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Psychology

Knowledge · O*NET work requirement

Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.

In the O*NET occupational database, Psychology is an area of knowledge that work requires. O*NET rates how important it is (1–5) and what level of it a job needs (0–7) for every U.S. occupation. It is rated as important (3 or higher) in 190 of 894 occupations.

Breadth here means how widely O*NET rates this area of knowledge as important across occupations — not that it is rare, high-paying, or currently in employer demand.

Occupations that rely most on Psychology

Ranked by O*NET importance to the occupation (1–5). Bars are sized against the 1–5 scale; the level column is what depth of the area of knowledge the job needs (0–7).

Occupation Importance Score Level
Clinical Neuropsychologists 5.0 7.0
Clinical and Counseling Psychologists 5.0 6.9
Neuropsychologists 5.0 6.7
Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary 5.0 6.2
Art Therapists 5.0 6.9
Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses 5.0 6.8
Mental Health Counselors 5.0 6.7
Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors 5.0 6.0
Marriage and Family Therapists 4.9 6.4
Psychiatrists 4.9 6.6
Healthcare Social Workers 4.9 6.3
School Psychologists 4.9 6.4
Music Therapists 4.9 6.4
Industrial-Organizational Psychologists 4.8 5.9
Naturopathic Physicians 4.8 5.8
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians 4.7 5.5
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers 4.7 6.2
Registered Nurses 4.6 6.1
Genetic Counselors 4.6 4.9
Physician Assistants 4.6 6.0
Occupational Therapists 4.5 6.0
Recreational Therapists 4.5 6.0
Family Medicine Physicians 4.5 5.6
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary 4.5 5.5
Emergency Medicine Physicians 4.4 6.3
General Internal Medicine Physicians 4.3 5.8
Pediatricians, General 4.3 5.4
Nurse Midwives 4.3 5.4
Audiologists 4.3 5.2
Occupational Therapy Assistants 4.3 5.4
Clinical Nurse Specialists 4.3 5.7
Hospitalists 4.3 5.8
Social and Human Service Assistants 4.3 5.0
Education Teachers, Postsecondary 4.2 4.9
Obstetricians and Gynecologists 4.2 5.4
Psychiatric Technicians 4.2 5.6
Special Education Teachers, Secondary School 4.2 4.9
Athletic Trainers 4.2 4.8
Nurse Practitioners 4.2 5.7
Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomists 4.2 4.7

Showing the top 40 of 190 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Psychology

This area of knowledge is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the roles for which O*NET rates it important and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across those roles (importance-weighted). 64.2% of the 190 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (122 roles).

Across those roles, 55.3% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 27.9% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.70 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
learning 27.6% you ask AI to explain or teach
directive 25.7% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 24.0% you and AI go back and forth
validation 3.7% you do it; AI checks your work
feedback loop 2.2% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback

Roles behind this signal

The roles where this area of knowledge is most important and that also have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.

Occupation Importance Works with AI Autonomy
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 3.3 63.2% 4.0/5
Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary 5.0 66.2% 4.0/5
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 67.2% 3.5/5
Education Teachers, Postsecondary 4.2 65.3% 3.5/5
Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary 3.6 66.2% 3.3/5
Communications Teachers, Postsecondary 3.9 65.7% 3.0/5
Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary 3.8 66.2% 3.5/5
Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors 3.1 70.6% 4.0/5
Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary 3.8 66.2% 3.5/5
Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Teachers, Postsecondary 3.6 65.7% 3.3/5
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary 4.5 65.8% 3.8/5
Instructional Coordinators 3.1 53.1% 4.0/5

Source: Anthropic Economic Index (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) over a sample of Claude.ai Free and Pro conversations — not all AI tools and not the whole workforce. Shares are of observed conversations, weighted by how important this area of knowledge is to each role; some conversations are left unclassified by Anthropic's taxonomy, so shares need not sum to 100.

Industries that concentrate this

Where Psychology matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Psychology (O*NET importance ≥ 3 of 5). Concentration compares that reach to the national average industry, so a value above 1× means the requirement is more pervasive here than across the economy as a whole.

Nationally, about 15.7% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Psychology (measured across 65 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Health Care and Social Assistance 9,404,870 40.7%
Educational Services 6,702,790 49.1%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 1,316,860 14.6%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 1,047,750 9.7%
Finance and Insurance 640,760 10.3%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 549,750 12.4%
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 519,030 19.6%
Retail Trade 448,940 2.9%
Transportation and Warehousing 426,790 5.8%
Management of Companies and Enterprises 341,330 12.2%
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 286,120 12.1%
Accommodation and Food Services 231,340 1.6%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists National industry 4.38× 68.7%
Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians) National industry 3.2× 50.2%
Educational Services Sector 3.13× 49.1%
Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers National industry 2.93× 46.0%
Residential Mental Health and Substance Abuse Facilities National industry 2.9× 45.5%
Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers National industry 2.82× 44.3%
Offices of Optometrists National industry 2.64× 41.5%
Health Care and Social Assistance Sector 2.59× 40.7%
Offices of Chiropractors National industry 2.32× 36.4%
Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers National industry 1.38× 21.6%
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation Sector 1.25× 19.6%
Pharmacies and Drug Retailers National industry 1.25× 19.6%

Reach is a measure of how widespread a requirement is across an industry's workforce, not how intensively any individual uses it. Sector worker counts come from BLS OEWS employment; the significance threshold and tool use come from O*NET. Industries shown by concentration are filtered to a real worker base so a tiny specialty cannot top the list on rounding.

Capabilities required by many of the same occupations — a measure of which skills, knowledge and abilities tend to travel together, not a judgment of similarity.

Capability Type Shared occupations
Therapy and Counseling Knowledge 85
Instructing Cross-functional skill 162
Sociology and Anthropology Knowledge 78
Education and Training Knowledge 171
Service Orientation Cross-functional skill 181
Persuasion Cross-functional skill 141
Learning Strategies Basic skill 146
Medicine and Dentistry Knowledge 77
Negotiation Cross-functional skill 113
Social Perceptiveness Cross-functional skill 190
Fluency of Ideas Ability 157
Originality Ability 139

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Psychology." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/knowledge/psychology

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Psychology. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/knowledge/psychology

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-psychology,
  title  = {Psychology},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/knowledge/psychology}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.