Psychology

Psychology is another thing I'm extremely interested in. If it was easy to become a psychology teacher (which it is not, because schools don't hire someone who teaches only psychology; they hire someone who has their degree in History or something of that sort with a minor in Psychology), I'd definitely want to do that. Perhaps I can get certified in it after I get my Music Education degree. Anyway, I almost decided to go to the college for Psychology at the last minute, because I got into Northeastern (a really fantastic college in Boston), but I decided to stick with Music Ed. I still want to take many many classes for it though. I will have to quite a few for childhood psychology, since I'll be study to be a teacher, but I want to take even more!

One of my favorite things in Psychology that I learned was behavioral and personality disorders, like Schizophrenia a la John Nash, and things like fugue, OCD, classic conditioning and Freud's theories like the Oedipus Complex. Body image disorders also really interest me, because I can relate to them deeply, and it fascinates me.

Is anyone majoring in Psychology? Interested in it like I am?

I've taken two psychology courses. Both were awesome, but hard.

You can teach Psychology exclusively. Schools in North America might require a PhD. though.

We learned about John Nash in politics! Nash Equilibrium ftaccurateportrayalofmankindftw! :D

I find Psychology interesting, but it's not something I'd ever want to study as a career, or for an exam or anything. Maybe just something to read about in passing.

Having done a Psychology course this year... I've learned that being a Psychologist has moved down my list of possible careers. xD

I love psychology. :bigsmile: I want to be a forensic psychologist which would require getting a BSc (Honours) in Psychology and a MSc in Forensic Psychology. Sounds tough. :( I wouldn't mind being a psychology teacher, either. :jess:

Back then I took Psychology in Grade 12 and I enjoyed it quite a lot. I even got a 97% in it as my Final Mark. :D

If I ever find my current career path is turning out to be bad I might switch to a Psychology related career.

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Originally Posted by Evastio

Back then I took Psychology in Grade 12 and I enjoyed it quite a lot. I even got a 97% in it as my Final Mark. :D

If I ever find my current career path is turning out to be bad I might switch to a Psychology related career.

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Evastio is an adult. You heard it here first.

The thot plickens!

I think it's one of the most interesting things, evar! Too bad I'm not in any position to take a class xD

I took a class on it last semester and even though I didn't do so well (had pretty much a C average the whole semester), it was interesting to me. My favorite things to learn about were Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs, Freud, and the thing about Oral, Anal, Phallic, etc (I think it's related to Freud but I can't be too sure..)

We watched "A Beautiful Mind" in my Psychology class. along with "Sybil".

John Nash rocks, Sybil sucks.

Sociology > Psychology

;)

I'm a Sociology major so a lot of the stuff I learn overlaps with the Psychology curriculum. I've even taken a Social Psychology class before. :p Sociology / psychology is one of them "easy" majors, and it is relatively easy compared to other majors, but I also think it's incredibly useful in life. Soc/Psych is all about who we are, how we learn, grow, love, adapt, etc. Sociology helps me understand the world better and I prefer it to Psychology because it isn't so focused on the individual, but more about societies, group interactions, etc.

Also, Freud was a little crazy with mommy issues.

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Originally Posted by Miriel

Sociology > Psychology

;)

I'm a Sociology major so a lot of the stuff I learn overlaps with the Psychology curriculum. I've even taken a Social Psychology class before. :p Sociology / psychology is one of them "easy" majors, and it is relatively easy compared to other majors, but I also think it's incredibly useful in life. Soc/Psych is all about who we are, how we learn, grow, love, adapt, etc. Sociology helps me understand the world better and I prefer it to Psychology because it isn't so focused on the individual, but more about societies, group interactions, etc.

Also, Freud was a little crazy with mommy issues.

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qft

Though the sociology class I'm taking has been the easiest class. Ever. My test grades are 104, 100, 98, 94, and 97. That's the whole grade for the class.

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Originally Posted by The Fonz

We watched "A Beautiful Mind" in my Psychology class. along with "Sybil".

John Nash rocks, Sybil sucks.

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We watched "I Am Sam," and I cried :cry:

I'm interested in Psychology, but due to the fact I have OCD and schizophrenia in remission and still have issues hearing about it (I can talk about it fine) I ended up dropping out of my psychology class.

I don't mind talking or hearing about OCD because.. it's a very commonly misused and misunderstood disorder but I don't like hearing about schizophrenia since I don't actually remember my episodes.. and yeah, hearing about it just makes me question my sanity. xD The second I found out that there was going to be a couple of months devoted to the mental disorders I have/had suffered from I ended up going in panic attack mode.
Psychologically speaking... since I don't remember my episodes of schizophrenia I treat them as if they don't exist, while when I hear about my episodes I tend to treat them as if they were a dream or they happened to someone else. When I hear about effects and possible actions associated with schizophrenia as a whole, I treat that as if that could be me in the future which then makes me wonder and worry about how sane I really am, and how sane other people could be while suffering from long term distructive disorders in remission.
I feel that I can't reassociate myself with a disorder I have no concious memory of, which until I can associate myself with the disorder and accept the fact that the mental state and who I was is different than myself now, I won't be able to handle anything talking about it.

Most people want me to be a therapist because they come to me for advice and such, and I would love to be like a school psychologists but saddly I'll have to gain alot more mental stability before I can handle even going into another Intro. to Psych. class. :(

Psychology = Dolentreans major

I have been interested in it since I was very young, the classes are very very interesting, though they can get a bit hard with all the memorization and whatnot, but I personally find it worth it.

I also learned though my class that I have sensory crossover in the brain, a rare and interesting disorder. You learn all sorts of interesting things.

i've taken a few psychology classes. loved them. but i don't know if i could major in it, sadly enough. :(

You...wouldn't appreciate hearing what I think about shrinks.

Go ahead. I'll probably find your ignorance amusing.

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Originally Posted by Citizen Bleys

You...wouldn't appreciate hearing what I think about shrinks.

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Is that basically saying you've been to a shrink long enough to gain a hatred for them?

You know what, I was for sure going to major in Psychology. It was the thing that interested me the most and it was going to be my major. But after one semester of college that idea just kind of fell apart. It's still very interesting to me, but I just can't see myself doing anything I want to do with a major in Psychology. So I dropped it, now I don't know what I'm going to do.

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Originally Posted by Shauna

I find Psychology interesting, but it's not something I'd ever want to study as a career, or for an exam or anything. Maybe just something to read about in passing.

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Qft.

Psych major! :cool:

I've been told I would make a good therapist but I disagree cause I'm too honest about things and in reality, most common disorders have simple solutions (Its all in your smurfing head, GET OVER IT!). I also was not pleased when I took a Abnormal Psych class in college and it eventually devolved into "connect the medicine with the psychological abnormality". I'm not a bio-chem psychologist and I only believe in using medication as a last resort unless the patient suffers from problems that are proven to be a chemical imbalance rather than deep seated psychological trauma. I don't believe in "quick fixes".

My main interest in psych has fallen into research rather therapy. I especially would love to do more research into Carl Jung's theories as he has been one of the few psychologist whose studies have never been picked up by the more main stream schools. Yet I feel his works are more important than alot of stuff psychologist work on today. I never took to psychology cause I wanted to help people but rather as a way to understand people.

Sociology is interesting but I found it to be pretty depressing. I find that the main difference in Psychology and Sociology is that Psychology feels humans have free will whereas Sociology pretty much tells you we don't have free will and are products of society. I feel both need to be studied though cause as usual the truth lies somewhere between.

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Originally Posted by Miriel

I'm a Sociology major so a lot of the stuff I learn overlaps with the Psychology curriculum. I've even taken a Social Psychology class before. :p Sociology / psychology is one of them "easy" majors, and it is relatively easy compared to other majors, but I also think it's incredibly useful in life. Soc/Psych is all about who we are, how we learn, grow, love, adapt, etc. Sociology helps me understand the world better and I prefer it to Psychology because it isn't so focused on the individual, but more about societies, group interactions, etc.

Also, Freud was a little crazy with mommy issues.

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Never took Sociology; when it was on offer for me in high school I opted to do German instead. However, social psychology was most definitely one of the most interesting aspects of psychology when I studied it. It was pretty easy, because I think a lot of it is common sense and things that you observe from general day-to-day living anyway, but it's definitely nice to look at those group behaviours such as conformity, obedience and minority influence from a more academic perspective. It's less of an abstract perspective than the cognitive or psychodynamic approaches.

I studied IB Psychology for two years and thoroughly enjoyed it. I only took it initially because I needed one more subject and it was a choice between that or ab initio Spanish. I got the best grade in the class in it. Were it not for the fact that I love History, I'd definitely would've seriously considering Psychology were it not ridiculously difficult to get a job in the industry what with all the competition. I particularly enjoyed social psychology (as mentioned), along with cognitive psychology and humanistic psychology. I don't really agree with the humanistic perspective, but it's definitely a refreshing approach that allows you to look at people as individuals, to appreciate that people are able to achieve goals and engage in all areas of creativity and learning and that people are good at heart.

Also Freud was a nutter anyway.

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Sociology is interesting but I found it to be pretty depressing. I find that the main difference in Psychology and Sociology is that Psychology feels humans have free will whereas Sociology pretty much tells you we don't have free will and are products of society.

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Um. What?

Psychology - The study of the individual mind
Sociology - The study of individuals in relation to groups, societies, inter-personal dynamics.

Sociology has nothing to do with denying the idea of free will (nor is the main point of Psychology to promote the idea of free will). Sociology has everything to do with taking the basics of Psychology (brain development, behavior, personalities, etc) and applying it to real world social situations.

Example. My University's Psych department offers a class on Abnormal Psychology which deals with abnormal behavior and psychopathology. Our Soc department offers a class on Deviant Behavior which takes people who are deviant either by relative societal standards or suffering from mental disorders and see how they function, integrate, and relate to societies, communities, families. Get it?

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Originally Posted by Avarice-ness

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Originally Posted by Citizen Bleys

You...wouldn't appreciate hearing what I think about shrinks.

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Is that basically saying you've been to a shrink long enough to gain a hatred for them?

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I never said I hated them. Only that the types of people I see around here wouldn't appreciate hearing what I have to say about them.

Not trying to be a downer--which is why I'm keeping my trap shut*--but without some dissent, this thread would not accurately represent what people as a whole think, since the only respondents so far seem to be psych majors and those in related disciplines.

*that and I know that if I try to play mind games with shrinks, I will lose.

I had psychology in high school! It sucked really really bad, most people told me psychology was interesting but all my teacher did was read the book! I learned some interesting things about Piaget and Freud but that's all I can remember of a year!

Psychology's very interesting. There's so much to understand about the way the mind works, and even if some of the theories can be a little speculative they're still fun to consider. I don't think I'd have much fun studying it as a subject, but it's something I like to read up on in my spare time.

In before Mandee.

I am absolutely terrible at psychology courses.

Psychology is interesting, but psychologists...err not so much. I find it odd how some people pay to confide in psychologists when they can just go to their family members or friends if they have them.

I took Sociology for GCSE, and I really enjoy it. As I adore any subject that is English-based so has lots of essay-writing, I adore Sociology. My teacher really sucks though, she's a teacher from sixth form, who specializes in Psychology. Sociology is really really hard, too, the exam boundaries at GCSE are insanely high and the exam is ludicrously hard. (aswell as being 2 hours and 30 minutes long, the longest exam out of all of the other GCSE subjects). After my mock GCSE, I got a B (80+%) and my teacher handed me back my paper saying 'Here's another one who wrote a story' as I wrote 7 pages, front and back xD

I'm really interested in Psychology after taking Sociology for two years, and I've chosen it as a subject to take at AS Level at College, so I'll have to see how that goes. I was also interested in taking Sociology further from GCSE, into College, but it's all the same topics OVER AGAIN. I don't fancy learning about crime and deviance, poverty and the welfare state, families.. etc AGAIN (but in more detail). I'd just get so bored, so I'm leaving Sociology after GCSE.

Shiny: Sometimes it's helpful to talk to a neutral person. While there are friends and family there, sometimes it's a nice change to talk to someone who doesn't know your friends or family and is solely interested in you and isn't likely to pass judgement. Friends and family have a vested interested in you and your interactions with others; counsellors and the like don't.

friends and family don't have degrees in figuring out how people's minds work and they're usually a part of the happenings and have an inherent bias (whether it's seen as beneficial to the patient or not) in their reactions.

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Originally Posted by Miriel

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Sociology is interesting but I found it to be pretty depressing. I find that the main difference in Psychology and Sociology is that Psychology feels humans have free will whereas Sociology pretty much tells you we don't have free will and are products of society.

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Um. What?

Psychology - The study of the individual mind
Sociology - The study of individuals in relation to groups, societies, inter-personal dynamics.

Sociology has nothing to do with denying the idea of free will (nor is the main point of Psychology to promote the idea of free will). Sociology has everything to do with taking the basics of Psychology (brain development, behavior, personalities, etc) and applying it to real world social situations.

Example. My University's Psych department offers a class on Abnormal Psychology which deals with abnormal behavior and psychopathology. Our Soc department offers a class on Deviant Behavior which takes people who are deviant either by relative societal standards or suffering from mental disorders and see how they function, integrate, and relate to societies, communities, families. Get it?

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My sociology class mainly focused on the Nurture aspect of human growth and developement and rarely if never focused on genetics as a factor (unless we were' discussing ethnic minorities). It focused on how society affects the individual and believe me when you look at the research it was terribly depressing. I'm bad with names, but the experiment involving authority and obediance, which used two test subjects (one being an actor in on the experiment) doing the shock treatment is not my idea of human beings showing the strength of their personal moral beliefs but rather proof that the vast majority are sheep.

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Originally Posted by Shiny

Psychology is interesting, but psychologists...err not so much. I find it odd how some people pay to confide in psychologists when they can just go to their family members or friends if they have them.

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It's not always easy to talk to a family member or friend about the issue though. I would know.

Psychology fascinates me. It's definitely one of my possible career choices, along with cello performance, law, writing, and marine biology.

I took a psychology class my freshman year and it pretty much killed my interest in the subject. For one thing, my professor was a terrible lecturer and extremely boring. And, much as I'd like to be intelligent and know all about the functioning of the brain, when it comes down to studying I have little drive to obtain said knowledge.

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Originally Posted by Rye

Psychology is another thing I'm extremely interested in. If it was easy to become a psychology teacher (which it is not, because schools don't hire someone who teaches only psychology; they hire someone who has their degree in History or something of that sort with a minor in Psychology), I'd definitely want to do that. Perhaps I can get certified in it after I get my Music Education degree. Anyway, I almost decided to go to the college for Psychology at the last minute, because I got into Northeastern (a really fantastic college in Boston), but I decided to stick with Music Ed. I still want to take many many classes for it though. I will have to quite a few for childhood psychology, since I'll be study to be a teacher, but I want to take even more!

One of my favorite things in Psychology that I learned was behavioral and personality disorders, like Schizophrenia a la John Nash, and things like fugue, OCD, classic conditioning and Freud's theories like the Oedipus Complex. Body image disorders also really interest me, because I can relate to them deeply, and it fascinates me.

Is anyone majoring in Psychology? Interested in it like I am?

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You and me are very alike Rye. I sometimes wish I was a psychologist who could play the piano. I want to be Frasier Crane.

Astrology > Psychology

:bigsmile:

But for serious, Psychology is very interesting to me! I'm taking Psych I and II next year (imma be a sophmore), and I hear it's a really cool class! I think I have a natural knack for psychology (or at least a good intuition). I wouldn't really pursue it as a career though! Too much work! xD

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

My sociology class mainly focused on the Nurture aspect of human growth and developement and rarely if never focused on genetics as a factor (unless we were' discussing ethnic minorities). It focused on how society affects the individual and believe me when you look at the research it was terribly depressing. I'm bad with names, but the experiment involving authority and obediance, which used two test subjects (one being an actor in on the experiment) doing the shock treatment is not my idea of human beings showing the strength of their personal moral beliefs but rather proof that the vast majority are sheep.

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That experiment you're describing is more psychology than sociology. Sociologists do not often do experimental testing. Sociology research is based much more on ethnographic or observational and statistical research. The experiment you're describing with testing a person's willingness to administer electric shocks to another person is a psychological lab experiment, not a sociological one. There are lots of psychological laboratory experiments like that one. Such as the Stanford Prison Experiment which dealt with obedience and authority and is very much an example of a classic psychological experiment.

I know they were both originally Psychology experiments but I feel the results of both the Shock Treatment experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment spoke more on a social level than just psychological, hence the reason I studied it in both courses. Oddly enough, even though it is a psychological experiment; my sociology class was the one that went more in depth with the experiments than my psych classes did. The point of the Shock treatment experiment was to prove that German were more biologically inclined to follow orders than other nations (its a stupid premise but Psychology was still fairly new in the sciences and it was after WWII) and in the experiment they realized it was a purely social and psychological inclination for humans to follow authority figures not just a remote genetic factor.

It doesn't matter really cause sociology and psychology do tend to blend together due to common themes. I never held enough interest in sociology to go farther than the secondary introductory level my college had; my interest was far more in psychology and philosophy by that point. From the sound of it, I made the right choice cause god knows I hate statistics and ethnographs.;)

I took psychology at A-level and failed spectacularly. It wasn't all bad though, my year 12 teacher was austrailian and her accent made us laugh when she said certain phrases, like caregiver. As for my year 13 teacher, she was damn fine. I'd have tapped that. In fact, I blame my failure on her for being so distracting that I couldn't learn :tongue:

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Originally Posted by Shiny

Psychology is interesting, but psychologists...err not so much. I find it odd how some people pay to confide in psychologists when they can just go to their family members or friends if they have them.

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It's not the same thing. I have an OCD and I know I couldn't tell my mother what's happening in my head because well, she wouldn't understand, probably get the wrong idea about the situation, and react in some way that would make the situation worse. I love her, but she is a very straight-minded person... she doesn't create herself any problem like those I have and I envy her for that, but it means also that she doesn't know what it's like to have a psychological problem because... well, she never had one.

People have the common misconception that you only go to a psychologist to pay so you can have someone listen while you talk about your problems, while you could have a family member or a friend do the same thing for free. That's not true. If a psychologist only does that, it means either that he's not the kind of professional you need, or that you don't really need a therapy.
My psychologist not only gave me clever answers and explained what I had to do to feel better, but also gave me exercises to do at home and stuff - and they worked. She also put me in touch with a psychiastrist or a neurologist, which is someone who has a Medicine degree, so they could give me the appropriate medication, something she couldn't do because she was no physician. Also, she wasn't a Freudian. According to her, Freudians push too much on the reasons of a problem, but that doesn't means automatically solving it.

i have yet to meet a psychologist i really liked and felt comfortable with. :( since i am bpd i tend to have unstable relationships with people like that, so it's surprising i held onto a psychiatrist for 6 years.

so i have been trying to really research psychiatry for my own benefit to help myself understand myself better. since borderline personality disorder is the boundary between neuroses and psychoses it's just hard to deal with without medication AND a therapist.

but the reason i couldn't major in psychology is because of my bpd. i could never work so close with people and have relationships like that with them and expect them to be stable or something. i don't know.

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Originally Posted by Craig

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Originally Posted by Rye

Psychology is another thing I'm extremely interested in. If it was easy to become a psychology teacher (which it is not, because schools don't hire someone who teaches only psychology; they hire someone who has their degree in History or something of that sort with a minor in Psychology), I'd definitely want to do that. Perhaps I can get certified in it after I get my Music Education degree. Anyway, I almost decided to go to the college for Psychology at the last minute, because I got into Northeastern (a really fantastic college in Boston), but I decided to stick with Music Ed. I still want to take many many classes for it though. I will have to quite a few for childhood psychology, since I'll be study to be a teacher, but I want to take even more!

One of my favorite things in Psychology that I learned was behavioral and personality disorders, like Schizophrenia a la John Nash, and things like fugue, OCD, classic conditioning and Freud's theories like the Oedipus Complex. Body image disorders also really interest me, because I can relate to them deeply, and it fascinates me.

Is anyone majoring in Psychology? Interested in it like I am?

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You and me are very alike Rye. I sometimes wish I was a psychologist who could play the piano. I want to be Frasier Crane.

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I know, right? xD Plus the photography aspect.

As for the talk to friends and family, I honestly could not talk to my family about my current problems. They have no idea that I suffer really bad bouts of depression every few weeks, and that I'm so unhappy with myself. They would laugh and tell me to get over myself. They would not take it seriously, or even try to understand, because they're in the practice of "if you ignore a problem long enough, it goes away." The few times they've seen me utterly crushed about how I see my body and crying, they've actually YELLED at me. So yeah. xD

I talk to my friends a lot about it, though, and it helps valuably, but I really need more than that. The majority of them tell me that I should see a therapist when I can. I probably will one day, when I'm braver.