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Psychology is a highly rewarding and lucrative field of study. A psychologist's salary depends on many factors including his/her qualifications, area of specialisation and experience in the profession. Professional psychologists with M.Phil and PhD degrees earn quite handsomely. Those engaged in private practice have more scope for earnings.

The requirements to become a licensed psychologist are: pass the 10+2 exam preferably with Psychology as one of the subjects complete a Bachelor (BA or BS) in Psychology degree (the curriculum of which focuses on personality development, psychotherapy, stress management and neuro-psychology) specialization at the postgraduate level, where one can get an MA or M.Sc in either Psychology, Social Work, or Counselling.

Further specialisation at the doctoral level is available as well via PhD or M.Phil The postgraduate and doctoral programs focus their studies more on research, which is great for pursuing either a research or teaching job, whereas the graduate degrees (Bachelors) emphasise practice, such as counselling.

To practice Counselling Psychology, you only need to have a BA/ BS in Psychology, or a related field (like Education or Social Work). Graduate (Bachelor) degree programs are 3 years, Postgraduate (Masters) degree programs are 2 years, and Doctoral (MPhil or PhD) programs are 2 years long.