Top Online Psychology Degree Programs and Industry Salary 2023/2024

There are plenty of online and traditional universities all over the U.S. now offering degrees in this popular field. You will find programs offering on-campus and online associates in psychology, as well as bachelor’s, master’s, and even doctorates.

What Are the Best Online Psychology Degrees?

There are several types of online programs in psychology-related fields. Click on an area that you’re interested in to jump to that part of the page.

• Psychology – General
• Addictions and Recovery
• Behavioral Psychology
• Child & Adolescent Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Mental Health Counseling
• Organizational Psychology

The key is finding the specialty that suits your interests.

Psychology – General

Earning a degree in general psychology can help you develop a broad understanding of the field of psychology in general. Instead of focusing on one specific area, general psychology programs give an overview of things related to the human mind and how it works.

Depending on whether or not you’d like to attend medical school one day, you can potentially use a bachelor’s degree in psychology to work towards a job as a psychologist or a psychiatrist.

Either job, like most psychology-related jobs, is typically well-suited for someone who likes to listen to others, is empathetic, and wants to help people cope with the stresses of their daily lives. Depression, anxiety, phobias, addiction are studies in general psychology.

Addictions and Recovery

Addiction is a disease, and those with it need treatment, like with other diseases. There are all kinds of addictions, including drug, alcohol, and smoking addictions. However, those are only the tip of the iceberg.

People can become addicted to all types of things, including gambling, shopping, the internet, food, and more. Psychologists specializing in addiction work with addicts to treat the underlying causes of their addictions, not just the addictions themselves.

Psychologists help people overcome their addictions by helping them identify the causes of their addictions.

Being empathetic can be a very beneficial trait for addiction and recovery specialists. Many addicts have had horrible trauma in their pasts and have often degraded themselves in pursuit of feeding their addictions.

Most need to feel safe and understood—not judged—in order to trust someone enough to talk about these instances.

Behavioral Psychology

Behavioral psychologists are psychologists who specialize in changing a person’s behavior, particularly those behaviors considered negative or harmful. Negative behaviors may include things like addictions and anxiety-related behaviors, but the field encompasses more than just those.

For example, behavioral psychologists work with patients with OCD tendencies, ADHD, and other behavioral disorders. They also work to treat various compulsions, such as binge-eating, self-harm, hair pulling, scab picking, etc.

Behavioral psychologists almost always go on to get their higher-level degrees because most of these behaviors must be treated with a combination of one-on-one communication, therapy, and some type of medication.

People who have degrees in behavioral psychology often go on to become behavioral specialists or case managers in hospitals or public schools. If you’re hoping to become a behavioral psychologist, a curious mind, the ability to listen without judgment, and patience can be beneficial traits to develop. Dealing with some behaviors may quickly become irritating if you don’t have ample patience.

Child & Adolescent Development

In addition to all the qualities we’ve listed above, a love of children is a beneficial trait for psychologists who work in the child and adolescent development field. It takes a certain type of person to comfortably spend his or her entire workday surrounded by kids. If you can’t do that, this probably isn’t the field for you.

Child psychologists work with adolescents of all ages and help them overcome a vast array of problems. Some of these kids come from broken, abusive homes and need counseling. Others have conditions, such as ADHD, OCD, ODD, depression, and anxiety, that require regular therapy sessions.

Whatever the kids’ problems, child and adolescent development specialists help them work through and overcome them. If their problems cannot be overcome, child psychologists use a combination of therapy, routines, and sometimes medication to help children manage their problems instead, with the ultimate goal of living as normal lives as possible.

Educational Psychology

Simply put, educational psychologists help people learn how to learn. Many people, children and adults both, are born with or suffer injuries that result in impairments to their cognitive functions. For whatever reason, they’re unable to learn new information in normal ways.

While most educational psychologists work with children and teens, there are some that specialize in working with adults with cognitive disabilities.

Educational psychologists’ potential job duties are numerous. They give patients diagnostic tests and psycho-educational assessments to determine what type of learning disabilities the patients have.

After initial assessments, psychologists then work closely with the patients and their parents, teachers, and other relevant adults to develop educational plans for them. These plans include special learning accommodations, therapy, specially-tailored study skills, and more. Many educational psychologists work inside schools.

Forensic Psychology

If you’ve ever watched an episode of Mindhunter or seen Dr. Lance Sweets questioning suspects in Bones, you likely have an idea of what a forensic psychologist does. These psychologists are also known as “criminal psychologists.”

These psychologists question and study the responses and behaviors of criminals, especially violent criminals, such as murderers, sexual offenders, and terrorists.

In addition to helping investigators interrogate potential suspects, forensic psychologists do other things too, including:

• Preparing witnesses to take the stand
• Examining crime scenes
• Helping compile criminal suspect profiles
• Recommending sentencing to prosecutors (e.g. jail vs. psychiatric hospital)
• Providing counseling to inmates

If you wish to pursue a career in forensic psychology, being shrewd, intelligent, and good with puzzles can be helpful. You may also need quite a bit of fortitude to be able to sit across from hardened criminals and listen to some of their stories.

Mental Health Counseling

Mental health counselors often have similar job duties as general psychologists. They usually work one-on-one with patients on a variety of psychological issues, such as addiction or substance abuse, depression, overcoming trauma or grief, and unhealthy relationships.

There are other numerous topics that counselors work with patients to overcome, including:

• Fear of aging
• Anger management
• Managing stress and anxiety
• Parenting and relationship skills
• Self and body image issues

In addition to working with individuals, professional counselors sometimes hold group sessions. These can be group therapy sessions, couples or family sessions, or larger group sessions for people with similar problems, such as substance abuse groups or domestic violence victims groups.

Organizational Psychology

Organizational psychology is one of the lesser-known fields of psychology, but it’s a very important one. Organizational psychologists work for businesses, companies, and other organizations. They assess employees and see how they fit with the overall company dynamic.

Organizational psychologists usually report directly to management. They give them insight into which employees might do well in upper-level management, which employees could handle the stress of a challenging promotion, and even which employees just aren’t working out in the company.

However, this isn’t all organizational psychologists do. They also, at management’s request, work directly with a company’s employees. They often implement team-building exercises and strategies to help the company function more cohesively as a unit.

They may listen to employee complaints, grievances, and praise of the company and suggest policies to management that could potentially improve overall company morale and retention. Sometimes they’re also called in to help mediate workplace disputes, so a calm disposition and good mediation skills are helpful in this job.

Courses for an Online Psychology Degree

Depending on which specific sub-discipline of psychology you’re most interested in pursuing, your psychology courses may be a little different than those taken by someone else majoring in psychology.

The online program you choose will also help determine your specific classes, but since many courses are similar, we can give you a basic overview of some of the types of online classes you may be required to take.

Here’s a sampling of required courses from Arizona State University’s online psychology degree program. Wherever you choose to attend school, you’re probably going to be expected to take similar classes as these.

Keep in mind that while this is a pretty good sample of classes you might be required to take, it certainly isn’t an exhaustive list.

Core Education Courses: Most degrees require basic core classes. These often include English, math, and science. These are basic college classes that most students take.

Psych 101: Basic psychology is another common class psychology students take and is an overview of psychology-related topics.

Intro to Statistics: This course covers basic statistical concepts, particularly as they can be applied to psychology.

Research Methods: Research skills are critical to any good psychologist. The field of psychology is constantly evolving, and new theories are being proven and disproved all the time. Being able to do extensive research can help you stay relevant in the field. This class is designed to teach that skill.

Reasoning and Critical Thinking: This class can help you improve your ability to think and reason out complex problems, which can be very beneficial skills for psychologists to have.

Various Upper-Level Classes: Other classes commonly included are courses on human development, common and rare psychological and neurological diseases, social development, neuroscience, memory and cognition, abnormal psychology, and careers in psychology.

Together, these classes can help you become a well-rounded student, knowledgeable in various areas of psychology and related disciplines.

Bachelor’s of Psychology Degree Salary

The annual salary range for different psychology-related jobs is pretty varied, ranging from an average salary to quite high. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average wage for community and social service occupations is $47,520 per year. Licensed psychologists, in general, have an average salary of $82,180 per year. Some positions have salaries as high as $137,590.

Here are some career opportunities you could potentially get with a psychology degree:

These are only some of the jobs for which you could apply after receiving your bachelor’s degree in psychology. Some of these, such as the psychiatry career, would require you to continue past the bachelor’s level degree, though.

Professional Organizations for Those with a Psychology Degree

Earning your psychology degree and becoming a licensed psychologist also allows you to apply for membership with several different psychological organizations. These include the following:

American Mental Health Counselors Association

Founded in 1976, the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA) is a group of mental health counselors from all across the U.S. It pretty much sets the bar when it comes to mental health counseling.

Its members initially wrote, sometimes revise, and constantly enforce the standards and code of ethics for all U.S. mental health counselors. The association also educates new counselors and is responsible for licensing. It publishes the Journal of Mental Health Counseling as well.

American Psychological Association

The American Psychological Association (APA) states that it acts as “the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States.” The group has over 121,000 members consisting of students, clinicians, educators, consultants, and researchers.

The APA works tirelessly to better educate the general public about new advances in psychology. Its researchers are constantly working to ensure the APA stays at the forefront of the psychological field, and one of the association’s main goals is to prepare the world of psychology for the future.

Association for Psychological Science

Also known as the APS, the Association for Psychological Science was founded in 1988. It was founded by psychologists and researchers who weren’t happy with the job the APA was doing.

It’s a non-profit group and now has over 33,000 members whose goal is to advance psychology research and education for the ultimate improvement of humanity.

The APS provides research findings to the general public, holds an annual meeting, and publishes many psychology-related journals. There are practicing psychologists in the APS, but at its core, the APS is all about advancing research in the field of psychology and protecting the field of psychology’s integrity.

Certification and Licensure Following a Psychology Degree

Once you’ve earned your psychology degree, the next important step you’ll likely need to take is becoming a certified or licensed psychologist, counselor, therapist, etc. Getting a license is needed to become a clinical psychologist.

Clinical Psychologist: Becoming a licensed clinical psychologist can allow you to pursue opportunities to work as a mental health professional or even open your own practice. Clinical psychologists are licensed professionals, highly trained in diagnosing and subsequently treating various emotional, psychological, and behavioral problems.

Accreditation for a Psychology Degree Online

In short, regional accreditation helps to ensure that the bachelor’s degree in psychology you are pursuing is worthwhile. If your college or program doesn’t have regional accreditation, then there is no guarantee that it will be seen as a viable degree.

If your program doesn’t have regional accreditation, you may not be able to transfer your credits to another university.

Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education

The Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education certifies programs that teach practices for couples therapy, marriage therapy, and family counseling. This accreditation is only given to higher-degree programs, like an online master’s in psychology program or an online Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) program.

Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, more commonly called CACREP, is often considered the gold standard in psychology accreditation. Psychology programs pursue CACREP accreditation to prove their quality.

CACREP evaluates every program hoping for accreditation from them, holding each program to the highest standards. CACREP is so well-respected that receiving a degree accredited by them can potentially lead to receiving your license in a multitude of states across the U.S.

National Association of School Psychologists

Also known as NASP, the National Association of School Psychologists accredits programs that uphold the high standards of excellence required for getting psychologists ready to work in elementary and secondary schools.

The self-defined goal of NASP accreditation is to “promote comprehensive and integrated services” not only for the students served by their licensed psychologists but also those students’ families, school systems, and teachers.

Financial Aid for Online Psychology Degrees

When looking for financial aid options, the first place most students look is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA is your gateway to possible Pell Grants and government loans with decent interest rates and repayment options.

Scholarships are another form of financial aid and are typically the best kind of financial aid because they normally don’t need to be repaid. There are all kinds of scholarships out there ready to be awarded to deserving students, but the following three may be particularly beneficial for you to check out.

AP-LS Award for Best Undergraduate Paper

The APA awards some great scholarships and grants each year, but the AP-LS Award for Best Undergraduate Paper is one of the most coveted by psychology students. This scholarship is given to one student each year who writes an exemplary research paper focused on the joint studies of law and psychology.

If you’ve contributed to a project recently that centered around those two disciplines, you could potentially be eligible for this award.

NIH Undergraduate Scholarship Program

The NHI Undergraduate Scholarship Program pays up to $20,000 each year to eligible students in need. This scholarship is granted to students on the basis of financial need. If selected to receive this scholarship, you’ll be committed to two things:

• Participating in a 10-week long paid internship through NIH’s summer lab
• Serving one year of employment with NIH for each year you’re awarded the scholarship after you graduate

Psi Chi Undergraduate Scholarship

The Psi Chi Undergraduate Scholarship pays $3,000 to eight lucky students each year. To qualify, you must be an undergraduate Psi Chi member majoring in either psychology or a psychology-related field.

Questions Related to Earning a Psychology Bachelor Degree Online

We’ve compiled a list of some of the most frequently asked questions about online bachelor’s degree programs in psychology to help clear up any lingering hesitation you might have.

Can I Get My Bachelors in Psychology Online?

Yes, there are online programs for bachelor’s degrees in psychology. It is important to check whether the online university has regional accreditation and if the degree program has programmatic accreditation, such as CACREP accreditation.

Is an Online Psychology Degree Any Good?

Yes, accredited online psychology degree programs are usually just as good as their on-campus equivalents. As long as the school and the degree program you choose have regional accreditation, then your online psychology degree should be viewed the same as a degree earned at an on-campus institution.

Many people in many different fields of study are now choosing to earn their degrees online.

How Much Does an Online Psychology Degree Cost?

Prices for online psychology degree programs will vary depending on the university you choose. In-state vs. out-of-state tuition will also influence your total costs. Out of the most affordable online psychology degrees in the past year, the annual tuition rates ranged from $4,200 to $8,500.

Tuition costs are only part of your total costs. When figuring your total estimated costs, don’t forget about the other requirements you must meet. There’ll be fees, of course, and you’ll need books.

Still, many online bachelor’s degree programs are very reasonably priced these days, which can make it easier to find one that fits your needs.

What Is the Cheapest Online Psychology Degree?

Prices vary from school to school and from year to year, but psychology programs have been found with tuition rates as low as $4,200. This doesn’t include fees, books, or anything other than tuition. Since tuition is typically the largest cost with online universities, though, this can help give you an idea of the least you might pay without grants or scholarships.

What Is the Best Online College for Psychology?

Many alumni from various schools like to proclaim how their universities are the best, but the truth is, there is no “best” online college for psychology. There’s only what’s best for you.

Considering relevant factors can help you determine whether a school is the best one for you. Some things you may want to consider are tuition costs and your budget, whether you will be required to travel to campus, how far away the school is, and whether or not the program offers the specific specializations you desire.