The COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly put pressure on health systems—and particularly frontline practitioners like doctors and nurses—but one of the everlasting negative effects of the pandemic will be the tax on mental health. “Illness, grief, job loss, social isolation, uncertainty, and other pandemic-driven stressors have contributed to an increase in psychological distress on an unusually wide scale,” according to Yale University’s School of Medicine.
This increase in mental strain has been cause for greater demand for treatment of anxiety and depression, and therefore a spike in the need for psychologists. These professionals have seen bigger workloads and longer wait-lists for treatment than before the pandemic, a 2021 report from the American Psychological Association (APA) shows.
“As more people seek treatment for mental health conditions, the demands on psychological practitioners have increased,” APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr. said in an October 2021 statement. “Like many other health care providers, psychologists are feeling the pressure.”
In line with increased demand, salaries have also risen. Hourly wages for mental health workers and psychiatric aides jumped nearly 9% to $18.36 in 2022 compared with the prior year, and more senior leadership roles, such as behavioral health directors, saw a pay bump in excess of 2% to more than $45 per hour, according to Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service.
The mean salary for psychologists is nearly $100,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which also notes that the profession often requires a Ph.D. or master’s degree. Earning a degree in the field requires an investment of both time and money, though.
For people who are looking to explore their interest in the field without attending a degree program, Fortune has compiled a list of a few free online courses. These intro psychology courses hosted by top universities, as deemed by Fortune, are available to anyone and have flexible enrollment.
Yale University is widely recognized as having one of the best psychology programs in the country, and it hosts a free online Introduction to Psychology course. This class, which takes about 15 hours to complete, explores the ideas of perception, communication, learning, memory, decision making, persuasion, emotions, and social behavior.
While it’s just an intro course, 14% of students who completed the class started a new career, according to Coursera. The course also focuses on cognition, development, and language. It’s taught by renowned Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom, and nearly 1 million students have taken the class through Coursera.
Neurobiology is a discipline focused on how the nervous system produces behavior and is related to psychology. This course hosted by the University of Chicago covers topics including the nervous system, perception and vision, hearing, movement, and abstract functions.
Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life is a beginner-level course and takes about 28 hours to complete. It’s taught by University of Chicago neurobiology professor Peggy Mason and has flexible enrollment. Students will apply what they learn about neurobiology to how we perceive the world, control our bodies, and interact with others.
Carnegie Mellon University offers free and open courses to everyone, including its Introduction to Psychology class. The class focuses on human behavior and the mind, but also covers topics including memory, personality, wellness, psychological disorders, and research methods.
The course is broken up into 16 units including content such as text, videos, exercises, and assessments. The course will take about 14 weeks to complete, and the university suggests that students try to complete at least one unit per week. It’s entirely self-paced, though, and includes access only to the existing course materials.
Highly regarded as having some of the best STEM programs in the country, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers a free online Introduction to Psychology class through its open courseware platform. The class focuses on how the mind works and how the brain supports the mind, but also explores topics including memory, intelligence, emotion, personality, stress, adult development, and psychopathology.
The course is self-guided but includes materials such as lecture videos, exams with answers, as well as extra notes from the instructor. This is an undergraduate-level course that was taught by MIT neuroscientist John D.E. Gabrieli, who is widely regarded as a cognition expert.
See how the schools you’re considering fared in Fortune’s rankings of the best master’s degree programs in data science (in-person and online), nursing, computer science, cybersecurity, psychology, public health, and business analytics, as well as the best doctorate in education programs and MBA programs (part-time, executive, full-time, and online).
