Psychology students' general orientation towards psychology usually reflects

the orientation of the staff in their department, and of psychology as practiced in their
country. But despite differences in the kind of information students receive, there is a
great deal that psychology graduates have in common. The study of psychology, in
itself, produces a particular type of awareness and some core knowledge that is shared
by most, if not all, psychologists. In the list that follows, I have attempted to identify
some of that shared awareness, by naming 1 different types of skill or knowledge that
a psychology student is likely to ac!uire by graduation. "ne of the important factors
that makes psychology special is not the psychological skills themselves, which are
often relevant to other disciplines as well, nor the specific items of knowledge. It is the
sheer number of skills and range of knowledge that makes psychology special.
Psychology is distinctive in that it e!uips its graduates with an e#tremely rich and
diverse portfolio$providing a variety of forms of e#pertise, which are found in few
other disciplines and which can e!uip psychology graduates to undertake many
different types of work.

1. Literacy Psychology graduates are highly literate and, moreover, have been
trained to write in more than one literacy format. Through their coursework, they
become accustomed to writing essays, which allow them to e#plore issues in detail%
but they are also familiari&ed with the techni!ues of concise writing within a pre'
set format (a skill much valued in commercial and business worlds) as they write up
practical research reports.

2. Numeracy Psychology graduates are also highly numerate. They are trained to
interpret data summaries and to understand probability statements, and they
become familiar with a wide range of statistical procedures and processes. *hen
faced with numerical information, they are more likely to respond by seeking to
discover what the numbers imply than by avoiding them altogether. By contrast, it
is relatively uncommon for degree courses in other disciplines to produce
graduates who are simultaneously literate and numerate, yet the psychology
graduate is e#pected to be both.

3. Computer literacy Psychology graduates are also generally computer literate.
They are familiar with using computers, and can select and learn relevant packages
for the tasks they are re!uired to carry out. *hile relatively few psychology
graduates are familiar with computer programming, computer use is re!uired in
the modern world, and it is a rare psychology graduate who has not had some
training in this area, at the very least in word'processing and statistical analysis.

4. Information-finding skills It is sometimes more useful to know where
information can be found than to have memori&ed that information directly,
particularly in areas that are developing and changing over time. +ndertaking a
psychology degree involves a considerable amount of information'finding skill.
Psychology students are trained to search through library book collections, ,ournals,
-.'/"0 databases and a range of other ways of obtaining information. 1nowing
how to look for information on a particular topic or general area isn't a skill needed
for every ,ob, but it is always one worth having.

5. Researc skills Psychology students are e#plicitly trained in research methods,
and this training spans a range of different techni!ues. Typically, these include
e#perimental and observational methods, survey and sampling techni!ues, and
more recently, !ualitative analysis. Together, these amount to considerable
e#pertise in gathering systematic information about human e#perience or
behavior'e#pertise that is useful in any number of different fields.

!. "easurement skills 0easurement skills go hand'in'hand with research skills,
and psychology graduates are thoroughly trained in these as well. Through a typical
research'methods course, a psychology student learns how to operationali&e the
measurement of comple# process, the principles of psychometric measurement,
!uestionnaire design and how to develop other measurement tools. These skills
are familiar to psychology graduates, and are distinctly useful in many walks of life,
but they are not easy skills to ac!uire without e#plicit training.

#. $n%ironmental a&areness 1nowing how someone's environment can influence
their behavior helps us to understand people at work, at home, in education and at
leisure. Psychology graduates are familiar with this type of knowledge in many
guises, from traditional stimulus'response perspectives to the direct study of the
environment, including such phenomena as nonverbal signaling, habit formation
and social appropriateness. 0any nonpsychologists do not particularly notice
environmental factors, yet few psychology graduates are unaware of their
importance.

'. Interpersonal a&areness Psychology students also learn about the mechanisms
of social communication and the potential sources of interpersonal conflict. This is
not the same as being socially skilled oneself, of course, although it can contribute
to it. But such awareness can make a considerable difference to someone dealing
with everyday interpersonal problems. Being aware, too, of the sources of conflict
or misunderstanding can sometimes result in the ability to perceive ways through
difficulties that would not be readily apparent without such knowledge.

(. )ro*lem-sol%ing skills 2rom their very first laboratory class, psychology
graduates are systematically trained in problem'solving skills. The ability to tackle a
range of different types of problems is probably the most distinctive characteristic
of the psychology graduate. Psychology graduates learn how to apply different
strategies and approaches to understanding problems, and how to identify the
practical steps to implement a solution. They can operate on a macro'level,
applying different perspectives or levels of analysis to the problem, or at a more
basic level in terms of choosing appropriate methods and techni!ues. It is a
valuable skill, and one that psychologists should be more aware of.

1+. Critical e%aluation Psychology students are also e#plicitly trained in critical
evaluation, an emphasis that appears to be particularly strong in 3urope. This set of
cognitive skills can be viewed as direct training in skepticism4 5tudents are
e#pected to appraise whether evidence for a phenomenon is really what it appears
to be% to evaluate, critically, the !uality of an argument% to identify the
shortcomings and pitfalls of a particular line of action% and to anticipate problems
or difficulties. These skills are often devalued by psychology graduates, who
sometimes complain that everything that they have learned seems to be negative,
yet that same skepticism can be e#tremely useful to them in their later working life.

11. )erspecti%es "n the surface, the ability to e#amine issues from multiple points
of view or to e#plore phenomena using different schools of thought appears to be
a relatively esoteric one. 6owever, it is a skill that can be surprisingly useful in
many different conte#ts. The ability to identify different ideologies or paradigms
can clarify social issues and give us a better awareness of the implications of
particular arguments or positions. Psychology graduates are directly trained in this
skill, but they often do not reali&e how valuable it can be.

12. ,iger-order analysis Psychology graduates are skilled at spotting recurrent
patterns in human activity, or noticing similarities between situations that seem on
the surface to be !uite different. This type of higher'order analysis involves being
able to e#tract general principles rather than becoming bogged down with the
details of the immediate situation. The psychology student's e#perience of sifting
through vast !uantities of e#perimental evidence and interpreting it in terms of
schools of thought and other general principles provides useful training in this skill.

13. )ragmatism It does not take much e#posure to psychological methodology for
psychology students to reali&e they are never going to achieve the perfect
e#periment, and that they will simply have to do the best they can with what is
practical. Their e#periences in this respect tend to give the psychology graduate a
pragmatic approach to work and problem'solving4 a valuable skill, and one that is
not particularly common.

-onclusion It will be apparent, I think, that this portfolio of skills is one that can be
valuable for many types of work apart from the profession of psychology itself. But this
is not the whole story. 7s 8ohn /adford argues, psychology provides its students with
an e#tensive education, training them in thinking and reasoning skills, and encouraging
the student to e#plore a broad range of ideas and assumptions. In the old'fashioned
sense, studying psychology can be seen as a liberal education, as well as a modern
training. It is far more than simply a skill'based training for professional work$it is an
education in its own right. +nfortunately, psychologists themselves often fail to
recogni&e what skills they actually have, or find it very difficult to articulate what these
are. 7s sports psychologists have long recogni&ed, e#pertise is not a primarily
conscious process4 It involves deeply learned, automated routines, which come into
play at the appropriate times without conscious decision'making on the part of the
person concerned. Psychological knowledge has a tendency to become very deeply
internali&ed and once this has happened, it is hard for an individual psychologist to
recogni&e that knowledge, and to reali&e when they are applying it. +ndertaking a
psychology degree can generate distinctive approaches to social and interpersonal
issues, yet many psychology graduates leave their courses believing they are no more
perceptive or knowledgeable than other people. They do not feel knowledgeable,
partly because their knowledge is automati&ed rather than conscious, and partly
because one of the things they have learned is not to accept 'knowledge' without
!uestion. "n the other hand, a psychology graduate venturing into the outside world is
often surprised at how other people appear to overlook the obvious. The style of
thinking that one ac!uires while studying for a psychology degree may feel intuitively
obvious, but it actually involves a long and arduous process of discarding prior
assumptions. 7nd those automati&ed skills are a vital contribution to the psychologist's
problem'solving abilities. Becoming aware of what we have learned through a
psychology degree is made even more difficult by the way that many of the cognitive
skills that we ac!uire from the study of psychology are negative rather than positive,
such as the skill of not immediately ,umping to conclusions, and of reserving ,udgment
about alternative possibilities. Psychology students !uickly learn that a single event
can be usefully conceptuali&ed in several alternative ways, and that there may be
multiple psychological origins for a given problem. This is a valuable cognitive skill, but
it is one that is relatively uncommon in lay cognition. 7 psychology degree, then, is
actually rather special. Psychology integrates areas of knowledge that span the arts
and the sciences, and in the process it provides students with a liberal education, as
well as a particularly wide range of practical and professional skills. The automati&ed
skills that psychology provides are often difficult to articulate, but they are nonetheless
significant. It would be not a bad thing, in my view, if some serious psychological
research were to be devoted to the identification and measurement of these
distinctive but elusive skills.