2 answers
Beth
Student
Miami Gardens, Florida
19
Questions
2 answers
Michael Russell
Clinical Neuropsychologist
26
Answers
Houston, Texas
Updated
Michael’s Answer
I fear that your question reflects a basic confusion that even some college students make when selecting a graduate school. Do you want to be a health care provider who sees patients for money or do you want to work for a university and make your money getting grants for research and teaching? It boils down to that. If you want to see people for pay, you want to be a clinical psychologist and if you want to get grants and research you are an experimental psychologist. Different training, different employment options.
A research psychologist tries for tenure at a university, they write papers, publish books, get grants, and some percent do pretty well if it all works out... if they don't make tenure and don't get their research funded, then they are in trouble, and will have to take a lower level job--perhaps teaching psychology at a Community College type place--and don't make much money at all. The ranks of professors are Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Full Professor -- full pays about 170,000 plus perks. Instructors can be as low a $5000 per class taught on a per-class basis.
So if you don't want to compete on the academic front and maybe win (or maybe lose) you can get a clinical degree that gives you the right to get a license to practice the profession of psychology and charge money for services. That doesn't mean you personally charge, like in private practice, but the company that pays your salary can get reimbursed for your time in "relative value units" (RVU's). As a clinical psychologist (yes and counseling and school -- usually separate licenses.) you have many more options open to you--including university--and can expect to earn from 80-120k a year as your career progresses.
It boils down to license to practice or not. With no license, you need a faculty job.
A research psychologist tries for tenure at a university, they write papers, publish books, get grants, and some percent do pretty well if it all works out... if they don't make tenure and don't get their research funded, then they are in trouble, and will have to take a lower level job--perhaps teaching psychology at a Community College type place--and don't make much money at all. The ranks of professors are Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Full Professor -- full pays about 170,000 plus perks. Instructors can be as low a $5000 per class taught on a per-class basis.
So if you don't want to compete on the academic front and maybe win (or maybe lose) you can get a clinical degree that gives you the right to get a license to practice the profession of psychology and charge money for services. That doesn't mean you personally charge, like in private practice, but the company that pays your salary can get reimbursed for your time in "relative value units" (RVU's). As a clinical psychologist (yes and counseling and school -- usually separate licenses.) you have many more options open to you--including university--and can expect to earn from 80-120k a year as your career progresses.
It boils down to license to practice or not. With no license, you need a faculty job.
Hassan Al
Product Management Professional
398
Answers
Austin, Texas
Updated
Hassan’s Answer
According to https://work.chron.com/careers-biological-psychology-14430.html the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that psychologists, such as those in the sub-field of biological psychology, earn a median wage of $80,37. It's unclear of Biopsychologists earn more or less than Psychologists.