Psychology

[Avarice-ness]

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.

[Dolentrean]

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.

[Caraliz]

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

[Citizen Bleys]

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

[Roto13]

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

[Avarice-ness]

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

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

[Montoya]

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.

[Breine]

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.

Qft.

[Wolf Kanno]

Psych major!

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.

[Heath]

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.

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.

[Miriel]

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.

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?

[Citizen Bleys]

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

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

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.

[Polaris]

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!

[Cz]

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.

[Peegee]

In before Mandee.

I am absolutely terrible at psychology courses.