There are many, many, many options to choose to study at UoA – and psychology is one of them. However, social media and the internet can paint polar opposite pictures of a psychology degree. While the study of the mind and our thoughts and behaviour definitely sounds appealing (objectively, of course 😉), psych also tends to get its share of slander too. So, here is my rationale behind choosing psychology and why it is a valuable major:
– Psych degrees don’t always live up to the stereotypes
If you think about psych, you might think of clinical psychology, or studying things like Freud and historical psychology theories – that sort of stereotypical psych stuff. But in reality, there is more to psych than just this…
– There is a diverse range of areas in psychology
The diversity of psychology is something that makes it worthwhile – like neuropsychology and the brain, evolutionary psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, learning and behaviour. It also means that there’s plenty of options to choose to study within your major and broaden your study, as well as the opportunity to focus on a few areas you like!
– There are both postgrad and undergrad options
With a major in psych, there are some jobs you can do, like working in HR and business – it’s not the most obvious application of a psych major, but it means that it does have value in the real world beyond clinical! Additionally, you can undertake postgrad studies – these create opportunities in both research and clinical practice (and all its specialist fields, like forensic psychology and speech-language therapy to name a few) in a variety of areas.
– A mix of theoretical and practical
Psych isn’t just sitting in lecture theatres and learning about psychology theories. We also have lab classes, in which we get to do interactive activities and carry out experiments to enhance what we learn in lectures. Additionally, there are also experiments and data collection to write research reports on. Taking a psychology major gives you a broad, well rounded understanding of both theoretical concepts, experiments, and research skills.
– It is insightful and interesting
Psych gives you a range of insights into the world around us – socially, within ourselves, as humans, and at the neural level. No matter what field you end up in, these insights and critical thinking skills you develop will help you. And as there are so many fields in psychology, there’s a great possibility that there’s something for you in psych!
So that is my take on studying psych! Hopefully, I’ve shown all the value there is in taking psych – and all the interesting stuff too 🙂