Alternative Careers for Social Psychologists

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Alternative Careers
for Social Psychologists
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Academic

• Organization Behavior programs
• I/O programs
• Consumer Behavior
• Schools of Hotel Management and Tourism
• College/university administration
• Marketing/market research
• Advertising
• Communications

3
Industry

• Educational Testing Service (ETS)
• Gallup Organization
• Field Poll
• Consumer Reports
• Microsoft (they have a Behavior Science Research
  Group)
• Advertising

• Marketing research/marketing (both directors and
  analysts)
• Human resources
• Management consulting
• Insurance companies (training and evaluation,
  among other things)
• Accounting firms (training and evaluation)

4
Industry (continued)

• Start your own software company
• I/O psychologist
• Statistician for stats software company (e.g.,
  SAS, SPSS)
• Data analysis for internet startups
• Research for HMOs
• Research for credit card providers (Visa,
  Mastercard)
• Fair Isaac (credit-scoring company)
• Human-factors engineering

5
Non-Profit Organizations

• Planned Parenthood
• Education Development Center
• Jewish Community Center (JCC)
• Public policy research for National Research
  Council
• Grant writing

• National Council of Juvenile and Family Court
  Judges
• Foundations in the public health domain
• Program manager
• RAND
• HealthPartners Research Foundation

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Non-Profit Organizations

• Education Development Center
• American Research Institute
• Research Triangle Institute (RTI)
• National Opinion Research Center (NORC)

• Substance abuse clinic
• Medical research analysts/statisticians
• Medical schoolhealth promotion component
• Administrative positions with mental health
  agencies

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Non-Profit Organizations

• Runs a social services program
• College/university institutional research offices
• Drinking and driving research
• Effects of sexual content on TV on adolescents

• Program evaluation
• Education research
• Prevention (health, substance abuse) research

8
Government / Military

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Federal Judicial Center
• Department of Justice
• Department of Education
• Department of Health and Human Services
• Civilian research position with Navy

• Civilian research position with Army / Army
  Research Institute
• National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB)
• State Department
• Census Bureau
• Government Accounting Office (GAO)
• CIA

9
Government / Military

• Defense Intelligence Agency
• Department of National Defence (Canada)
• State agencies focusing in evaluation,
  statistics, prevention (alcohol, drugs, child
  abuse, etc)

• NSF
• NIH/NIMH
• NIJ
• FBI
• NASA
• New York Department of Health
• In general, policy analysts

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Other

• Law (expert witness, jury selection, mock trials,
  trial consultant, survey research, focus groups,
  litigation consulting)
• Freelance science writer
• Program evaluation for school systems
• Life coach

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Programs in Applied Psych or Applied Social Psych

• www.cgu.edu/sbos (Claremont Graduate University)
• www.uwindsor.ca/psychology/appliedsocial (Univ.
  of Windsor)
• www.psy.pdx.edu/social/social.htm (Portland State
  University)
• www.luc.edu/psychology/graduate/social.shtml
  (Loyola-Chicago)
• www.colostate.edu/Depts/Psychology/aps/ (Colorado
  State University)