Psychology in the World

If I could recommend a single class to everyone, no matter what their academic or professional goals, it would be Psychology. It was something I didn't realize as a junior in high school taking my first Psych class. Now, 8 months after graduating from college, I have been exposed to many seemingly unrelated situations in which general knowledge of the mind helped immensely.

It is almost impossible to find a career that doesn't require speaking with people. Subjects like social psych and personality psych can help you understand the actions of others and therefore prepare for them. Here are just a few specific career examples that benefit greatly from understanding the human mind.

The first is my own field, Marketing. As Marketers, one of the first things we learn is to find a target audience. This is a group of people with similar characteristics like age, income, interest, etc. Once we have a target audience we then need to find out how they act... that's psychology.

Lawyers also need to know about the human mind. A lawyers job can be seen as the art of persuasion. They must find the best arguments that combined will have the biggest impact on the jury. An argument that works for one person may not work for the another.

Finally, the people who deserve to be celebrated everyday, teachers. They work with a mix of personalities, and motivation levels every single day. Understanding the different ways in which people learn can be key to finding an effective and engaging lesson plan.

These are just three examples of careers that are empowered by the knowledge of the human mind. In reality psychology can be utilized in any circumstance.