Career profile Psychology Professor

Table of Contents

• What does a Psychology Professor do?
• What is a typical salary for a Psychology Professor?
• What personality traits are common among Psychology Professors?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Psychology Professors need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Psychology Professor do?

Psychology Professors teach courses in psychology, such as child, clinical, and developmental psychology, and psychological counseling.

In addition, Psychology Professors includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

What kind of tasks does a Psychology Professor perform regularly?

Psychology Professors are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as anatomy, therapeutic recreation, and conditioning theory.
• Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
• Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory work, projects, assignments, and papers.
• Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, giving presentations at conferences, and serving on committees in professional associations.
• Compile, administer, and grade examinations or assign this work to others.
• Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, or handouts.
• Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
• Recruit and hire new faculty.
• Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
• Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in scholarly journals, books, or electronic media.
• Develop and use multimedia course materials and other current technology, such as online courses.
• Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
• Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
• Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department heads.
• Advise students on academic and vocational curricula, and on career issues.
• Write grant proposals to procure external research funding and review others' grant proposals.
• Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
• Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
• Write letters of recommendation for students.
• Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
• Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and performance pieces.

The above responsibilities are specific to Psychology Professors. More generally, Psychology Professors are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Psychology Professor salary?

What personality traits are common among Psychology Professors?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Psychology Professor are usually higher in their Social, Investigative, and Artistic interests.

Psychology Professors typically have very strong Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Also, Psychology Professors typically have very strong Investigative interests. Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Lastly, Psychology Professors typically have moderate Artistic interests. Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Psychology Professor tend to value Achievement, Working Conditions, and Recognition.

Most importantly, Psychology Professors strongly value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Second, Psychology Professors strongly value Working Conditions. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer job security and good working conditions.

Lastly, Psychology Professors strongly value Recognition. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer advancement, potential for leadership, and are often considered prestigious.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Psychology Professors must consistently demonstrate qualities such as achievement/effort, dependability, and independence.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Psychology Professors, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Psychology Professors need?

Many Psychology Professors have earned a graduate degree. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a doctoral degree, such as a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D..

Psychology Professors may need some on-the-job training, but most candidates will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Educational degrees among Psychology Professors

• 0.6% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 1.4% completed high school or secondary school
• 2.0% completed some college coursework
• 1.8% earned a Associate's degree
• 14.6% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 32.1% earned a Master's degree
• 47.4% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Psychology Professors

Important Abilities needed by Psychology Professors

Psychology Professors must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Psychology Professors need abilities such as oral expression, written comprehension, and written expression in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Psychology Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Psychology Professors

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Psychology Professors frequently use skills like learning strategies, reading comprehension, and speaking to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Psychology Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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