Cognitive Psychology is a branch of science and usually seen as a core discipline within psychology. It is one of the major branches of psychology that has generated tremendous job opportunities for aspirants. It generally focuses on issues related to memory, information processing, thinking processes, speech, language and other elements like problem solving and decision making. Individuals who make their career in this branch of psychology are called cognitive psychologists. Their major responsibility is to examine internal mental processes like learning, language, perception and memory function. Their work is to examine how people work out on different problems and take decisions by using knowledge. Their work basically emphasize on how do people recall and process information.

Today it is one of the prime fields and core disciplines of psychology that has pulled the attentions of many youths of the United States. In fact, in last few years, cognitive psychologists have received enough attention from scientists after they realized the limits of behaviorism. The job opportunities for psychologists are consistently rising and will always be in abundant as long as individual, social and economic unrests prevail in human society.

Career Prospects

A cognitive psychology degree can provide numerous opportunities to make a career in different areas of work. As a cognitive psychologist an individual can work as a consultant for governmental, educational and privately owned organizations. Adding to this, today there are many hospitals, courtrooms, laboratories, schools, universities, prisons, community health centres and corporate offices that are recruiting cognitive psychologists in high numbers.Apart from traditional fields, in recent times cognitive psychology has seen significant growth in other areas as well, such as software development, human-computer interaction and organizational psychology.

Moreover, some of the common career titles that an individual after completing the cognitive psychology program can hold are university instructor, human factors consultant, industrial-organizational manager, and usability specialist. If an individual is not willing to work with any organization he or she can also team up with other professionals like physicians, lawyers, school personnel, computer experts, engineers, other scientists, policymakers, and managers.

Salary Outlook:

Income of cognitive psychologists primarily differs depending upon the position, degree and experience that an individual holds. According to salary survey in the United States, median salary of entry level or employees who has less than one year of experience earn $ 39,663-$ 61,076 per year, whereas professionals who have experience of 20 years or more earn $ 102,111 per year. Vacation and bonus are some additional benefits that a cognitive psychologist can enjoy depending up on the organization.

Training required being a Cognitive Psychologist:

Career in cognitive psychology requires plenty of research to collect data and statistics. Starting from brain imaging to the reading of different quantitative tests that measures the aptitude and behaviour traits, this is a profession that definitely requires a proper training. Thus, addressing to meet these requirements, these days many universities are providing opportunity to study cognitive psychology with doctorate or master's degrees. A PhD in cognitive psychology is an in-depth program and usually takes not more than four to five years. Apart from this, an individual may also need to pursue an internship with an experienced cognitive psychologist before starting his or her own work.

Today it is definitely one of the few career options in psychology that may provide you the long-term job growth and meaningful rewards. So, if you have the qualities required to be a cognitive psychologist and want a decent paying job, getting a master's or doctorate degree in cognitive psychology is surely one if the best ways to secure your professional future.