I was talking to a friend today while eating dinner, and I brought up being interested in the psychology of things like dreams, sexuality and the like. Which brought me to think about psychology majors in college. There is a folly with many of them. They believe because they are psych majors, that they know you inside and out because they read a bit of Freud or Skinner. I've encountered psych majors that try to tell me everything that's wrong with me and try to diagnose my problems and situations... and they're pretty off the mark. But they know so much because they read stuff in a book. The idea of psychology is not to read some theories made by other psychologists, but to observe behavior in life to better understand human beings in general.

I love psychology. I observe people and situations all the time, which can be annoying to some people. However, I choose not to study it because it is SOOOOOOO boring in the classroom. You don't observe anything. I'm an action person and love to try things out when presented to me. So yeah. My little topic for the day. So, to continue conversation, anybody else like psychology or psychological type things? Psych warfare is fun.

Love psych.

Really interesting vid from TED

I had to take Pysch two semesters...those classes really butchered my GPA.

That vid was great. I don't see much going forward with the magnetic pulses changing our ability to think.

I found Psych to be easy compared to what I have learn for my major. If anything, it was a GPA booster. But what did you find difficult about it?

Along with the two psych classes, we had labs associated with the material. The labs were generally easy, but only worth one credit. The class itself was worth 3.

I guess the hard thing about the class was having to go through all of these chapters, and then when the test came up, 50 question per, I did horrifically (I will take responsibility on this because I studied rather late).

One benefit of studying academic psychology is to train oneself to recognize patterns in a way that is non-judgemental. By going through a program of psychological training, particularly at the advance degree level, one can distance themselves enough from whom they study and yet be close enough to embrace them. They for example can train themselves to appreciate that psych majors telling every how it is, is itself a pattern consistent with a psychological mindset, and rather feel it personally to be annoyed by it, they can judge it clinically.

EDIT: Must have had a freudian slip because I originally said "academic philosophy" and not "academic psychology" which is what is there now.

I myself like understanding how people think moreso from a philosophical point of view than a psychological one.

Yeah, but Ivan's sandwich fell in the grass...

I think this proves that you'd be a great psychologist if you ever seriously considered taking the profession up.

I prefer animal psychology. I find that by obeserving animals and how they interact with each other and you tells volumes about your personality. Why? Because they will not lie to you. Animals are like mirrors. They reflect your feels and moods right back at you.