Why I Chose Psychology

BY: MELISSA

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When you were a kid did you ever believe that you had your whole future planned out? Did you ever have a dream career? Ever since I was 6 years old and met my aunt who told me all about her career as a family and marriage therapist, I have been intrigued by the field of psychology and what it is all about. She would tell me about all the diverse families and couples that she would encounter each week and the range of diversity was astonishing. Even though she had to respect the patient to therapist confidentiality request I still learned an awful lot about life and marriage at a very young age. Once I heard all the stories and facts she had to offer I knew then that I wanted to become a family therapist and eventually help people every day to resolve issues and find peace within their family. I am currently enrolled in a Human Development and Family Studies class at my college and I can honestly say that it is one of the most interesting classes I have ever been enrolled in.

I think a huge aspect of the field of psychology is helping people when they need it most, which to me is one of the greatest gestures anyone could possibly do on this earth. Being genuinely nice is not a difficult task and often does not take a lot of effort. I love being the friend that everyone can come to just to talk or confide in. With having my friends trust me with their darkest secrets to listening to my best friend talk to me about family problems with family and school, I realized that I want to continue to do this but the only different thing being that it would be my professional career. I love to sit and listen to people venting their feelings or problems and being able to give them friendly advice. I believe that psychology will not only allow me to help others but also allow me to grow stronger mentally and eventually lead me to more happiness and peace in life, doing what I love for a career.

I knew as soon as I started high school that the road ahead of me would be long and tedious. The things I focused on most in high school were grades and the fact that I so badly wanted to be able to say I was accepted to my dream school, Michigan State University. I was stressed out throughout the whole planning to get into college process, SAT’s, and especially college admission essays. I always reminded myself that I was capable of achieving whatever I set my mind to. But I always thought about how I would need to keep a four point throughout my college career to eventually be able apply and attend graduate school. As of right now I can happily say I am a freshman at my dream school and I am on my path of accomplishing what I have set my mind to ever since I was a little girl. Comment below what your dream career is!

Prompt One: Psychology Misconceptions

BY: SAVANNAH

Prompt 1: So there are many misconceptions on the field of Psychology that people are not aware of. A lot of it has to do with the idea of it being a “new science”. In this blog, I will talk about my three favorite misconceptions and try to debunk them using the textbook Psychology by David Myers and C. Nathan Dewall. I find this book really helpful and interesting to read, especially when it helps debunk some myths. This textbook is used in my Psychology 101 class.

1.     Psychology majors are mostly used for criminal profiling.

a.     Psychology majors differ in all sorts of jobs such as clinical psychologists, counseling psychologists, psychiatrists, community psychologists, school psychologists, and many more. Psychology just does not focus on criminal perspective. Psychology is the science of all behavior and mental processes. The seven main perspectives of psychology are neuroscience, evolutionary, behavior genetics, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and social-cultural. All of these perspectives deal with how the brain works in certain cultures and how the brain keeps changing due to natural selection. With a degree in psychology, there are an unlimited amount of jobs that you can get besides just in criminal justice.

2.     Psychology is an easy major.

a.     So a lot of people think psychology is an easy subject. Most believe it is common sense and self-explanatory. Well I am here to tell you that it is not an easy subject. To get any job with psychology, you must at least get your bachelors and even then it is highly recommended that you further your path and get your PhD. Let’s think about this for a quick second; if you ever need counseling because you think you may have a chemical imbalance in your brain that is making you feel depressed or anxious, wouldn’t you want someone who is a doctor and that knows what they are doing? I sure would. I personally would not like someone who just went to school for four years to prescribe wrong medication or diagnose me with the wrong disorder. I am happy and I am excited for my long journey with psychology and I am very happy I have to go to school for awhile just so I can assure my future patients that they are in good hands.

3.     Psychology isn’t a real science.

a.     A lot of people like to argue that psychology is more of an art than a science and that somehow makes it less of a science than everything else. Psychology is all about neuroscience. A huge portion of psychology is knowing what chemicals and endorphins change the brain’s natural state and seeing how it affects a human’s every day routine. For your bachelor’s degree, you can choose between getting your Bachelors of Arts (BA) or getting your Bachelors of Science (BS) but that does not mean you take all art classes or you take just science classes. A lot of classes mix in together because it is important to know and understand both sides of psychology. It is a necessity to understand the science behind psychology in order to do anything with this type of major.

I hope these three little misconceptions were interesting and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. This is all a learning process for everyone and I am excited to continue my path in this degree.

Photo Credit Due to imperial.ac.uk

Myers, David G., and C. Nathan DeWall. Psychology. 11th ed. New York: Worth, 2015. Print.

What is Stress? And how do you cope with it? By: Tori

BY: TORI

 

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Stress is something we all encounter in some point of our lives, some sooner than later. It is a part of our everyday lives, and over the years it has been used in many different ways by various theorists. Some of them state that stress is the response of physiological arousal elicited by a troublesome event while others view stress as an emotional event or situation that forces you to make difficult decisions.

People have many different ways of coping with their stress. A number of researchers have attempted to identify the many different coping techniques and there has been said to be over 400 distinct methods.

In this blog we're going to talk about the five ‘Common Coping Patterns Of Limited Value’

1  Researchers identify the first one as ‘learned helplessness’. Otherwise known as giving up. When being confronted with stress sometimes people just throw in the towel and give everything up. They may no longer feel the need to fight. Overall giving up is not a highly regarded method of coping.

2   The second is ‘Acting aggressively’ and I can honestly say this is one that I see very often especially in a few people that I have a very close relationship with. Aggression is any behavior intended to hurt someone whether it's physically or verbally. When you're stressed it comes with frustration, which causes you to act out in a childish manner. A good example of this is road rage.


3  The third is ‘indulging yourself’. Ever heard of “sad eaters”? Well that's what this is. Stress can sometimes lead to reduce impulse control or self-indulging.
 

4  Number four, the big one in my opinion, ‘blaming yourself’. I do this often, even when it's something I have no control over. 


5  Lastly we have the ‘defense coping’. Usually this shields people from unwanted emotion or discomfort.

Now that you know a few different ways people cope with stress. Feel free to comment the different ways that you cope with whatever it is that stresses you, or if you have a different out look with the methods I chose to use.

Why did I choose my major? :Social Work

BY: CHE

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We’ve been violent to each other for a very long time, and today the violence still doesn't seem to stop. We are surrounded by lots of hurtful things such as mass shooting, hate crime, sexual assault, bullying and more, though the world, on a big scale, looks pretty peaceful anyway. 

No one likes to suffer from such violence, yet it somehow seems inevitable in our daily lives. Violence will always happen unless the world suddenly becomes a paradise. Then what are some options for the victims and their family? What would I do if the victim was me? What if the victim was my loved one? Would that violence still be daily events if the world’s leaders and law makers were the victims? I sometimes wondered about it when I was younger. 

Then when I was a sophomore in high school, I was engaged with a campaign called “The Price of Life.” It was about helping the survivors of human trafficking. That day I learned little kids are being sold as sex slaves. Since then that shocking fact got stuck in my head, and as I became more aware of that fact day by day I found myself paying more attention to articles and news about children’s crisis. I started to understand why there was a job such as a “social worker.” After 20 years from now, I'm pretty sure children will still be the victim of countless crimes. I thought it'd bother me a lot if there is nothing I can do for them, so I figured social work would be a nice field to get into for me. While I’m at Michigan State I hope to examine especially how traumatizing experiences affect humans’ mind and behavior and study to find ways to make the survivors’ lives better etc.

Here’s the link to the website of The Price of Life for people who might be interested: http://www.priceoflifeum.org

Emile Durkheim’s Views on Criminology

BY: DWAYNE

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Emile Durkheim believed that crime is a normality, a positive product, a functional necessity in a healthy society. Durkheim's theory of the functional necessity of crime proposes that wrongdoing or crime serves to force societal members to react, condemn, and thus establish the borders of society and reconfirm its values.

I believe in what Durkheim theory states, if crime was not present in today's society our borders of what we can and cannot do would be different. However that belief does not imply that it is morally correct or socially acceptable to commit crimes. An Example would be the 9/11 trade center bombings, and how the nation put new laws in places to prevent similar situations from happenings.

If you looking for more information regarding Emile Durkheim and his theory on functional necessity of crime you can go to your local library and pick up the book “Introduction to Criminology Theories, Methods, and Criminal Behavior 9”, Author: Frank E. Hagan

Why Psychology?

BY: SKYLLAR

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At Michigan State University there, are hundreds of majors to choose from. We, as college students, are suppose to choose one or two of these majors and work towards a degree in it, which will determine what kinds of jobs we will qualify for in the future. This can be very stressful to most students, especially those who aren't sure what their interests are. For me, picking a major was something I have thought about for quite some time now. I really put some effort into trying to figure out what peaks my interest the most. After careful consideration, I chose psychology as my major.

After listening to my friends vent for hours about their feelings and what was going on in their life it became clear to me that this was something I wouldn't mind doing for the rest of my life. I love helping people and being able to put their mind at ease. I also fell in love with learning about the human brain my junior year of high school. I was taking human anatomy and psychology and was absolutely fascinated by what I learned about the brain and how it works. It led me to want to continue learning everything that there is to know about the human mind and why we think and feel the way that we do. Not only will psychology be able to help me help other people, it will also allow me to better understand myself. Psychology is a very broad field and a major in it can be used in several ways.

Even though I have picked out my major, I am not sure what career path I would like to take with it. There are quite a few psychology based jobs that have sparked my attention. I am hoping that as I go through college and take more classes that decision will become a lot clearer to me. I have also been considering double majoring in neuroscience since psychology and neuroscience compliment each other. Overall, my heart is very set on psychology right now, but it's also possible that I may discover something else I love and switch my major. Until then, I am extremely glad I am a psychology major and have found something that I am so passionate to learn about.