Chances for Psychology Ph.D. Programs

psych_2
Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:00:18 +0000

No, you shouldn’t get off the wall research experience with no relation to what you want to do and ultimately, it is the experience that matters. Experience in what you want to do is very helpful, I completely agree. HOWEVER, the OP’s potential publication would still be in psychology, and showing the ability to produce results of your research is also key. I know I’ve gotten a lot of opportunities in grad school because I came in having already presented and published. The publication process is a VERY important part of research (if no one sees your results, they can’t do anything with them), and publishing teaches how to do that. A published researcher is a researcher that has a known ability to produce results viewed as meaningful by peers and to write, both which are very important. So, yes, the OP should def. get experience in his area of interest but getting experience publishing, even in another area of research, is almost very important, ESPECIALLY at the research heavy programs the OP is applying to.