Psychology vs Psychiatry – Understanding The Differences..

Human mind is a fascinating world. Though the achievements in the field of science and technology grew beyond skies through human genius, human mind still remains a mystery in many ways.

When it comes to selecting a career to understand and investigate capabilities and capacities of human mind, two fields stay highlighted – one in humanities and the other is in medical science. Yet, students and parents keep a wrong impression that study of human mind is an acute affair of science and research.

1. Psychology: Study of human mind and behavior
2. Psychiatry: Study of diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders.

Psychology is a humanities field, and psychiatry is a field in medical science.

There are few burning questions that gets repeated, all adding more confusion to this topic. Few of them as listed below:

1. Can I become a doctor after studying psychology?
2. Can I become a psychiatrist after studying psychology?
3. Psychology and psychiatry are the same?
4. Can I work as a doctor in hospital after studying psychology?
5. BA Psychology and B.Sc Psychology are the same?
6. After studying B.Tech and a course in psychology, can I open a psychology clinic?
7. Mathematics need to be studied for psychology?
8. Why psychology is not a science field?

Questions are many and endless.

As one go through each of the above questions, one thing is obvious; that is, understanding the differences between psychology and psychiatry is of paramount importance. Let’s dedicate remaining space of this article for that objective:

Sl. No.	Parameter	Psychology	Psychiatry
1.	What is?	Scientific study of human mind and behavior	Medical specialty for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders.
2.	Education Discipline?	Humanities / Science	Science / Medical Science
3.	Who can study?	Science / Commerce / Humanities Students	Science (Biology)
4.	Admission Criteria?	Merit/Institution-University Entrance/BHU (UET)/SAAT/MET/GSAT/CUET	AIIMS(PG/UG)/NEET/JIPMER (PG)
5.	Education platforms?	BA / BA (Hons.) / MA B.Sc / M.Sc Diploma Certificate (Offline/Online) M.Phil / PhD	B.Sc (3 yrs)/ MBBS (5 ½ yrs including rotating internship of 1 yr) MD / MS Diploma (Psychiatry/Psychiatric Nursing) Certificate (Offline/Online) PhD
6.	Mode of Education?	Online / Distance / Regular	Online / Regular
7.	Specializations?	Clinical Psychology Educational Psychology Social Psychology Counseling Psychology Developmental Psychology Health Psychology	Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist General psychiatry. Forensic Psychiatrist Clinical Psychiatrist Staff Psychiatrist Medical psychotherapy Old age psychiatry Psychiatry of intellectual disability (PID)
8.	Career Profiles?	Psychotherapist Counsellor Consultant Clinical Psychologist Psychiatrist Social Worker Therapist Practitioner	Inpatient care psychiatry Child psychiatry Adolescent psychiatry Geriatric psychiatry Disability psychiatry Forensic psychiatry Administrative psychiatry Addiction psychiatry Emergency psychiatry Psychiatry for community and public health Military psychiatry Psychiatric research
9.	Fees?	Online: less than INR 10k Certificate: INR 5k-10k Diploma: INR 65k UG: INR 20k to 2.5 Lakhs/p.a. PG: INR 3k-2 Lakhs Doctorate: INR 2k-1 Lakh	Certificate: INR 8k-50k Diploma & PG Diploma: INR 30k-100k UG: INR 30k-25 Lakhs PG: INR 30k-15 Lakhs Doctorate: INR 50k-4 Lakhs
10.	Basic Salary?	50k to 1.12 lakhs / p.a.	5 lakhs – 10 Lakhs / p.a.

Education and career are the backbone of our life. The reason why we live in a place, spent time the way we do, follow a life style that we live; all for pursuing a career or after pursuing a career. A decision to pursue a particular career field must be from an ‘informed’ point. I hope this article will help you in achieving the purpose.

Best of luck!

This topic is explained in detail in the below video. Language of presentation is Malayalam.

Disclaimer: Information shared here is basic and must not be taken as the final word. Before taking a final decision, please seek expert advise from competent sources.