Social Psychology Network

Maintained by Scott Plous, Wesleyan University

Job Market by Area of Psychology

Will Eat for Food    Want to know what the job market looks like in a specific area of experimental psychology? This page contains a breakdown of job advertisements appearing in the APS Observer Employment Bulletin between 1991-1996 [Source: Matthew C. Bell and Adam S. Goodie. (1997, September). A comparative survery of job prospects for the period 1991-1996. APS Observer, 16-18.]

Although there is no guarantee that these numbers will remain constant over time, they provide at least one measure of the job market in various subdisciplines within psychology.

Job Market Categories
General Job Ad Category Number of Ads % of All Jobs
General Psychology 736 13.4
Clinical Psychology 609 11.1
Social Psychology 553 10.1
Cognitive Psychology 413 7.5
Experimental Psychology 408 7.4
Developmental Psychology 401 7.3
Industrial-Organizational Psych. 349 6.4
Quantitative Psychology 292 5.3
Neurocience-Related 246 4.5
Health Psychology 235 4.3
Applied Psychology 178 3.2
Educational Psychology 159 2.9
Physiological Psychology 135 2.7
Sensation/Perception Psychology 113 2.0
Behavioral/Learning Psychology 102 1.8
Biological Psychology 98 1.8
Personality Psychology 97 1.8
Substance Abuse 79 1.3
Multicultural Psychology 62 1.1
Language Studies 58 1.0
Public Sector 47 0.9
Family Psychology 44 0.8
Gender Psychology 40 0.7
Miscellaneous 41 0.7
Total 5,495 100.0


General Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of General Jobs
General (chair & director) 478 65.0
Postdoctoral 229 31.1
General 18 2.5
Research 7 0.9
Other 4 0.5
Subtotal 736 100.0


Clinical Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Clinical Jobs
Clinical 410 67.3
Counseling 73 11.9
Child Clinical 54 8.9
Mental Health 14 2.3
Abnormal 10 1.6
Evaluation 9 1.5
Medical/Medicine 7 1.2
Clinical Neuropsychology 3 0.5
Medicine 3 0.5
Psychiatry 3 0.5
Other 23 3.8
Subtotal 609 100.0


Social Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Social Jobs
Social 380 68.7
Social-Personality 130 23.5
Emotion (& motivation) 12 2.1
Social (applied) 7 1.3
Social Cognition 7 1.3
Violence 7 1.3
Social Issues 6 1.1
Other 4 0.7
Subtotal 553 100.0


Cognitive Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Cognitive Jobs
Cognitive 270 65.4
Cognition 43 10.4
Cognitive Neuroscience 41 9.9
Memory 22 5.3
Reasoning 8 1.9
Decision-Making 6 1.5
Human-Computer Interaction 6 1.5
Cognitive Science 5 1.2
Other 12 2.9
Subtotal 413 100.0


Experimental Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Experimental Jobs
Experimental 394 96.6
Experimental Psychopathology 11 2.7
Other 3 0.7
Subtotal 408 100.0


Developmental Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Developmental Jobs
Developmental 256 63.8
Lifespan (development) 33 8.2
Pediatric 22 5.5
Aging 17 4.2
Human Development 16 4.0
Lifespan 15 3.7
Child Development 6 1.5
Pediatric Neuropsychology 6 1.5
Social Development 5 1.3
Adolescent 5 1.3
Gerontological 4 1.0
Cognitive Development 3 0.8
Other 13 3.2
Subtotal 401 100.0


Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Ind.-Org. Jobs
Industrial-Organizational 268 76.8
Organizational (social) 36 10.3
Organizational 12 3.4
Personnel 10 2.9
Policy Research (analysis) 7 2.0
Human Resources Management 6 1.7
Industrial 5 1.4
Organizational Behavior 3 0.9
Other 2 0.6
Subtotal 349 100.0


Quantitative Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Quantitative Jobs
Quantitative/Methodological 138 47.3
Psychometrics 71 24.3
Quantitative 58 19.9
Mathematical 10 3.4
Research Methods/Design 9 3.1
Measurement 3 1.0
Other 3 1.0
Subtotal 292 100.0


Neurocience-Related
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Neuro-Related Jobs
Neuropsychology 104 42.3
Neuroscience 55 22.4
Behavioral Neuroscience 44 17.9
Cognitive Neuropsychology 12 4.9
Neurobiology 10 4.1
Neuroethology 7 2.8
Neurophysiology 3 1.2
Other 11 4.4
Subtotal 246 100.0


Health Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Health Jobs
Health 142 60.4
Psychopathology 38 16.2
Stress 12 5.1
Prevention 7 3.0
AIDS 5 2.1
Behavioral Medicine 4 1.7
Obesity 4 1.7
Rehabilitation 4 1.7
HIV/(STD) Risk Behavior 3 1.3
Other 16 6.8
Subtotal 235 100.0


Applied Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Applied Jobs
Human Factors 49 27.5
Engineering/(applied) 21 11.8
Applied 12 6.7
Testing/(assessment) 10 5.6
Legal 7 3.9
Treatment Assessment 7 3.9
Forensic (clinical) 6 3.3
Program Evaluation 5 2.8
Ecological (community) 4 2.3
Smoking 4 2.3
Feeding/Food 4 2.3
Applied Experimental 3 1.7
Applied Research 3 1.7
Environmental 3 1.7
Justice/Judicial 3 1.7
Marketing 3 1.7
Marketing Research 3 1.7
Transportation 3 1.7
Other 28 15.7
Subtotal 178 100.0


Educational Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Educational Jobs
Educational 76 47.8
School 63 39.6
Special Education 5 3.1
Instructional Technology 3 1.9
Other 12 7.6
Subtotal 159 100.0


Physiological Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Physiological Jobs
Physiological 94 69.6
Biopsychology 17 12.6
Psychophysiology 16 11.9
Electrophysiology 3 2.2
Motor Processes 3 2.2
Other 2 1.5
Subtotal 135 100.0


Sensation/Perception Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Sens./Percept. Jobs
Perception/Sensation 56 49.5
Perception 13 11.5
Sensation/Perception 9 8.0
Visual Perception 8 7.1
Psychophysics 6 5.3
Audition 4 3.5
Sensation 3 2.7
Other 14 12.4
Subtotal 113 100.0


Behavioral/Learning Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Behav./Learning Jobs
Learning 54 52.9
Motivation 15 14.7
Behavior Analysis 11 10.8
Behavioral Science 8 7.9
Behavioral 6 5.9
Human Motivation 3 2.9
Other 5 4.9
Subtotal 102 100.0


Biological Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Biological Jobs
Biological 37 37.7
Psychobiology 28 28.6
Psychopharmacology 20 20.4
Behavioral Pharmacology 10 10.2
Other 3 3.1
Subtotal 98 100.0


Personality Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Personality Jobs
Personality (assessment) 67 69.1
Personality 30 30.9
Subtotal 97 100.0


Substance Abuse
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Substance Abuse Jobs
Drug Abuse/(treatment) 34 43.0
Substance Abuse 18 22.8
Substance Abuse/Addiction 10 12.7
Drug Abuse 7 8.9
Drug Alcohol Abuse 5 6.3
Other 5 6.3
Subtotal 79 100.0


Multicultural Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Multicultural Jobs
Ethnic Studies 26 41.9
Latino Studies 9 14.5
Minority Issues 7 11.3
African-American Studies 5 8.1
Minorities 3 4.8
Other 12 19.4
Subtotal 62 100.0


Language Studies
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Language Jobs
Psycholinguistics 29 50.0
Language 10 17.2
Language Development 5 8.6
Linguistics 4 6.9
Speech Perception 4 6.9
Speech Language 3 5.2
Other 3 5.2
Subtotal 58 100.0


Public Sector
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Public Sector Jobs
Community 13 27.7
Public Health/Policy 11 23.4
Law 7 14.9
Public Policy 4 8.5
Urban Issues 4 8.5
Other 8 17.0
Subtotal 47 100.0


Family Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Family Jobs
Family Studies/Life 19 43.2
Marriage & Family Therapy 12 27.3
Family 6 13.6
Family Therapy 6 13.6
Other 1 2.3
Subtotal 44 100.0


Gender Psychology
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Gender Jobs
Women/Females 25 62.5
Women's Studies 8 20.0
Gender 7 17.5
Subtotal 40 100.0


Miscellaneous
Subdiscipline Number of Ads % of Miscellaneous Jobs
History/Philosophy 8 19.5
Animal 7 17.0
Artificial Intelligence 5 12.2
Evolutionary 4 9.8
Social Sciences 3 7.3
Other 14 34.2
Subtotal 41 100.0



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