I am doing psych as a 1st year elective and I am already regretting it. the essential book you have to buy is so damn big! Just basing it on how damn big this book is, I'm assuming it is going to be the most amount of work even though it's my elective.

Not dissing anyone whose doing it as a major, I actually bow down to you because that's six years of your life studying.

Well, the book size doesn't really have anything to do with the course content.


Personally, I've taken three psychology courses (general psychology, developmental psychology, and abnormal psychology), and I thought they were all pretty interesting, and definitely revelatory. I would have majored in psychology if only I didn't have to worry about financial stability. I hate it when mundane problems get in the way of following your passions. =/

Yep. It might be these mundane sorts of things that have caused me so much resentment of shrinks lately, and it might be about time I got over my gripes about it, or just keep them to myself, and try to focus on the good things about psycho electives.

It's a rather complex subject. Possibly because the human brain is rather complex. That maybe why there are so many different schools of thought, which was one of the drawbacks I noticed in the first year of my psycho major as compared to other studies where there is effectively one way to do something, or else a better way gets discovered. Simple in comparison to the many different and sometimes conflicting theories of psych.

Personally, I was never interested in abnormal psych, although that was the reason I chose that major over law, wanting to be part of the prevention more than the cure. If you can save someone from going crazy, then maybe they won't need a lawyer so often. That was the beginning argument.

However, not long into the course, the areas of psychology at the other end of the scale took precedence. Not what abnomalities might occur, and how to therapise or drug them out, but what might be the potential of the healthy mind? What are the highest goals we could hope to achieve and how to maintain the healthy mind throughout life? Stuff like that.

Developmental psych then became more interesting. Not only Piaget and his ducklings, and the ontogenic development from childhood through to senescence, but the evolution of mankind, and the things that we have developed over time. Colour vision being one obvious example.

What else was interesting about shrink school? The biology aspects. Just stuff like learning the names for the different lobes of the brain, and what they are believed to do. Stuff that can be helpful if you're about to have a big fall or a car accident or cop a smack in the head. Would you prefer to take it on the occipital lobe, or the temporal lobe? Speech or vision? That was interesting. I remember reading the entire 500 pages of the Biological Psychology textbook before the first semester even began.

One thing that might be wise to take into account is the precision of experiments run on a computer. You'll get unpredictable results and perhaps disprove known theories if you try to time experiments more precisely than around 55 milliseconds, for that is the speed of the clock-tick on a PC, (I know I keep going on about it but nobody ever bothers to agree). With things like distance, I believe that it is possible to halve the precison and estimate whether it is 10.0 mm or 10.5mm. Clock ticks on a PC are not quite like that though. When it is 54.9 ms for the sake of argument that I can't remember the exact number, it will still read at 54.0. The precision is around 1/18th of a second, but the tick is instantaneous. You can't really average it out to 27ms, and certainly can't do 10ms, even though the reading on the clock will display right down to thousandths of a second. It is actually still counting in multiples of 55ms and the eye cannot see that quickly with any reliability.

Other than that, psych school was interesting. Stuff like the difference between classical and operant conditioning. Best of all, of the 600 odd kids in the first year intake, 95% were girls. It was like being a kid in a candy store.

I'm still majoring in Psyc... Abnormal Psyc was interesting but I don't think it's for me. I think I'm leaning more towards Social Psyc.

But yes, usually first year Psyc classes can be a little overwhelming just because of the breadth of information you have to take in... especially if it's new information to you because you have to learn all that crap really fast. But usually you get used to it after the first one or two intro classes and everything else just adds on to that. There'll be some concepts you'll hear over and over again in Psyc that you've already pretty much learned in first year.

And yea...in a class of about 200 few semesters ago, we had about...7 guys...and 2, 3 of them were my friends. I don't really go to class anymore soooo.....I can't tell you what the ratio is like now. But rest assured it'll still be about 80-90% girls at least =P. Awesome ratio if you're a guy haha.

Damn, should have majored in Psyc.
My major was CS, where there are 95% guys.

oh i remember my free elective...
took up psych 11 ans psych 101

wtf the subjects took a lot from me..
my time...
and darn had to memorize $hit, which we do not normally do in my major...
but it was worth it...
good not to be an ignoramus at something

i took psych 101 when i was a freshman in college. that book cost me about $100 bucks and that was back in '93.

anyway, the course was interesting but not interesting enough for me to take another psych class.

My bf and I took cross cultural psych last semester. OMG, it could not have been any more boring. I'll stick with sociology in the future.

I have a huge textbook too but I aced my tests, so I'm a'ight

Sell the goddam text books after you are done with class. It is time to experiment in real life lol. If you do not apply what you have learned, it does not mean $hit.

SELL OR THROW THE TEXTS BOOK AWAY

girls hate CS . I am one of them. WE are just so stupid with the technology things. lol..

I shouldn't judge this course soley based on the size of the book. I chose it for a reason, because I am interested about the human mind. And with the handful of classes I've sofar had, I've learnt alot.

and what do you mean 'real life'? what can be more real than human life itself?

Yes, most girls are not into CS.
At my school, girls are majored in accounting and finance.

Interesting course, but not a fan of the workload.

I kind of regret going into psychology, but it's too late. A masters degree in psychology won't pay much (it's decent, but it's not enough to get rich if that's what you want), but the doctoral level work is too time consuming, expensive, and it's tough balancing other aspects of your life into that.

I'm finishing my masters' coursework this december, and taking my final certifying exam next summer...What a relief.

I loved all the psych classes I took. I have to agree that general psych can be boring and not all together too interesting. But once you get past that is when it can get much more involved. I've taken general, social, developmental, child, abnormal and personality psych. Personality was by far the hardest with the biggest work load but most satisfying for anyone interested in the subject. It kind of lets you be able to see into the individual people around you. I miss college. lol

i liked the required psych class which people thought was really hard. i took another one on critical thinking. I can't take any more psych classes and still fulfill general requirements.
i would minor in it if I didn't already have a chinese minor (it's not easy)

...







I like your human side.

that's what she said
int main ()
{
if (info==aerain)
{
cout << "stop making accounts asperger's guy";
}
else if (info== chinese masturbating guy")
{
cout << "stop making accounts chinese masturbating guy";
}
else
{
cout << "that's what she said";
}
return 0;
}

Nahr.

It's wack. I'd rather be a broke scientist.

DUDE I fu-kIN LOVE PSYCHOLOGY!! OH MY GAWD.. I ENVY YOU. fu-k.

I love psychology but depend what you're interested in. My major was psych and physiology, took biochemistry as elective. The current interest in psychology are neuropsychology and neuropsychoimmunology. In term of research, there are plenty of scope in psychology. Good luck with your studies!

who wants to talk basic psych?

the first psych class is easy
a BA in psych is almost useless though

Unless you're happy with making 10-14 dollars an hour...and 14 dollars an hour with a BA in psych is considered REALLY GOOD.

thats what lastlegend has
all he does is smoke pot -_-

i'm required 2.5 credits in psychology i think... for the program i'm gonna do

lame. not looking forward to it.

the only interesting part of psychology that i've been exposed to is gestalt psychology. :/

wow...i sure hope not. but then again im not doing just that. especially since i can make more than that w/out even graduating =/.

but it is definitely true that u can't do much w/ a BA in psyc lol.

Change the psyche to a BSc. or else double in occ-health and safety and you can't lose.

I'm going to do Psychology at 6th form. It seems like fun though. I wonder how big our textbooks will be haha.

I have a friend who graduated with a BA in psychology from Brown University and she's working as a cocktail waitress & in retail and my other friend, he got a job in counseling for 12-14 $ an hour.

haha at psych as a career, sounds like they're really getting fukked over. but it's a very interesting course to study

it is easy, $hit i got a distinction in my essays but in general, it is pretty difficult. the content is far indepth than my other courses. like i can tell you piaget's theory of cognitive development being in four stages, kohlbergs theory of moral development in 3 stages w/ 6 lvls whilst eriksons has 8 levels with each level having conflict modules but theres noway i can tell you what each level or stage works. ohsnap.

$hit. i hope i did well today

Hardcore bump here

I was just wondering about all the comments on obtaining a BA in Psychology opposed to a BSc. Is a BA really that inferior in this field?

BS BA BC don't freak matter you are in this field, you need at least a master's to make some money. This field is not meant for you to make money. At least not with a ba or bs or bc or beewhatever.

I graduated with a bachelors in Psychology.

The course book doesn't matter. Just skim through that large book and make friends in the class.

Friends in the class is more important that studying way too hard. Friends in the class can help you. More importantly, make friends with your professor.

i have AP pyschology right now..
and i think i like pyschology...
but the teacher doesn't teach at all...

I studied psychology for two years at school...it was just the basics then. But I regret not taking up psychology at college. It is such an interesting subject.

Agreed. Don't trust the science. Sleep with those that matter and you might end up with something to show for your endeavours that pays more than Maslow or Watson could ever give you. Modern technology has falsified the empirical concept of psychology, so until they fix it, it's just another name for witchcraft.

Hey I'm currently studying psychology at university. Got to say that although I find it all very interesting, I've got to admit that actually it's a whole lot of theories with no real answers.