When I tell people I have a PhD in Philosophy they hear “Psychology.” It happens way too often, and it’s annoying.
Pet peeve #232
Published by Nancy E. Shaffer
NANCY E. SHAFFER has been an experimental psychologist (M.A., Cognitive Psychology, Rice University), a philosopher (Ph.D., History and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Davis), and software developer. She taught history and philosophy of science at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec and the University of Nebraska Omaha. Her philosophical work has appeared in the journal Philosophy of Science and her pop-culture philosophy website, All Things Philosophical on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series. Dis/inhbition is her first novel. She currently resides in Tempe, Arizona. View all posts by Nancy E. Shaffer
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
Heh. I have a BA and a Masters in History, and am finishing my Ph.D. in the same, and yet the majority of people I know think my degrees are all in English. Even the aunt I’m closest to introduces me to others as working on a Ph.D. in English.
After more than a decade, it’s become part of the landscape!
I think it is a matter of what people can wrap their heads around. A PhD in Philosophy is not understandable for most people. Psych is. So that becomes the default. Many people think if you have a PhD, with the title Dr., then you are a MD. S gets that all the time.
Or they’re hard of hearing.
Sometimes, I just go with it, because i do have a BA and Masters in Psychology, but then that gets annoying too because people assume it’s clinical psychology and it’s not, it’s experimental.
Most people are just living in tiny little worlds.
I’ve got a degree in Psychology. Sometimes I find just that fact to be a little annoying. ;o)
*rofl*
“I’ve got a degree in psychology, and I know why you did that.”
We had a bunch of’em in grad school.