Republican Candidate Jeb Bush made some unflattering comments regarding psychology majors in South Carolina. At the South Carolina town hall Mr. Jeb said,
“Universities ought to have skin in the game,” former Florida governor and current presidential candidate Jeb Bush said at a South Carolina town hall meeting Saturday morning, “When a student shows up, they ought to say ‘Hey, that psych major deal, that philosophy major thing, that’s great, it’s important to have liberal arts … but realize, you’re going to be working a Chick-fil-A.'”
“The number one degree program for students in this country … is psychology,” Bush said. “I don’t think we should dictate majors. But I just don’t think people are getting jobs as psych majors. We have huge shortages of electricians, welders, plumbers, information technologists, teachers.”
In a way Jeb Bush's ridiculous, backward, negative and unflattering statement is saying that psychology is not a useful field and you cannot find many jobs with that degree. Psychology majors make a huge population of the undergraduate degree, about 113,000 undergraduate students graduate yearly with a psychology degree. Guess who enjoyed being belittled for the major they chose? No One! Jeb’s statement incited a very negative response from the public and lead to a #ThisPsychMajor movement in which Psych majors went on twitter to discuss their accomplishments and defend their education and accomplishments because of psychology.
There are many errors with what Jeb Bush said. For one, psychology is not a liberal arts study. The Oxford English dictionary describes Psychology as the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context. Jeb’s statement demeans the hard work put in by psychology majors and the hard work put in my psychologist on a day to day basis. Jeb also failed to understand that access to mental health care is worse than other types of medical services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated in 2010 that the country had 156,300 mental health counselors. Access to mental health professionals is worse than for other types of doctors. What we need right now is not more business people, but psychologist to provide and make healthcare accessible to many all over the country.
It is time we recognize and appreciate the great work being done by health professionals in the mental health field, like psychology majors and the great work they continue to do.
Finally, Jeb Bush seems to have forgotten that he received a bachelor degree in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin.
Below are examples of the great work being done by Psych majors all over the country!
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in 2013 reported 41,149 suicides, making suicide the 10th leading cause of death for Americans In that year, someone in the country died by suicide every 12.8 minutes.
