Psychology?

Gwyllin

Is anyone on the ship studying psychology? Would you care to tell me about it? (I'm thinking of putting it on my 'list of preferences')

DrIndy

er du norsk?

Gwyllin

Ja, er du?

For those un-Norwegian: Yes, are you?

Frankiestylee

Wow... Norwegian looks like an easy enough language to get really.

Pet

That's only cos you speak German.

DrIndy

Its germanic, but when you get a conversation rolling, then its more difficult to follow. I understand a lot of german and dutch from norwegian.....

claire h

Gwyllin wrote:

Is anyone on the ship studying psychology? Would you care to tell me about it? (I'm thinking of putting it on my 'list of preferences')

I did the first year of the course and despite going in pretty well-informed I didn't particularly like it that much (am transferring to a different course) but it does have its good points. I think the main thing to remember is that most people have a superficial interest in psychology, and want to know how to figure people out or understand themselves or whatever, but courses in psychology are a lot more scientific and specific, and sometimes have theories which feel counter-intuitive (things that are backed up by experimental evidence but just seem to go against what you might personally believe about how people function) or have several theories about something and no definitive answers, which is sort of at odds with the field's determination to be taken seriously as a science and try to gather statistical evidence for things. There's a practicals, methodology and statistics class which runs for the first two years and ties in with the other classes to some extent (you carry out experiments and then write up lab reports on them, one for each class), and some people find that a bit tricky, either because of the statistics (which are okay) or because of the lab reports (which are the root of all evil). There are some classes that are really interesting (Psych Disorders) and some that sound interesting but prove to be less so (Social Psychology), and some you mightn't necessarily think of as being particularly psychological, like Perception. There's more of a choice as far as classes are concerned in third and fourth year, and more time to work on group or individual projects. It's a pretty broad course and fairly interesting. It's about eleven hours a week (computer lab, seminar, lectures, and a tutorial every fortnight), plus however many hours you want to spend in the library being a dedicated student.

Gwyllin

That sounds allright. But I hate statistics. And I had the kind of science that is based on statistics. I never trusted statistics. I'll be a dedicated student, but certainly not of psychology.

So claire, what course are you transferring to?

claire h

Gwyllin wrote:

That sounds allright. But I hate statistics. And I had the kind of science that is based on statistics. I never trusted statistics. I'll be a dedicated student, but certainly not of psychology.

So claire, what course are you transferring to?

Ah, the statistics-hate and psychology definitely don't mix. You'd go mad with hearing phrases like "statistically significant results" all the time. Are you going to stick to the Irish then?

I'm starting English & History in October - I think essays will suit me better than those (eeeevil) reports.

John

Steer completely clear of any science if you don't like science. Although I agree they can be bent to suit people's points I must stress that because all scientists use statistics they can smell bull**** from a mile off if someone's figures are a little suspect.

punka

John2 wrote:

Steer completely clear of any science if you don't like science. Although I agree they can be bent to suit people's points I must stress that because all scientists use statistics they can smell bull**** from a mile off if someone's figures are a little suspect.

you can use statistics to prove anything. 40% of people know that!