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        general >> psychology >> Psychology
        
(Message started by: Crystal on May 23^rd, 2004, 5:10pm)

Title: Psychology
Post by Crystal on May 23^rd, 2004, 5:10pm

Hey I was just wondering, how fun is psychology? I know it can be boring, but in the end isn't it so cool to learn so much about people and their minds? I took a psychology class in high school, but i know that only touches on some subjects. I found what we did learn to be very interesting and I know i'd enjoy learning more. but how boring is it in college? I've heard it isn't fun and thats not what I want. If i got to learn the way I did in my psychology class I'd want to take it. I had a good teacher though and there were about 30 kids in our class. He just made everything we learned fun and I really got into everything. I just wanted your opinion on going further in psychology. Thank you so much, I appreciate your reply.

Title: Re: Psychology
Post by Three Hands on May 23^rd, 2004, 5:41pm

Psychology as an actual subject is treated pretty scientifically, so depends a bit more on statistical evaluation of experiments, and developing theories based on such results. Unfortunately I don't know all that much about psychology, as I have never formally been taught psychology, and my interest is more in the Philosophy of Minds (much less emphasis on experiments, and more on theories of free will, innate ideas, and similar topics). However, if you enjoy scientific methods and wish to learn more about how people behave, and theories of why this is, then you would probably enjoy psychology :). In a sense, think of it as a science subject, but where all the experiments are based on human behaviour...

Title: Re: Psychology
Post by william wu on May 24^th, 2004, 6:51am

Having taken a few psych courses in college, for me the question of fun really depended on which course I was taking, and who the professor was. My first psych course was a survey, taught by a graduate student. I took it to fulfill a breadth, but to my surprise it was interesting. In retrospect, I think the instructor chose some of the most interesting stuff as our learning material (e.g. Freud's wacky theories, number of distinct colors acknwoledged in different cultures, fundamental biases, overfeeding lab rats and eletrocuting dogs). But some of the more specialized courses I took didn't interest me much. For instance, personality psychology was all about various models of personality, and tests people have devised to attempt to "measure" one's personality in some vague sense. I found the material rather boring, since all the models seemed ad-hoc and not terribly convincing. The best psychology course I took would have to be social psychology, in which a hilarious professor presented many interesting, unexpected, and useful results on manipulating people. This included things like how group work affects individuals, the psychology behind certain salesmanship techniques, and the signs of attraction between couples. For instance I bet you didn't know this: in studies of flirtation, the number one sign of a romantic connection was, oddly enough, the rubbing of metallic apparel. While sitting down and talking with one another, their fingers would start playing with their own rings, necklaces, earrings, watches or other items. To explain this, one theory is that we have a genetic predisposition ingrained in us from ancient times due to the marriage ceremony, which involves the exchanging of rings. On the other side of the spectrum, one of the worst courses was Buddhist psychology, which I learned nothing from and ended up dropping very quickly. The discussion sections were taught by a real Tibetan monk (with robes, shaved head, changed name and everything), and they involved meditating, but really it was more like sleeping! We'd all sit cross-legged on the floor under fluorescent lighting, and essentially sleep for 30 minutes ;D

As a side note, I would say psychology is not a science yet, although, as the instructor of my survey course said, "we [psychologists] would like it to be a science." There isn't any underlying structure to unify the various subfields of psychology; also the lack of a mathematical foundation is critical. If you're scientifically minded, you'll find some of the design decisions behind various apparently seminal past experiments to be quite questionable. Also, while psychology sometimes produces unexpected information about human nature (e.g. Milgram's experiment, Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment), the vast majority of the results strike me as obvious. For instance, I recall reading in one of my textbooks about a psychologist who basically hypothesized that when people are prohibited from attaining their goals, they get frustrated. (Duh! :P) To test this hypothesis, he assembles a hodgepodge of the latest cool kids toys on the market in a room. He then acquires toddlers and shows them the room, but then prevents their entry by blocking them with a chain linked fence. The toddlers go mad, clanging against the fence, wailing in desperation. He writes all this down. After maybe 15 minutes of this torture, he releases the fence, and the kids rush in and end up breaking many of the toys. Mission accomplished! But did you really need to torture young people to verify such an obvious hypothesis? This was an extreme case of distasteful experimental design, but regardless I find most of the hypotheses to be naturally believable before even hearing about the experiment. I guess in my opinion this is the negative side of psychology, which I warn you of. But maybe someday you can initiate the next paradigm shift in psychology and change all of that :)

Title: Re: Psychology
Post by towr on May 24^th, 2004, 7:49am

on 05/24/04 at 06:51:03, william wu wrote:

For instance I bet you didn't know this: in studies of flirtation, the number one sign of a romantic connection was, oddly enough, the rubbing of metallic apparel. While sitting down and talking with one another, their fingers would start playing with their own rings, necklaces, earrings, watches or other items. To explain this, one theory is that we have a genetic predisposition ingrained in us from ancient times due to the marriage ceremony, which involves the exchanging of rings.

They didn't seriously give that as an explanation did they? Cause that's utter rubbish..
We might perhaps have a cultural disposition ingrained, but certainly not genetically. Exchanging rings is a very recent phenomenon (on the relevant timescale), and not even present in all cultures.
The simple explanation for fiddling with rings, car keys etc is simply that we get nervous. And it doesn't matter whether we get nervous from a prospective partner or something else. And they'd just as gladly fiddle around with something else, like a pencil, a lighter, just about anything small enough

Title: Re: Psychology
Post by ARRAS on Oct 6^th, 2004, 6:17am

PSYCHOLOGY IS THE STUDY OF THE MIND AND HOW IS WORK,

PSYCHOLOGISE MAIN PART IS PERSONALITY WHICH DESCRIBE PERSON CHAERCTER OR TRAD...SO IT WILL BE EASY FOR YOU STUDY IF YOU LIKE SUBJECT.BYE :)

Title: Re: Psychology
Post by sheep on Oct 10^th, 2005, 4:54pm

hmm. too many variables affecting pshycology and how the mind behaves and they can not be totally controlled so nothing can be tested with a dependable result. hence psych isnt a science... memories of my physics teacher arguing with me about psyc and cs being sciences...

William Wu wrote:
"For instance I bet you didn't know this: in studies of flirtation, the number one sign of a romantic connection was, oddly enough, the rubbing of metallic apparel. While sitting down and talking with one another, their fingers would start playing with their own rings, necklaces, earrings, watches or other items. To explain this, one theory is that we have a genetic predisposition ingrained in us from ancient times due to the marriage ceremony, which involves the exchanging of rings. "

why would it be GENETIC? does that mean european people fiddle around with metalic objects more than asian or african or other cultures since it wasnt their tradition to exchange rings in marriage cerimonies?

Title: Re: Psychology
Post by AkumAPRIME on Nov 30^th, 2005, 9:41am

As a psych student, I'm biased, but there's Nothing boring about psychology. So your original question is phrased strangely.

Also, in terms of rubbing rings because of ring use in ceremonies, give me a break. Nervousness, as someone else pointed out, + little doodads hanging on our body == rubbing shiny doodads

Title: Re: Psychology
Post by AkumAPRIME on Nov 30^th, 2005, 9:50am

William Wu - If you want to claim that psych is not a science, don't then get frustrated by an experiment that verifies what you consider common sense. Common sense has been shown to be one of the most fundamental sources of error that we use on a daily basis. Scientific experimentation to verify these "common sense" ideas are necessary. Your belief that since it's commonly agreed as true it IS true is contrary to scientific thought, which demands evidence for Everything.

In response to your belief that psyhology is not a science: Psychology Is most Definitely a science. It uses empirical standards and statistical methods to produce results. The variables it deals with are far more fluid, so it's not as "rock hard" as math.

There is a Ton of structure, as the APA is designed to give. and yes experiment design will always be a factor, for Every discipline. Does this mean that since there are questions of experiment design in medicine, that medicine is not a science? Science is about how you approach something.

That your teacher had you guys meditate for 30 minutes in a low level psych class, and said that we'd "like" it to be a science means little to me. Intro level psych classes are generally weak, and every discipline has poorly informed teachers.

Title: Re: Psychology
Post by zomcake on Nov 30^th, 2005, 10:05am

Psychology is a science only on the Holodeck where imagination is governed by the LSD(X,Y,Z) function and injects LSD into you so you can think psychology is a science.

On the Holodeck no kinds of math exist and that MEANS your statistical stuff does not exist either.

Title: Re: Psychology
Post by alien on May 20^th, 2006, 3:54am

on 10/06/04 at 06:17:32, ARRAS wrote:

PSYCHOLOGY IS THE STUDY OF THE MIND

As a psychiatrist, you cannot study the mind because the mind does the studying, so you cannot be objective. It takes one to now one, so in a way, psychiatrists are the sickest patients who play doctor, because they say that they know what is wrong with someone, and the reason they know it because they understand their sickness. They even write books about their sicknesses, so you see, they are the craziest ones, because they know all kinds of craziness, and they think about it all the time. If madness is your thing, you can be only mad. If you prefer sanity, you would not become a psychiatrist in the first place. If everyone were normal, they would be out of a job. And everyone who is out of a job if people are normal, I can tell you right now, that is one crazy loony.