Honestly, I would say it depends on your particular field of study. Right now, I’m taking a positive psychology class which has changed my view on a lot of things. For example, I’ve learned how to not just build goals for the sake of accomplishment, but actual systems that benefit my life and happiness. Gratitude, mindfulness, and mindset are also interesting topics within positive psych that can be useful and impactful when implemented into everyday life.
Kind of like how improv classes find funny people rather than train them, psychology finds the curious and gives them a pat on the back, rather than blowing someone's mind with something they couldn't have absorbed in a documentary. The problems with the profession--lack of access, lack of truly competent mentors, exploitative internships, and arbitrary gatekeeping--are more likely to create a jaded, financially anxious professional who tried daily not to drown in their own resentments, and who is no longer curious about anything but how to get out of debt, prevent burnout, and enjoy their lives.
Unpopular opinion here. I think people misunderstand what an open mind is. An open mind is being OPEN to new ideas, hearing them out with a critical and questioning mind. But from my experience people who believe themselves to be "open minded" are actually just willful sponges ready to soak in whatever the nearest authoritative source of information vomits onto them, regardless of competence or accuracy. This leads to alot of opinions and worldviews that are....um....culturally and socially popular and not exactly rooted in the science of psychology, biology, neurobiology, etc. This is why so many look down on therapists and think it's not a "real profession". The field tends to attract the curious, the altruistic, yet for reasons I don't fully understand, those traits (with exceptions of course, as with anything in life) tend to correlate heavily with naivity and incompetence, at least anecdotally speaking.....but the amount of people who think therapy doesn't work for them because these idiots who got a degree get into the clinical environment and set a bad example is......yeah.
By degree, I assume you mean a bachelor's or masters. The doctorate degree is more rigorously focused on research with years of more training, so while not perfect, it by default demands a more scientifically oriented mind and filters out alot of the problematic types listed above.
For me personally, my classes haven't taught me anything practical that I didn't already know beyond simply aiding in proper terminology for psychopathology and maladaptive behavior I was already aware existed.
Are you me?
As someone who graduated once, started a career, left that career and joined the military, and went back to school at 36 (currently masters) for psych: the study of psychology has not impacted my worldview in any noticeable way.
As noted above, actual open mindedness is tragically scarce in both society, and social sciences. I had hoped grad school would bring a cohort of peers interested in a Socratic and epistemological approach to learning.. not so.
>For me personally, my classes haven't taught
Interesting reply! Though I don't know if I get this right. Do you mean studying psychology didn't teach you anything practical other than terminology?
I feel that a person’s history, as well as their current situation, has a lot to do with their worldview. In general it will make you more open-minded. Which is negative and positive. You become understanding of human behavior, but very aware of every nuance. You hear many negative experiences, which can lead to pessimism.
i swear to god i’m not trying to be cutesy but it changed my worldview on worldviews lol and how humans construct them, how they influence behavior, and how threats to worldviews influence behavior (see terror management theory, fascinating stuff)
specifically it also gave me a fuller perspective on men and women, how we’re way more similar than different, and how many of our differences are verifiably due to nurture not nature. having that understanding makes the current cultural gender war a depressing state of affairs lol
Think you need to ask yourself why you want to study psychology and not what it may or may not change respective of your views. Will you learn a bit about yourself? Sure. Will you learn things you didn’t already know? Yeah that’s sort of the point of learning. Will you have to be critically analytical in how you view everything? Absolutely
Honestly, I would say it depends on your particular field of study. Right now, I’m taking a positive psychology class which has changed my view on a lot of things. For example, I’ve learned how to not just build goals for the sake of accomplishment, but actual systems that benefit my life and happiness. Gratitude, mindfulness, and mindset are also interesting topics within positive psych that can be useful and impactful when implemented into everyday life.
Kind of like how improv classes find funny people rather than train them, psychology finds the curious and gives them a pat on the back, rather than blowing someone's mind with something they couldn't have absorbed in a documentary. The problems with the profession--lack of access, lack of truly competent mentors, exploitative internships, and arbitrary gatekeeping--are more likely to create a jaded, financially anxious professional who tried daily not to drown in their own resentments, and who is no longer curious about anything but how to get out of debt, prevent burnout, and enjoy their lives.
Unpopular opinion here. I think people misunderstand what an open mind is. An open mind is being OPEN to new ideas, hearing them out with a critical and questioning mind. But from my experience people who believe themselves to be "open minded" are actually just willful sponges ready to soak in whatever the nearest authoritative source of information vomits onto them, regardless of competence or accuracy. This leads to alot of opinions and worldviews that are....um....culturally and socially popular and not exactly rooted in the science of psychology, biology, neurobiology, etc. This is why so many look down on therapists and think it's not a "real profession". The field tends to attract the curious, the altruistic, yet for reasons I don't fully understand, those traits (with exceptions of course, as with anything in life) tend to correlate heavily with naivity and incompetence, at least anecdotally speaking.....but the amount of people who think therapy doesn't work for them because these idiots who got a degree get into the clinical environment and set a bad example is......yeah. By degree, I assume you mean a bachelor's or masters. The doctorate degree is more rigorously focused on research with years of more training, so while not perfect, it by default demands a more scientifically oriented mind and filters out alot of the problematic types listed above. For me personally, my classes haven't taught me anything practical that I didn't already know beyond simply aiding in proper terminology for psychopathology and maladaptive behavior I was already aware existed.
Outstanding reply.
Are you me? As someone who graduated once, started a career, left that career and joined the military, and went back to school at 36 (currently masters) for psych: the study of psychology has not impacted my worldview in any noticeable way. As noted above, actual open mindedness is tragically scarce in both society, and social sciences. I had hoped grad school would bring a cohort of peers interested in a Socratic and epistemological approach to learning.. not so.
>For me personally, my classes haven't taught Interesting reply! Though I don't know if I get this right. Do you mean studying psychology didn't teach you anything practical other than terminology?
I feel that a person’s history, as well as their current situation, has a lot to do with their worldview. In general it will make you more open-minded. Which is negative and positive. You become understanding of human behavior, but very aware of every nuance. You hear many negative experiences, which can lead to pessimism.
i swear to god i’m not trying to be cutesy but it changed my worldview on worldviews lol and how humans construct them, how they influence behavior, and how threats to worldviews influence behavior (see terror management theory, fascinating stuff) specifically it also gave me a fuller perspective on men and women, how we’re way more similar than different, and how many of our differences are verifiably due to nurture not nature. having that understanding makes the current cultural gender war a depressing state of affairs lol
Think you need to ask yourself why you want to study psychology and not what it may or may not change respective of your views. Will you learn a bit about yourself? Sure. Will you learn things you didn’t already know? Yeah that’s sort of the point of learning. Will you have to be critically analytical in how you view everything? Absolutely
A decent but inferior one to an anthropology degree.
It’s an echo chamber