Is Psychology a STEM Major?
Credit: Tom Werner / DigitalVision / Getty Images- Psychology is considered a STEM major. It studies the mind and behavior using scientific and other verifiable methods to conduct field research.
- Some of the most common undergraduate classes you can take in this major are behavioral neuroscience, neurobiology, and research methods.
- If a school doesn’t classify its psychology program as STEM, students can miss out on STEM-designated scholarship opportunities.
For over a decade, psychologists have fought to educate the public that psychology is a discipline of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Still, the debate over whether psychology is STEM lingers.
Despite what Redditors would tell you, psychology is more than taking Rorschach inkblot tests and studying the Freudian Oedipus complex theory. Some students even poke fun at the misconceptions.
“It’s somehow less impressive to understand the motives behind human actions and use that knowledge toward marketing, politics, and education than it is to figure out why an object falls back down when you throw it,” Trinity University psychology student Riya Vankamamidi wrote.
However, the impact the debate has on psychology education and research is no joke.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), many colleges and universities don’t classify their psychology programs as STEM — a designation necessary for students to earn scholarships and fellowships from federal agencies and even secure extensions on international students’ visas.
Here’s what makes psychology a STEM major, and why the debate impedes the field’s progress.
Interested in Pursuing a Psychology Major?
Psychology majors use science to study human behavior, but there are many non-STEM careers you can enter with a bachelor’s in psychology.
What Makes Psychology a STEM Major?
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. It uses scientific methods and field experiments to test what we know about human behavior.
It spans applied psychology and experimental, biological, cognitive, lifespan developmental, personality, and social psychology research.
Classes you’ll likely take as an undergraduate psychology major include:
- Behavioral neuroscience
- Neurobiology
- Research methods
- Psychopathology
- Child psychology and developmental psychology
Psychologists are also statisticians. Recording, analyzing, and interpreting data is essential to any experiment. Many psychology majors pair their knowledge with statistics, computer science, economics, and other disciplines where you ask questions and get accurate data.
Despite the scientific principles psychology majors study — and the decades-long identity of psychology as a hub science — some schools don’t classify psychology as a STEM major. In psychology, you might need to choose between a bachelor of arts (BA) or a bachelor of science (BS) degree.
Typically, a BA in psychology requires fewer STEM courses and prepares you for careers and a future education that is less “research-oriented.” A BS prepares you for STEM fields and helps you understand concepts important to research and data analysis.
Why Do Some Argue Psychology Isn’t STEM?
National organizations like the National Science Foundation (NSF) recognize psychology as STEM, but some colleges and universities still do not classify their programs accordingly. This inconsistency impacts funding and recognition for psychology researchers and their students.
According to the APA, the NSF uses classification codes to determine students’ eligibility for STEM scholarships. When a college does not classify psychology as a STEM major, the students in the program could miss out on crucial funding programs like the S-STEM program.
The argument against psychology as STEM is a dated one.
A 2009 APA report places some blame on psychology’s public perception, which only highlights therapeutic work and minimizes it by portraying it as intuitive advice that anyone could give.
A survey from the same year found less than a quarter of respondents believed that scientific research contributed “a great deal” to the practice of psychology.
The psychology field has been winning the argument in the years since.
In 2020, a study published in Teaching of Psychology found that students agreed that psychology is a science. However, the effects of the argument remain — students also reported viewing psychology as less scientific than the natural sciences.
Do You Have to Go Into STEM as a Psychology Major?
The short answer is no. Psychology allows students to jump into “applied psychology” — jobs where they use statistical analysis and create, develop, and research surveys. But majors can also utilize their skills in counseling, social work, marketing, and so much more.
“We live in a world of information, misinformation, and disinformation, and what prepares people well to navigate all this information?” Professor Patrick Harrison, director of Instructional Development in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, previously told BestColleges.
“The ability to use evidence-based critical thinking, the ability to not only evaluate the claims of other people but to make claims and defend them with evidence in their own lives.
“People go into this because it changes the way you think. You can be a political analyst. You could be a meteorologist. You could really do anything with this kind of methodology.”
Harrison emphasized you don’t have to earn a master’s or Ph.D. to be successful — there are plenty of careers you can pursue with a psychology bachelor’s degree.
However, if you want to enter into academia or qualify to become a licensed social worker or clinical mental health counselor, you will need to continue your education in master’s and Ph.D. programs.
If STEM doesn’t interest you as much, mental health counseling, human resources, social work, or any client-facing career may be for you. Whatever your choice, psychology gives you a basic understanding of how people behave and equips you to work better with them.