Why Choose Psychology as a Career? JOHN SOLAS

Queensland University of Technology

hile psychology students expend a great deal of effort scrutinising the motives of individuals, the W effort is not nearly so often extended to themselves.

This constitutes the loss of a vital dimension of experience both for the profession and its training schools. In this article, the entry motives of a cohort of first-year undergraduate students for choosing psychology as a career are recovered, acknowledged, and aired.

While motivation has been the subject of intensive psycho- logical research (Arkes & Garske, 1977), few studies have been conducted into the content of the motives of those entering the profession. There is, however, a history of research on socialisation in psychology which dates back to the beginning of the discipline (Fryer, 1931), and a number of studies have focused on the socialisation of psychology students during their courses (Furnham, 1988; Keyes & Hogberg, 1990; Lunneborg & Wilson, 1985; Tipton & White, 1988; Ware & Meyer, 1981). The consistent empha- sis of these studies has been on values or their apparently less abstract indicators - attitudes.

While these studies have sought to document choices and changes in the personal values of psychology students over a course of professional education, they are fundamen- tally problematic, since values constitute axiomatic assump- tions and, therefore, are not verifiable by direct research. Indeed, such values are difficult enough to identify, let alone measure. Qually confounding is the presumption of a single personal or professional value base. In addition, what is not commonly made explicit in such studies are the reasons which bring people to psychology. As Feather (1975) has noted, there are probably aspects of personality apart from values and abilities that a person considers when choosing between alternative careers. He also notes that the choice a person makes may be strongly influenced by significant others, and also that choices are limited because a person’s social, economic, and educational milieu “sharply circum- scribe the extent to which various alternatives are even considered” (p. 10). In short, values and attitudes alone cannot account for vocational choice because they are mediated by other considerations, some internal and some external to the person. In any event, professional ideology

eventually overshadows or obscures the initial motives that lie behind an individual’s career choice (Simon, 1970). As Simon explains, “since its inception, and despite the explicit liberalism of many of its practitioners, psychology has been committed to a political perspective that has consistently led it away from a productive involvement in social change” @. 331). An important question for the future of psychology is, therefore, What motivates today’s recruits?

This paper presents the findings of a study of students’ motives for doing psychology. Unlike previous research, this investigation was designed to take account of external influences on the student’s choice. Nevertheless, the study was not designed to generalise about what motivates people to do psychology. Rather, it aimed to focus on a localised instance of students’ early motives in order to make these more vivid and point to possible refinements in the more general understanding of such accounts.

Method Subjects The study participants were a cohort of first-year undergrad- uate students majoring in psychology in the School of Social Science at Queensland University of Technology (N = 98). The cohort was characteristically female (78%; a statistic that reflects the continued feminisation of the profession [Keyes & Hogberg, 19901). At the start of the course, 42% of students were 25 years or younger; 42% were between 26 and 39; the remaining 16% were between 40 and 60. Consistent with previously reports (Broom, Duncan-Jones, Jones, & McDonnell, 1977), the majority of students (57%) came from middle-class backgrounds. About two thirds of them (67%) had attended a State high school. Almost a third (29%) held a bachelor degree or diploma. The majority of students (62%) had known a psychologist either profession- ally or socially prior to entering the course.

Procedure A questionnaire was administered to all first-year students majoring in psychology at the beginning of the 1994 acade- mic year. It consisted of 19 items designed to obtain infor- mation about their educational, familial, occupational, political, religious, and social background and about those who most influenced their decision to major in psychology. A sentence-completion test also formed part of the question-

Address for correspondence: John Solas, School of Social Science, Queensland University of Technology, PO Box 284, Zillmere QLD 4034. Australia.

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naire. The students were asked to complete the following statements as many times as possible: 1. Through entering psychology I hope to achieve . .. 2. Through entering psychology I hope to avoid ..,

They were then asked to rank each response in order of importance. A total of 98 usable questionnaires were retuned

Analysis The responses were classified into 10 categories following a procedure devised by Turner (1981). Six categories pertained to what students hoped to achieve by majoring in psychology. These were help others, increase knowledge and understanding, personal growth and development, social change, and tangible and nontangible rewards. The remaining four categories related to what they hoped to avoid, and consisted of damage to self, damage to others, dissatisfaction, and negative personal qualities.

In order to gauge the influence of demographic variables, age, sex, marital status, education, father’s occupation, significant others, and religious and political commitment were correlated, using Spearman’s rank corre- lation coefficient, with students’ entry motives.

Results All students responded to each of the achieve and avoid questions. The average number of responses to the questions about what students wished to achieve and avoid was 4.4 and 2.4 respectively. Students evidently found it much easier to express what they wanted to achieve by choosing psychology as a career than what they hoped to avoid.

The results showed that a primary motive for majoring in psychology was the prospect of achieving increased knowledge and understanding (especially about how to predict and manage individual behaviour), tangible rewards (remuneration, career, status, and satisfaction), and personal growth and development (intellectual stimulation and greater self-awareness). Although they were also motivated by a desire to help others, this was not considered an end in itself but rather a means to further the end of obtaining a personally rewarding career. It was interesting to note that slightly more students intended to begin their careers in the private (30%) rather than the public (28%) sector (the remaining 42% of students stated that they did not know where they intended to begin their careers). Achieving social change (at a fundamental, macro level) and the nontangible rewards of the profession (collegiality, auton- omy, and variety) were of concern to only 1 % of students.

Above all, students wished to avoid dissatisfaction (boredom, competition, red tape, and routine) with their chosen profession (36%). They also hoped to avoid negative personal qualities (prejudice, narrow-mindedness, and self- centredness) (30%) and self-damage (stress and burnout) (20%). Evidently, although the students wished to have a rewarding career, this was not to be achieved at their own expense. By the same token, avoiding damaging others was of minor concern to this group of students (13%).

Finally, the results showed that the only significant influence on students’ motives for entering psychology was age. Age was correlated (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient 0.19 p < .05) with what students most wanted to avoid in their bid to become psychologists. More specifi- cally, the younger the student the greater the intention to avoid damaging him- or herself and others, acquiring negative personal qualities, and pursuing an unsatisfying career.

Discussion The general pattern of responses suggested that, upon enter- ing a major in psychology, the students in this study were more serf rather than other oriented, reflecting what Triandis, McCusker, and Hui (1990) refer to as “idiocen- tric” rather than “allocentric” personalities @. 1007). The quality of giving, a quality indicative of collectivist (as opposed to individualist) cultures (Triandis, McCusker, and Hui, 1990; Schwartz, 1990), was subordinate to that of taking. The students in this study wished to acquire howl- edge and understanding in order, first of all, to grow and develop, and then to help others.

What was particularly lacking amongst these recruits was moral and political commitment. The majority of students (57%) did not consider having a religious or politi- cal outlook particularly important in choosing psychology as a career.

The foregoing raises two specific considerations for educational practice in psychology: 1. While psychology students spend a great deal of time

scrutinising the motives of individuals, just as much effort needs to be expended on examining their own career motives. Schools and departments of psychology could help recruits discover and clarify what motivates them to become psychologists. This would seem to be an important prerequisite for academic advising, a neglected dimension in the design of undergraduate programs (Titley & Titley, 1982).

2. The recruits who participated in this study were evidently oriented more to self than other. In the process of exploring recruits’ motives for choosing psychology as a career, highlighting the ethical and political bases of psychology may help to put self and other - and the quite bewildering array of psychological skills and knowledge to be studied - into perspective.

Conclusion The motivational accounts elicited from students prior to the commencement of professional training proved to be useful in providing a relatively unsociulised source of information about themselves as entrants, their chosen profession, and their career aspirations. The majority of students in th is study were motivated by the prospect of entering a career that promised opportunities for personal advancement, financial reward, and, to a lesser extent, helping others. By the same token, these students hoped that through doing psychology they would avoid boring, routine, monotonous, and otherwise unsatisfying work. Their motivational accounts were also marked by the tendency prevalent in psychology to stand apart from, rather than be a part of, the moral and political complexities of living (Simon, 1970).

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