TL;DR

Personality Psychology maps to BLS occupations averaging about $94,452, with roughly 254,360 workers nationwide in those roles. Median in-state published tuition is about $12,058; common paths include Teachers and Instructors, All Other and Genetic Counselors.

Key Statistics

$12,058
Median In-State Public Tuition
$58,694
Median Out-of-State Private Tuition
$94,452
Avg. Wage (related occupations)
254,360
Workers (related occupations)
9
Bachelor's Completions (IPEDS 2023)

Personality Psychology: what the data shows

Common questions about personality psychology degrees, answered from IPEDS, College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, and O*NET in this repository—not program marketing copy.

What is a personality psychology degree?

A Personality Psychology program is classified under NCES CIP 42.2705 in the Research and Experimental Psychology field family (42.27).

A program that focuses on the unique organization of fairly permanent characteristics that set the individual apart from other individuals and, at the same time, determine how others respond to that individual. Includes instruction in Freudian, Skinnerian, Rogerian, and Ellisonian psychology; neo-Freudian psychology; psychological systems, neurophysiology, and psychopharmacology

IPEDS counted 9 completions for this CIP in the survey year in our extract.

Types of personality psychology degrees and related programs

Other NCES program codes in the 42.27 family with pages on EDsmart Data:

How long does it take to get a personality psychology degree?

Award levels reported to IPEDS for CIP 42.2705 in our file:

  • 9 Bachelor's (69.2% of IPEDS total)—typically four years
  • 4 Master's (30.8% of IPEDS total)—one to two years beyond a bachelor's

Time to completion depends on enrollment intensity and transfer credits; figures above describe credential type, not calendar time for every student.

What degree do you need?

For Teachers and Instructors, All Other (top mapped occupation), O*NET incumbent surveys in our career profile report these education credentials most often: Some college (29%), High School or Equivalent (27%), Bachelors Degree (22%). Bachelor's awards account for a majority of IPEDS completions for CIP 42.2705, but occupation data show multiple pathways.

O*NET education distributions describe incumbent workers, not minimum legal or employer requirements.

What jobs can you get with a personality psychology degree?

Our degree→occupation mapping links Personality Psychology to the BLS roles below. Employment is U.S. OEWS; median wage is national May 2024 where published in our extract.

OccupationU.S. employmentMedian annual wage
Teachers and Instructors, All Other125,010$64,690
Genetic Counselors3,510$98,910
Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors
Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary11,430$84,290
Mental Health Counselors
Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education114,410$61,430

See Careers & Jobs for mean wages and industry context.

Is a personality psychology degree worth it?

College Scorecard national medians for the Research and Experimental Psychology bachelor's program family: median debt $28,430, median earnings $55,695 four years after enrollment. Debt-to-earnings proxy: 0.82.

About 7.3% of graduates in this field family were not working and not enrolled one year after completion in Scorecard's national program medians.

Among schools reporting in our Scorecard extract, median published in-state tuition is $12,058 and median net price is $18,844.

We do not score "worth" on opinion—compare debt, earnings, wages for mapped occupations, and completion data above against your cost and career target.

Institutions

Information about the types of higher education institutions that grant degrees in Personality Psychology and the types of students that study this field.

Tuition Costs for Common Institutions

$12,058 Median In-State Public

$58,694 Median Out of State Private

Tuition costs for Personality Psychology majors are, on average, $12,058 for in-state public colleges, and $58,694 for out of state private colleges.

Tuition costs comparison for Personality Psychology programs.

Degrees Awarded Over Time

100,000 Total Degrees Awarded in 2023

This chart shows the number of degrees awarded in Personality Psychology from 2015 to 2023.

Historical trend of degrees awarded in Personality Psychology.

Top 5 Schools by Enrollment

Schools with the largest enrollment offering Personality Psychology programs.

Top 5 Most Affordable Tuition

Schools with the lowest tuition costs for Personality Psychology programs.

Top 5 Lowest Net Price

# School State Net Price
1 Macomb Community College MI $1,618
2 CUNY Hunter College NY $2,984
3 CUNY Hunter College NY $2,984
4 CUNY Brooklyn College NY $3,103
5 Copiah-Lincoln Community College MS $3,894

Schools with the lowest average net price for Personality Psychology programs.

Graduation Rates

Graduation rate data is not available for this degree program.

Graduation/completion rates for Personality Psychology programs across institutions.

Where students complete this major (IPEDS)

Bachelor's-level completions (IPEDS Completions, award level 5) summed by institution state. State is taken from IPEDS Directory (HD2023) for each reporting institution.

Geographic concentration

The largest number of reported bachelor's completions for Personality Psychology is in UT (7 completions). That state represents about 77.8% of U.S. bachelor's completions reported for this CIP in the IPEDS file we use.

Among states, the highest concentration relative to all bachelor's degrees awarded in-state is UT (0.01% of that state's bachelor's completions).

Top states by count of bachelor's completions for this CIP (IPEDS).

State Bachelor's completions (this CIP) % of U.S. total (this CIP) % of state's all bachelor's
UT777.8%0.01%
NY222.2%0.00%

Related specializations

Other NCES program codes in the 42.27 CIP family with dedicated pages on EDsmart Data.

Degree Levels (IPEDS)

Completions reported to IPEDS for CIP 42.2705 in the survey year used in our extract (13 total across levels below).

  • 9 Bachelor's (69.2% of IPEDS total)
  • 4 Master's (30.8% of IPEDS total)

Source: IPEDS Completions (c2024_a), summed by award level for this CIP.

Careers & Jobs

Occupations linked to this major in our degree→career mapping, with wages and employment from processed BLS career profiles in this repo.

Across these BLS occupations, employment-weighted mean pay is about $94,452. Figures are national OEWS estimates for the occupation—not earnings of Personality Psychology graduates alone.

Open each occupation for full career profile charts and industry breakdowns on EDsmart Data.

Program outcomes (College Scorecard)

National medians across bachelor's programs in the Research and Experimental Psychology CIP family (33 programs reporting debt). Not specific to every Personality Psychology graduate.

  • $28,430 median federal loan debt among completers
  • $55,695 median earnings four years after enrollment (national program median)
  • 0.82 debt-to-earnings ratio (Scorecard proxy)
  • 7.3% of graduates not working and not enrolled one year out (program cohort)

Source: College Scorecard program-level outcomes aggregated by 4-digit CIP family.

Employment

Wages and industry mix below use BLS OEWS data for occupations linked to this major in our mapping—not a graduate earnings survey.

Yearly Income for Common Jobs

$94,452 Average Wage in Workforce

The average salary for Personality Psychology majors is $94,452.

Average annual salaries of the most common occupations for Personality Psychology majors.

Occupations by Share

254,360 2023 Workforce

The number of Personality Psychology graduates in the workforce has been growing.

Various jobs filled by those with a major in Personality Psychology by share of the total number of graduates.

Diversity

Demographic information for those who earn a degree in Personality Psychology in the United States.

Workforce Age

N/A Average Age in 2023

This chart shows distribution of ages for employees with a degree in Personality Psychology.

Age distribution for Personality Psychology degree holders in the workforce.

Gender Distribution

Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).

9 Total Degrees Awarded

2 Male (22.22%)

7 Female (77.78%)

Gender distribution of Personality Psychology degree recipients.

Race and Ethnicity Distribution

Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).

8 White (88.89%)

1 Black or African American (11.11%)

Racial and ethnic distribution of Personality Psychology degree recipients.

Degrees Awarded

The most common degree types awarded to students graduating in Personality Psychology are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Associates Degree.

Distribution of degree types awarded in Personality Psychology.

Skills

Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for those working in the Personality Psychology field from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Required Skills

Personality Psychology majors need many skills, but most especially Critical Thinking, Active Listening, and Reading Comprehension.

Rating of how necessary various skills are for Personality Psychology majors.

Skills Bar Chart

This bar chart shows the same information as the radar chart, displaying the importance of each skill.

Skill importance ratings for Personality Psychology majors.

About

A program that focuses on the unique organization of fairly permanent characteristics that set the individual apart from other individuals and, at the same time, determine how others respond to that individual. Includes instruction in Freudian, Skinnerian, Rogerian, and Ellisonian psychology; neo-Freudian psychology; psychological systems, neurophysiology, and psychopharmacology

In 2023, 100,000 degrees were awarded across all undergraduate and graduate programs in Personality Psychology.

CIP Code

42.2705 - Personality Psychology

What the data shows

At the program-family level, College Scorecard reports median debt of $28,430 for bachelor's completers and median earnings near $55,695, a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.82. Those figures describe national program cohorts in this CIP family—not every individual Personality Psychology graduate.

Women earned 82.3% of 17 Personality Psychology completions in the IPEDS file used here.

Mapped BLS occupations show employment-weighted mean pay of about $94,452. The largest mapped role by headcount is Teachers and Instructors, All Other (125,010 U.S. jobs in OEWS).

Published tuition medians in College Scorecard land at $12,058 in-state at public colleges and $58,694 at private institutions for programs in this field.

Data Sources

This page uses data from the following sources:

  • College Scorecard - U.S. Department of Education
    • Institutional characteristics, costs, completion rates, and earnings data
    • Data years: 2015-2024
    • Source: collegescorecard.ed.gov
  • Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)
    • Employment and wage data by occupation
    • Latest data: May 2024
    • Source: bls.gov/oes
  • O*NET Online - U.S. Department of Labor
    • Occupational skills, knowledge, abilities, and work activities
    • Database version: 28.0 (August 2023)
    • Source: onetcenter.org
  • IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) - National Center for Education Statistics
    • Institutional data, completions, enrollment, and financial aid
    • Data years: 2015-2024
    • Source: nces.ed.gov/ipeds
  • Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS)
    • Demographic and workforce data
    • Latest data: 2023 ACS 5-Year Estimates
    • Source: census.gov/acs

Data Processing: All data has been processed, cleaned, and aggregated for presentation. Where specific data points are unavailable, estimates are based on available data and clearly marked.

Last Updated: Data reflects the most recent available information as of January 2025.

Methodology

Data for this profile is sourced from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard dataset, IPEDS completion data, and Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data.

All financial figures are adjusted for inflation and represent the most recent available data. Employment and wage data are from the most recent Census Bureau ACS PUMS estimates.