what type of school do you need to go to become a psychologist and how many years of school do u need?

Question

and what exactly does a psycholgist do?

Answer 1

I'm not sure where everyone is getting "psychiatrist" from. You clearly stated "psychologist" in your question.
To become a psychologist, you need to do 4 years of undergraduate school at a college or university. You then have 4 year of graduate school at either a college or university. It is vitally important that you find a graduate school that is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) or you may run into some problems when you go to find work. There are some professional psychology schools, that just focus on psychology, however, they have a reputation for being "factory schools," churning out students at a high rate. The other colleges and universities can be highly competitive, accepting less than 10 students a year.
After you finish your classes, you then have to do a 1 year full-time internship before you can graduate. After graduation, depending on the state, you have to work another year before you have the hours necessary to become licensed.
When you are finally licensed, you are technically a psychologist.
A psychologist specializes in therapy, psychological assessment, consultation, research, administration, training, the list is almost endless.

Answer 2

During your undergraduate years, go to a university that has a psychology department, ideally one that focuses on neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Major in psychology. Decide whether you want to be a research psychologist or a clinical psychologist or a psychology professor.

Then you'll need a Ph.D. That will take a minimum of four more years, including about 60 credit hours of course work, a research dissertation, and an internship. You'll need to be accepted by the department, because they have only a certain number of vacancies for their graduate program...prepare yourself to score well on the psychology GRE, and find out if a foreign language is required...if so, you'll have to get a passing score on the standard language test.

A clinical psychologist helps people with the full range of emotional problems and mental illnesses, although you could specialize...marriage, child, sex, organizational.

Answer 3

To clarify...psychiatrists prescribe meds, not psychologists.
A psychiatrist is an M.D., a psychologist is a PhD.

If you want to be a psychologist you first need a bachelor's degree (4 yrs.). You can major in anything, but I would suggest psychology or something related.

Some then go on to get their Masters degree (2-3 yrs), although is sometimes wrapped into a PhD. program.

Then you need your PhD. which can take approx 3 yrs.

It's more about credits than actual time in years. Some people go part time due to work and it can take a lot longer.
And some people do not go straight through, taking time off to work and gain experience.

Answer 4

A university and I think it is 6-8 years. A psychiatrist would only be 4 because they cannot prescribe meds. Or maybe I have that backwards???? I forget which is which. But one is considered a PHD and the other isn't.

Answer 5

Cuppycake you do have it backward. Psychiatrists prescribe meds because they went to medical school and have an MD, psychologist can't. You can go here for a simple answer:

http://www.bls.gov/k12/social04.htm