College Major Predicts Income but not Happiness!
Author(s)
Abstract
Introduction Media depicts the success of different college majors based on salaries, without considering job quality. Here we compare graduates with degrees in psychology to graduates with other popular majors with respect to income, job quality, and life evaluation using data from the Great Jobs Demonstration Survey by Gallup, Inc. Methods Income, job quality, and global quality of life were compared for 1492 individuals (52% male) aged 18 to 82 (M = 45.4 SD = 13.5) with a bachelor’s degree in one of 8 majors. Results Psychology (and education and humanities) graduates reported lower annual incomes relative to some fields of study such as architecture and engineering, business, computers, and healthcare [see Figure 1]. However, college major was not related to job quality [see Figure 2] or quality of life [see Figure 3]. Job quality was more strongly related to quality of life (r = .43, p < .0005) than income (r = .16, p < .0005). Discussion The fact that major area of study in higher education doesn’t predict job quality or quality of life suggests that people who studied in psychology-related majors earning an average of $49,000 each year are just as happy with their job and life as those from STEM disciplines like engineering earning $100,000 per year. If you want to know how well someone’s life is going, their job quality is a considerably better predictor than their college major.
Format
Conference Proceeding
Contributor(s)
Faculty Mentor
Joel Hughes
Aurora Alexander
Modified Abstract

We compared psychology majors to graduates with 7 other popular majors with respect to income, job quality, and life evaluation in 1492 individuals (52% male) who completed the Great Jobs Demonstration Survey by Gallup, Inc. Although psychology (and education and humanities) graduates reported lower annual incomes relative to architecture and engineering, business, computers, and healthcare, job quality and quality of life were similar. Job quality was more strongly related to quality of life than income, so if you want to know how well someone’s life is going, their job quality is a considerably better predictor than their college major. Stereotyping majors as low-paying ignores job quality and quality of life. Psychology majors can have a great job and life!
Permalink https://oaks.kent.edu/ugresearch/2020/psychology/college-major-predicts-income-not-happiness
House, H. (n.d.). College Major Predicts Income but not Happiness! (1–). https://oaks.kent.edu/node/10209
House, Hannah. n.d. “College Major Predicts Income But Not Happiness!”. https://oaks.kent.edu/node/10209.
House, Hannah. College Major Predicts Income But Not Happiness!. https://oaks.kent.edu/node/10209.