduate programs: contact psych@edtech.cebs.wku.edu
Questions or comments about the website design: contact information