If you don’t know which area of psychology you want to pursue in grad school then you have some homework to do. Perhaps the largest distinction among psychology graduate programs is whether they are preparing you for a career as a researcher or a professional psychologist, or both. Research psychologists typically hold positions in universities, corporations or the government and spend most of their time engaged in psychological research. They may also teach at the university level, or even do some consulting, but by and large conducting research is the most important aspect of their job. If you go to graduate school in fields like Developmental, Educational, Experimental, Industrial, Neuroscience, or Social Psychology you are more than likely preparing for a career as a researcher.
Professional Psychology involves some sort of psychological practice where you interact with others in a way that utilizes your expertise to affect them constructively. Professional psychologists may work for the government, academic institutions, health care facilities, corporations, or be in private practice. Professional psychologists usually have graduate training in Clinical, Counseling, School, or Organizational Psychology.
There are also careers in psychology where you might be both a researcher and professional psychologist. And in fact, a career in psychology allows for a lot of flexibility in this. For instance, you sometimes find social psychologists that make a living primarily by consulting, or clinicians who spend all their time doing research.
While all things are possible with a career in psychology it is possible to make some generalizations for the sake of simplicity. The first is that if you want to have a career doing both research and professional service an academic career is a good choice. Most of your professors who have trained in Clinical, School, or Organizational Psychology have made this choice. They have likely had some experience providing psychological services but have decided to also teach and conduct research. Most tenure track academic positions (i.e. positions that carry the promise of security of employment) require faculty members to publish their research. So even if a faculty member was trained in an area of professional psychology he or she is required to conduct research to keep their position. Other clinicians or organizational psychologists may conduct research part time because they enjoy it, or even because their institution requires them to participate in research projects. This is true for many psychologists working in hospital or other health care settings.
It is very important to have some idea of whether or not you want to a research or professional career in psychology before you choose a graduate program, as each type of program emphasizes and trains different skill sets. Research psychology programs require a great deal of advanced statistics, research methods courses, and applied experience conducting research under supervision. This applied experience typically entails working with one or more faculty members to conduct research, write papers, apply for grants, etc. Professional psychology programs will emphasize training in psychological interaction such as conducting psychotherapy or organizational consultation. You will be required to complete many thousands of hours of psychological interaction under close supervision. Two excellent ways you can get a sense of whether you want to go into a research or professional area of psychology is to work on a research project with a professor as an undergraduate and to do an undergraduate clinical internship. You should ask your professors about opportunities to gain these types of experiences.
If you are thinking about going into a research area of psychology you should ask your professors in that are fro advice about getting into graduate school. Some of what I say about applying to professional programs will not apply for research programs.