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I want to study psychology!
Hey everyone!
Seeing as there's quite a few people interested in psychology appearing on these forums why not make a thread about it? I study psychology at university and would love to have a discussion
Maybe some questions could be: why do/did you want to study psychology? What are you most interested in learning about? What makes you most excited about it? What makes you scared about it? How did you get there, or what do you want to know about getting there? What advice do you want/can give on this topic? And anything else you can think of!
Thats so cool that you had a gap year and did some travelling! Thats what this year was meant to be for me but unfortunately due to covid I haven't been able to 😞
I have heard that masters courses generally accept people with "life experience" which is why I thought I might get out and collaborate/work with different organisations for a few years before applying. This sounds like what you have done so hopefully you get accepted this time round, good luck!!
Thats cool that you have stayed in contact with your supervisor, it sounds like you have been working really hard! Unfortunately I really want to steer away from the topic I did in my honours but I'm not sure where I can even start when it comes to working with people in the area I'm interested in, it seems like there isn't a lot out there in the city i'm from linked to promoting healthy body image, which is why I think it would be cool to start a program that looks at this but I kind of need some experience to gain any credibility 😞
Also I found sooo many volunteering opportunities just by looking on SEEK VOLUNTEERING as well as Linkedin - I would go onto peoples pages who are now psychologists and have a look to see what sort of work experience and volunteering experience they did. It was a great way to see what my options are and going straight to those websites. I hope that helps a little!
Hey! Thank so you much for your words of encouragement, I really appreciate them. The current problem is that a lot of places are not taking volunteers this year due to corona virus restrictions limiting the number of people in the workplace and due to there being limited work opportunities for even employed individuals. however I love your suggestion to go onto pages who are now psychologists, thats such a smart suggestion! Thank you so much I will definitely check that out 🙂
I am studying psychology currently, I have always wanted to because I love helping people and finding out why we are they we are. I'm most interest in learning about the mental health part of psychology. Helping people makes me most excited about psychology. The thing that makes me most scared about studying psychology is how much at times I can relate to what people have been through and how that can be tough at times. I used my ATAR to get into Deakin University. As for advice, I would give if you're like me and love the mental health part of psychology than remember that is more to study psychology such as research methods, statics.
@Wolfie_ I'm pretty much in my final year before honours. My current work is in tutoring and I work with a lot of second-language students so I'm hoping to do some volunteering in that area e.g. homework help. I also coach debating at my old school so I've gotten some mentorship and confidence-boosting experience out of that. My placement was looking at disengaged kids in lower high school. I've heard about the behaviour therapy thing with autism-diagnosed kids, I had a friend who did that, she said it was interesting but wasn't too into the behaviourism herself. I'll have to look into it! At the moment I think I'm trying to stick with the mentoring and education spheres but I suppose I'll need to branch out at some point!
@A_Friend Welcome! It's awesome to hear that you're into the mental health side. Are there any particular disorders you're most interested in working with? I understand your worry about being relatable, I think that at the end of the day if you've experienced anything yourself and are empathic and understanding that is all you need. I even had a teacher last semester tell us that having too much empathy isn't helpful because you'd be crying there along with your client! Also I agree on the statistics, a lot of people go into psych hoping to learn how to fix people in the undergrad course but with the amount of research done that's not really how it is hey?
@StormySeas17 I'm most interested in working with people with depression and anxiety. What area of psychology are you interested in? It's true you definitely do more statics/research side of psychology more than you would expect although for my course at Deakin I can more mental health/therapy based courses in my undergrad course. How are you finding your course, is what you expected/still interesting you?
Hey everyone!
I have just recently graduated from a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours). I wanted to study this area as I love listening to people and giving them advice, however, I also love biology and majored in cognitive neuroscience. This year more than ever I realised how much I love the connection between nutrition, mental health and overall wellbeing. I now want to study a post grad in counselling to get a bit more perspective on this side of things as I didn't major in interpersonal skills throughout my degree, however, I am also wanting to study dietetics down the line and incorporate nutrition and exercise knowledge into counselling. My dream is to help young girls and boys who struggle with body image and mental health problems as I have found from my own experiences that these are often highly connected to each other. I have realised that often my negative body image has affected my happiness without even realising (although I think I always knew on some level, I just didn't realise the extent to how much it affected my day to day life).
Is anyone else in this joint field at the moment? I would love to know your experiences with it!
Hey @LeapofFaith I think it's really beautiful that you've found your calling in the people that have helped you. I think your empathy and genuine desire to help others will take you so far!
@Wolfie_ Thank you so much for replying! I relate to being interested because of family experience- there is a lot of mental health issues in my family from bipolar to OCD and I've found even my undergrad has helped a lot in learning more. It's so awesome that you've been able to streamline and find your passion- I'm sure your other education will help you in the long run! I'd love to know what kind of work experience you've been doing since I've got my eye on masters too.
@JullyBean Hi there!
That's awesome that you've graduated from honours! I was hoping to start mine next year but my timetable is all messed up so I'm two years behind How did you find it? Did you end up being able to do a thesis or anything on nutrition and wellbeing? It sounds super interesting
I haven't been able to study that myself much, but as someone who has struggled with disordered eating it's a very interesting field. I don't know if you studied this but one study I looked at found that there was no link between body dissatisfaction and body size. Like people can be a healthy or unhealthy body type and both or neither can have problems with their mental health. It's really sad because people assume that if you look a certain way that means you're more likely to have issues but it really can affect anyone Have you done any research about the stomach being the second brain?
That is really interesting although it doesn't surprise me if I'm being honest! Body image insecurities really does affect everyone and even those you might look at and think have the perfect body in your opinion might have a different idea of what perfect looks like to them, which is why there really is no such thing as the perfect body!
And no I haven't done any research on the stomach being the second brain, have you? What interests you about it?
@JullyBean Wow that sounds so interesting! I love the cross-over between Psychology and Nutrition! I have also recently finished my honours in psychology and am now trying to decide my next step. I thought I might have to choose between psych and nutrition but hearing you are planning on doing both has inspired me to look into it further! 🙂
@Wolfie_ I think you're right! My psych gave me the suggestion of having a look online one hour a week when I'm stressed about trying to find things to get experience for. It takes a lot of the panic out of it when you actually start finding reasonable things to do! My uni placement organiser was running a program to help rehabilitate kids in long-suspension back into school and I really liked the sound of that but it was full time so I might do some backwards research to see how I would get experience to do something like that.
@A_Friend I think I'm most interested in anxiety but I'd love to challenge myself to work with bipolar patients since I have it myself. I'm also really interested in relationship psychology. Lots of options, particularly as I have a combined child and family psychologist near my house so it's definitely a common combo! I think I'll probably end up being a bit of a jack of all trades and that suits me fine So far my course has been interesting but I'm up to the more dry subjects. I'm doing research methods this semester, and I'm honestly nervous because last time I did a subject based on a research project my tutor gave me the wrong hypotheses to work with and I failed the assessment, and I've spent this whole time trying to pull my average back up to 75 again thankfully my uni just looks for a WAM of 75 and not individual subjects.
@JullyBean Sleep and memory sounds super interesting! I personally struggle to sleep and I'm encountering more people with memory issues as time goes on so I relate. Have you heard of the Butterfly Foundation? They're focused on eating disorders so there might be opportunities there for you
So essentially the second brain idea is that the stomach is the one processing all of the important nutrients we need for proper brain function, like for example tryptophan which we get from our food to create serotonin which stabilises our mood. So if the stomach isn't working properly due to poor gut health etc. it directly affects how effectively our brains can function. There's also the inverse where our brain's stress affects how well we can digest our food, thus affecting how many nutrients we absorb. It's also possibly coming up as a reason why certain medications may or may not work with people, since they have to pass through our digestive system first. It's an emerging area of study but I think it's really important!
@StormySeas17 It would be so good to have some knowledge on everything. Agreed research methods are tough but I'm glad I have a subject that interests each semester/trimester to keep me going. What has been your favourite subject?
@A_Friend I think I'll be okay with research methods- the one I did badly on was principles of psychological assessment I'm just planning on keeping very up-to-date with my tutor. I definitely loved relationship psychology the most, it was so interesting! I also really liked child and adolescent psychology and I did my research essay on cyberbullying. I'm doing psychopathology next year so that should be exciting too! What about you?
Psychopathology would be so interesting. My favourite subject has been criminology, i haven't done a psychology elective unit but I think the diversity disability and social exclusion unit will be very interesting and next year i hope to a bit more mental health type based units. I would love to learn some child and adolescent psychology.
Why do/did you want to study psychology? - so I decided on psychology initially as my mum has a personality disorder and I spent may years battling through my adolescents and managing her mistreatment and difficult behaviours sometimes. I ended up wanting to help others who battled with mental health but also those who didnt but were affected by other peoples mental health
What advice do you want/can give on this topic? And anything else you can think of! - I think if you're passionate about psychology and truly love it, you will absolutely love studying it. It is a very complicated process (of which im happy to explain if people are interested) and takes 6 years of studying and 3 degrees to be a Clinical or General Psychologist but I have honestly loved every second of studying and cant wait for my last degree and getting into the field!
If anyone has any specific questions I am so happy to answer them - I know it can be a confusing and daunting process but I have a lot of knowledge on things like the university pathways, relevant work experience and so on 🙂
I LOVE this thread!!
I am graduating high school this year, however I want to study psychology/social work so I can change a persons life they way so many people changed/saved mine!. I believe this is the reason many people go into this career which makes it even more worthwhile.
What are some good electives for the bachelor years of psychology to take that could some what relate so I dont feel like i have so many different subjects! I was thinking sociology as one I am not 100% what it is about though and if it ties in with psychology at all?
@Starfish7 Sociology is the study of human interactions so psychology is more about the individual and sociology is about the group or everyone as a group. So you might look at how people interact with each other or how different groups function with other groups or how social structures and biases affect society. It is similar but looks at things from a different angle and I feel like it would be much more productive if psychology and sociology teamed up but they seem to like to stick to their own stuff lol.