Have you always wondered what you can do with your Psychology degree? Is the scope of Psychology simply limited to talking with clients? Although most of the students in India aim to become Clinical Psychologist or counsellor and believe it as the ideal career path in psychology, there are some non-traditional roles that are creating higher career opportunities in Psychology. Not only the need of psychologists is increasing in other areas of field like corporate, forensic, armed forces, sports, app and website designing, and solving cyber crimes, the situation is also vice versa.
Students too are looking for psychology careers that are unique, solve real world problems outside hospital settings, and seek psychology career options that are holistic in nature. If you are someone who believes psychology careers carries a more holistic approach than an atomistic approach limiting itself to just healthcare centers and private practices, this informative blog is just for you!
List of Some Undiscovered Psychology Careers In 2025
Neuropsychologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹4,00,000 – ₹12,00,000
Neuropsychologists specialize in studying the relationship between brain function and behavior. They assess, diagnose, and treat individuals suffering from neurological or neurodevelopmental conditions that impair cognitive, emotional, or behavioural function – such as dementia, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injuries, ADHD or learning disabilities.
Indian hospitals rehabilitation centres and academic institutions have experienced rising incidence rates for such conditions such as dementia, stroke Parkinson’s disease traumatic brain injuries ADHD or learning disabilities among their patient population.
With the rising awareness surrounding mental health issues, this becomes a go-to psychology careers. According to Jain University: “Neuropsychologists are becoming more needed in India as more awareness emerges around mental health and cognitive rehabilitation”.
Job Roles
- Clinical Neuropsychological Assessment: Conducting comprehensive cognitive and behavioral assessments. Diagnosis: Recognizing specific neurological or neurodevelopmental disorders. Rehabilitation: Designing and implementing cognitive rehabilitation programs.
- Research: Investigating brain-behavior relationships and developing new assessment tools.
- Consultation: Working alongside neurologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians and other medical practitioners.
- Settings: Locations for intervention include hospitals (neurology, psychiatry, and rehabilitation units), private clinics, research institutions, academic environments, and special education centers.
Sports Psychologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹3,00,000 – ₹9,00,000
Next on the list of psychology careers is becoming a sports psychologist. They employ psychological principles to enhance athletic performance, reduce competition-induced anxiety and stress levels, improve team dynamics, and promote overall well-being among athletes, coaches, and sporting organizations.
As India’s sports sector blossoms and professional leagues expand, demand for mental conditioning among athletes has skyrocketed. Sports psychology serves an invaluable function within sports by equipping athletes with mental tools for success – something which athletes themselves require as pressure mounts from intensive practice sessions, performance anxiety concerns, burnout or injury issues that necessitate additional assistance to deal with them effectively.
Job Roles
- Performance Enhancement: Helping athletes build mental toughness, focus, motivation and goal-setting strategies.
- Stress and Anxiety Management: Techniques for dealing with pre-competition nerves and pressure.
- Injury Rehabilitation: Offering psychological support during recovery.
- Career Transition: Supporting athletes during post-career adjustments.
- Settings: work in national sports federations offices, professional sports leagues such as IPL or ISL teams, as well as sports academies, universities and corporate wellness programs for performance enhancement.
Rehabilitation Psychologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹3,00,000 – ₹8,00,000
Rehabilitation psychologists specialize in aiding individuals manage psychological, social, and functional challenges associated with chronic illnesses, disability or injury in order to maximize independence, participation, quality of care and overall quality of life for their clients. Their goal is to maximize these factors.
India has seen an ever-increasing population living with disabilities and chronic health conditions, prompting more consideration to be paid towards meeting their holistic needs, which extend beyond physical recovery to mental and emotional well-being.
Job Roles
- Adjustment Counseling: Facilitating individuals and families’ adjustment to physical or cognitive limitations that come from injury.
- Pain Management: Implementing psychological interventions for chronic pain conditions.
- Vocational Rehabilitation: Assisting those returning to the workforce or seeking new jobs to transition seamlessly back.
- Cognitive Retraining: Strategies to enhance memory, attention and problem-solving after brain injuries.
- Settings: Hospitals (rehabilitation units), rehabilitation centers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs ), private practice, vocational training centers, government social welfare departments.
Cyber Psychologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹4,00,000 – ₹10,00,000
Cyber psychologists specialize in studying how humans use technology and engage digital interactions online environments such as social media platforms or artificial intelligence systems that influence cognition, emotions and behavioral outcomes in humans.
As Internet use and cybercrimes continue to rapidly escalate, human interaction with technology becomes ever more crucial. Cybercriminal acts require expert knowledge because of the serious consequences for both victims and perpetrators alike that result from them.
Job Roles
- Cybercrime Analysis: Gaining insight into the motivations and behavior of cybercriminals. Digital Addiction Treatment: Assessing and treating internet, gaming and social media addiction.
- Online Safety: Designing strategies to foster safe online behavior and protect vulnerable populations, whilst User Experience Research involves working alongside tech companies in designing ethical yet user-friendly digital products.
- Online Therapy/Telepsychology Ethics: Establishing guidelines for virtual psychological services.
- Research: Exploring the psychological effects of virtual reality, AI and social media on users.
- Settings: cybersecurity firms, tech companies, law enforcement agencies, research institutions or mental health clinics that specialize in digital well-being.
Forensic Psychologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹3,50,000 – ₹9,00,000
Forensic psychologists apply psychological principles within legal and criminal justice systems. They conduct assessments, provide expert witness testimony in court cases, consult on legal matters, and work on rehabilitation programs for offenders.
As one of the fascinating psychology careers, Indian legal and criminal justice institutions increasingly recognise the significance of psychological insights in understanding criminal behaviour, assessing competence, and risk assessment, as well as supporting victims. India’s National Forensic Sciences University serves as a testament to the increasing importance of this field.
Job Roles
- Criminal Profiling: Supporting law enforcement to gain insight into criminal offenders’ characteristics.
- Competency Evaluations: Evaluating the defendant’s mental state before trial proceedings.
- Risk Evaluations: Examining whether criminality could reoccur.
- Victim Support: Offering psychological aid and services to victims of crime.
- Expert Witness Testimony: Presenting psychological findings before courts. Offender Rehabilitation: Designing and implementing treatment programs for individuals incarcerated within our system.
- Settings: Prisons, police departments, courts, correctional facilities, forensic hospitals and private consulting firms that work directly with victims.
Industrial-Organizational Psychologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹4,00,000 – ₹15,00,000
Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychologists apply psychological theories and research methods to optimize human behavior within workplace settings. Their main goals include increasing employee performance, job satisfaction, organizational structure effectiveness and overall productivity.
India’s vibrant corporate sector–comprised of both startups and multinational corporations–places great emphasis on human capital management, employee wellbeing and organizational efficiency. Corporate stress levels, burnout issues and talent management requirements also drive demand for Industrial-Organizational Psychologists.
Job Roles
- Talent Acquisition: Organizing effective recruitment and selection processes.
- Training & Development: Conceiving and delivering employee training programs as well as leadership development training initiatives, whilst Performance Management involves creating appraisal systems and feedback mechanisms.
- Organizational Development: Facilitating change management and strengthening organizational culture.
- Employee Engagement and Wellbeing: Addressing corporate stress while encouraging a balance of life at work/play.
- Settings: Corporate organizations (HR departments), consulting firms, government agencies, research and development organizations or training institutes.
UX Psychologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹5,00,000 – ₹15,00,000
UX psychologists draw upon principles from cognitive, human factors, and social psychology to assess user interactions with products, services, and systems. One of the emerging psychology careers is to design user-friendly experiences that are intuitive yet emotionally compelling for users.
India is undergoing rapid digital transformation and expanding tech industry development; companies have found that understanding user behaviour is crucial for product success. Companies recognise that user experience transcends aesthetics; it also encompasses psychological principles. Google Careers notes that UX teams “care deeply about our users,” gathering insights about needs, attitudes, emotions, and behaviours from individuals using our products—an integral role they play in collecting insights for Google Products.
Job Roles
- User Research: Conducting usability testing, interviews, surveys and ethnographic studies.
- Information Architecture: Craft intuitive navigation systems that organize content effectively. Interaction Design: Shaping how users engage with interfaces and functionalities to enhance user experiences.
- Prototyping and Wireframing: Conceiving preliminary designs to be tested. Usability Testing: Assessing pain points in existing products to find ways of making improvements and identify areas for advancement. Accessibility Design: Making products usable by people of diverse abilities.
- Settings: Tech companies (software development, app creation and e-commerce platforms), design agencies, product development teams and research & development departments.
Geropsychologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹3,00,000 – ₹8,00,000
Geropsychologists specialise in enhancing the mental health and well-being of older adults. Their services focus on treating age-related psychological challenges such as dementia, depression, anxiety, grief or adjustment to retirement/chronic medical conditions.
India, like many nations, is witnessing an impressive demographic shift with an ever-ageing population, creating the need for tailored mental healthcare explicitly tailored for older adults’ unique psychological issues.
Job Roles
- Cognitive Assessment: Diagnosing dementia and other cognitive impairments.
- Therapy & Counseling: Addressing depression, anxiety, grief and life transitions.
- Caregiver Support: Offering psychological support and resources for family caregivers.
- Palliative Care: Engaging older adults facing end-of-life concerns in care services.
- Settings: Hospitals (geriatric wards), nursing homes, assisted living facilities, private practice, community mental health centers or research institutions with an interest in ageing research.
Psycho-oncologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹4,00,000 – ₹10,00,000
Psycho-oncologists specialize in cancer. One of the more exciting psychology careers prospects within psychology, their services cover psychological, social, and behavioral aspects as well as providing mental health support throughout a patient’s cancer journey from diagnosis through survivorship or end-of-life care.
Cancer diagnosis and treatment often cause substantial psychological trauma for those involved, including anxiety, depression, fear of recurrence and body image concerns. Medical professionals and policymakers in India increasingly recognize the necessity for holistic cancer care to include psychosocial support services as integral elements of treatment plans.
On World Psycho-Oncology Day 2025 in Bengaluru, Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao declared, “Psychosocial care is an integral component of cancer therapy… support systems must become part of care as medicine advances towards providing more balanced physical treatments alongside emotional well-being”.
Job Roles
- Emotional Support: Counselling patients and families to cope with the diagnosis, treatment side effects, prognosis, and prognosis; Symptom Management: Addressing pain, fatigue, sleep disruptions, and body image concerns psychologically.
- Communication Skills: Enhancing patients’ communications with their medical team.
- Bereavement Counseling: Offering support following the loss of a loved one due to cancer. Research: Analyzing psychological effects associated with cancer as well as creating interventions.
- Settings: Cancer hospitals, oncology departments, palliative care centers, private practices and research institutions all play an integral role.
Military Psychologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹6,00,000 – ₹12,00,000
Military psychologists provide mental health services and support to service members, veterans and their families in the armed forces. They aim to address unique challenges faced by military members, such as combat stress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), adjustment difficulties, leadership development needs and operational readiness challenges.
Military personnel’s mental well-being is essential to national security and the effective functioning of the armed forces, facing extreme levels of stress, trauma, and long absences from family that require specific psychological care to be met.
Job Roles
- Assessment and Evaluation: Pre-enlistment mental health screenings and fitness-for-duty evaluations.
- Individual and Group Therapy: Treating PTSD, anxiety, depression and substance abuse disorders as well as substance use disorder and addiction issues.
- Crisis Intervention: Offering immediate assistance during and following trauma events.
- Stress Management Training: Arming personnel with strategies to cope in high-stress environments.
- Family Support: Counseling military families on issues associated with deployment and reintegration.
- Leadership Development: Equipping officers with psychological principles that help promote effective leadership.
- Settings: Military hospitals, bases, veterans’ affairs departments, defence research organizations and private clinics.
Space Psychologist
Estimated Salary Range: ₹8,00,000 – ₹25,00,000
Space psychologists specialize in studying psychological and behavioral aspects of spaceflight. This includes mental health issues, social dynamics, cognitive performance and adaptation issues in astronauts operating in extreme and isolated environments to ensure mission success while keeping astronauts happy and safe.
As India’s Space Research Organisation (ISRO) embarks on ambitious space missions, such as the Gaganyaan spaceflights, it becomes increasingly crucial that astronauts’ psychological well-being is prioritised. Extended isolation, confinement, microgravity effects, and high-stakes missions all pose unique psychological challenges that require expert care for optimal functioning. Although still relatively nascent within India itself, this field will undoubtedly increase in importance with future manned space missions.
Job Roles
- In-flight Support: Monitoring astronaut mental health while on missions and offering remote counselling.
- Team Dynamics: Encouraging harmonious crew interactions within small spaces. Post-Flight Rehabilitation: Helping astronauts adjust psychologically back home.
- Research: Investigating the long-term psychological effects of space travel and developing countermeasures.
- Habitat Design: Consulting on psychological aspects related to spacecraft design.
- Settings: National space agencies, such as ISRO, aerospace research institutions like TIMELAB or CARSA, and university research labs, as well as private space exploration companies, all provide ideal working conditions for space exploration.
Conclusion
Our today’s blog ends, but the list can still get bigger. Why because the field of mental health can almost integrate with every other field or career path. This is just a glimpse of some psychology careers that have been less explored or discovered by students in India. If you want to make a fulfilling career in one of the above fields, the process is simple.
Do proper research. Keep yourself updated with any latest research or job opening for the above fields. Days are not far when these fields are likely to become popular and people will look for well-versed psychologists who can showcase their skills beyond clinical settings.
