According to data collected by the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, psychology is one of the state's most popular undergraduate degree programs. That may be because the knowledge and skills acquired in a psychology program are valuable across a wide range of career fields. According to the psychology department webpage for the University of Rhode Island, psychology graduates can apply their analytical, writing and research skills to fields such as business, criminal justice, education, sales, and human services.
Better yet, some of the fields for which psychology graduates are uniquely suited are high-growth fields. For instance, the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training projects that the field of human and social service assistants will grow 30 percent through 2018.
Mental health and substance abuse social workers also rank as one of Rhode Island's top 50 growth occupations with a projected growth rate of 16 percent through 2018. Several Rhode Island colleges and universities offer a certification in this field as part of their undergraduate psychology programs.
One of those is Rhode Island College in Providence. It offers a Bachelor of Science in chemical dependency and addiction that leads to state certification as a substance abuse counselor.
The psychology program at Brown University in Providence is part of the newly formed Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Services, designed to bring together the study of mind, brain, behavior and language. Students can choose a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science in psychology program, both of which place heavy emphasis on collaboration between faculty and undergraduates.
In addition to its broad-based Bachelor of Arts in psychology, the University of Rhode Island in Kingston offers two undergraduate certificate programs within the psychology department. One leads to state certification as a substance abuse counselor. The second leads to certification in applied behavioral psychology for work with children and adults in educational and mental health settings.
