CCollegeMatcher

Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary

US occupation · SOC 25-1066

Job titles people report: Adjunct Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Clinical Psychology Professor, Faculty Member, Instructor, Lecturer, Professor, Psychology Instructor, Psychology Professor

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025
$80,340
Half earn more, half earn less
Middle half earn
$63,400 – $105,920
25th to 75th percentile
People employed, May 2025
41,530
Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
Projected change, 2025–35
+4%
At or above the all-jobs rate (3.5% to under 7%)
Openings a year (projected)
3,700
New jobs plus replacing people who leave
Typical education to enter
Doctoral or professional degree
BLS
  • All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
  • Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
  • Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.

What the work involves

Teach courses in psychology, such as child, clinical, and developmental psychology, and psychological counseling. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

Main tasks

  • Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as abnormal psychology, cognitive processes, and work motivation.
  • Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
  • Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory work, assignments, and papers.
  • Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
  • Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
  • Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
  • Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
  • Recruit and hire new faculty.

Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)
Doctoral or professional degree
O*NET Job Zone 5
Extensive preparation
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Interests it suits

The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.

  • Social: helping, teaching and caring for people
  • Investigative: research, analysis and solving problems with ideas
  • Artistic: creating, designing and self-expression

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 35 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.

Health & Nursing

  • Marriage and Family Therapy/Counseling

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Health & Nursing at the Major step.

Where many students take health & nursing

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Psychology

  • Psychology, General
  • Cognitive Psychology and Psycholinguistics
  • Comparative Psychology
  • Developmental and Child Psychology
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Personality Psychology
  • Behavioral Neuroscience
  • Social Psychology
22 more programmes
  • Psychometrics and Quantitative Psychology
  • Developmental and Adolescent Psychology
  • Research and Experimental Psychology, Other
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Community Psychology
  • Counseling Psychology
  • Industrial and Organizational Psychology
  • School Psychology
  • Educational Psychology
  • Clinical Child Psychology
  • Environmental Psychology
  • Geropsychology
  • Health/Medical Psychology
  • Family Psychology
  • Forensic Psychology
  • Applied Psychology
  • Applied Behavior Analysis
  • Performance and Sport Psychology
  • Somatic Psychology
  • Transpersonal/Spiritual Psychology
  • Clinical, Counseling and Applied Psychology, Other
  • Psychology, Other

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Psychology at the Major step.

Where many students take psychology

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Education

  • Psychology Teacher Education

Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Education at the Major step.

Where many students take education

Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.

Other fields

Our college matcher doesn't offer this field as a major, so we can't suggest colleges for it here.

Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies

  • Biopsychology
  • Behavioral Sciences
  • Thanatology

Related careers

Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.

← All careers

Sources

This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0

Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.

Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk