What is the big difference (or is there one?) between a B.A or B.S. in Psychology? What type of job would someone who has the B.A. have opposed to the one who has the B.S.?
IANAPsyhologist, but it probably doesn’t matter much. My undergraduate college, Revelle College within UC San Diego, is known as a good science school and has quite a few natural science and engineering majors, or did when I was there–but everyone gets a BA degree. No BS’s are given.
I have a B.S. in Psychology. At my school the difference was mainly in what non-psych courses you were expected to take. More Math and science vs iterature and history if I recall. The difference for me was to take more of the ‘scientific’ type psychology classes (i.e. neuroanatomy, neuroscience, form/function type classes) as opposed to counselling and behavior modification classes. I even did research within the psych department where we did EEG mapping of the frontal eye fields. Nothing ground breaking, but it wasn’t teaching pigeons to bowl either.
As to who gets what job, I’d guess that a B.S. is more likely to do research and B.A. is more likely to do counselling. I went to medical school, so I did neither (or both, I guess).
I don’t know about psych but I can tell you the difference between BA and BS degrees at my college.
A BS involves 3 semesters of calculus, 2 art & humanity courses, 3 social & historical courses, 3 semesters of a foreign language and 45 hours of the subject in question (ie, a physics BS involves 45 credit hours of physics classes)
A BA involves 1 semester of calculus, 4 art & humanity courses, 4 social & historical courses, 4 semesters of a foreign language and 25 hours of the subject in question.
Basically the BA requires more foreign language, more arts & humanities, more social & historical and less of the actual subject in question while the BS requires more math and more of the subject. Both require 2 semesters of physics.
I was never aware it could be a BA degree, it falls under the Faculty of Science & Agriculture at the uni’ where I work (soon to be the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering through cutbacks)
Check your college catalog. At my school, the BA required foreign language and I think a couple more humanities classes. The BS required more math.
I double majored in two social sciences. However, I went the BS route because the foreign language requirement would have prevented me from getting my degree in 4 years with a double major. Also, the math was required for the Economics degree.
The answer is really it depends on the school.
Some schools give everyone in a particular major or program a BA or a BS degree. (My undergrad school gave everyone who was in the College of Arts and Sciences a BA degree, whether they were in a humanities program, a hard science or anything in between),
Some schools will award two different degrees for certain majors, with a BA degree and a BS degree having slightly different requirements (as described above).
I would imagine that graduate programs would look at the actual coursework you have taken, rather than the letters of your degree. I would expect that most employers wouldn’t know the difference or care.
I agree that it depends on the school. Many colleges give math majors BA’s for example. There is no standardization across schools.
I also agree that the actual courses taken are what counts. I have a BA in Psychology/Neuroscience and went to grad school in neuroscience. I didn’t have a problem because I created a large part of my degree by putting together various hard science classes.
If you are looking at what jobs people would have with just a BA vs a BS in psychology then they would be the same: something unrelated to psychology.
I brought up the B.A. in Psych in the other thread. The other posters have covered the differences pretty well, but I’ll link you to my school’s online catalog, which outlines the entire college career for both the B.A. and B.S. in Psych.
Go to the Behavioral Sciences section and take a look. You can compare the differences in degrees.
If you do click the link, though, do not look for the requirements for a B.A. in Reverse Psychology.
I was trying to stay away from taking any more math than absolutely necessary. I guess the bottom line is-- B.S. or B.A., it doesn’t really matter in the end.
Um, what do you mean? Something unrelated to Psychology? Most people with a degree in Psychology do something else?
Yes, that is what I am saying. There are only a handfull of jobs that you can get with a bachelors psychology degree that are related to psychology. There are a few social services jobs. There are a few jobs working in the psych ward of a hospital. There are also research assistants that work under a researcher doing large pyschological studies. Most people with a degree in psychology don’t work in something related.
That is not unique to psychology. History and philosophy majors have the same problem.
Even a Masters usually won’t get you all that much but some masters degree holder do Ok. Psychology work usually requires a Ph.D or a PsyD.
No so much a problem really, from what I’ve heard history develops skills in rifling through reports and knowing what’s important and what’s not. This is of use in many jobs in the City.
And as an aside, I flicked through our university’s prospectus to check again (we only offer a BSc Psychology) and Nick Ross, a journalist in the UK studied psychology only to branch off into politics and journalism after graduating.