At Flagler, students can pursue careers in a wide variety of settings including medical and health clinics, schools and universities, and even fields like law, urban planning, criminology and industrial psychology.
“At the end of the day the field of psychology and social sciences has an opportunity to make a real difference,” Litzinger said. “Psychology influences our everyday lives, and you may not realize it, but it's all around us. … Even things that you eat, I think about the research that's being done on whether certain foods are good for you. It impacts our daily life like how much sleep you should get or how to avoid dementia. All of these topics, psychology has a stake in.”
With increases in anxieties, depression and mental illness, and often hitting close to home and schools for today's students, the field continues to grow.
“Our numbers grow every year,” Litzinger said. “At Flagler it has always been one of the most popular majors and just behavioral sciences in general, like criminology. A number of students tell me that not only do they recognize how mental illness is so predominant among their friends, class mates, and schools, but that they themselves have benefited from counseling and therapy. I think that's some of the reason why the major continues to grow.”
Litzinger said it makes it all the more important to better train tomorrow's professionals for the field, whether it's more traditional psychology or the many new offshoots. That is also why they try to make the major so rigorous and demanding.
