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It's never said about the given field that said person is referencing?
IE: An engineering major: "There's no money in business. The market is over saturated."
A psychology major: "There's no money in engineering. The market is over saturated."
A business major: "There's no money in psychology. The market is over saturated."
Lets break it down into a simple formula:
IF it is not a major of the person you're talking to at the time
THEN the major has no money in it
AND the market is over saturated.
Oh. So you were reversing the statment without saying you were reversing the statmenet. Good to know it was not just nonsensical.
I've never heard that, but I would suspect the bias that you're supposedly receiving comes from having to deal with people who have tons of issues.
I took a psychology course in college and failed! I could not understand what was so fascinating about the topic. Ironically, I began therapy sessions when I was fourteen years old.
The reason it gets a lot of 'flack' is because everyone sees a Psych Major and ASSUMES it is only good for therapy. Many people don't realize HOW MANY BRANCHES that degree has (Still looking into grad school and dear lord almighty there are so many sub-degrees). They also don't realize unless you are a Clinical Psychologist, you aren't doing therapy/counseling. IO Psychologists do the same job as an Industrial Engineer (IO stands for Industrial Organizational), and both subjects were essentially formed by the same man. Cognitive Psychology has a mostly research based orientation, looking at the parts of the brain and how they interact, mapping out parts of the brain etc. and is more physiological/Biologically based. It gets a lot of crap because so many young women go into this degree thinking it'll be easy, or they will be a social worker and that's it. Having switched from Mechanical Engineering to a Psychology major, I have to say it is actually harder. The numbers and stuff come easy to me, but Psychology is HEAVILY research based, and an undergrad will find themselves reading hundreds of journal articles by the time they get their degree just for their classes alone. A lot of people don't understand how much a role Psychology has in their day to day lives (for instance, the reason almost all home-team football teams have darker home colors than away colors is because having a darker color makes you more likely to be flagged, thusly providing a fairer game).
Basically, it get's crap because no one really knows what they are talking about. YES Psychology BS degrees don't get you anything, but if you expect to get something with that when all your teachers say you can't, then you are just stupid, the major however, is not.
I wasn't an undergrad psych major. I am a counseling psych grad student, and have experienced no blowback at this level...not that I'd care if I did.
I think the problem at the undergrad level becomes a "what are you going to do with that?" problem, due to the requirement of graduate level study if you plan to do anything in the clinical or counseling areas.
Old thread, but what the heck. My observation, which of course is not data, but who cares on CD, is that the issue with psych is not the field itself, but who takes it. Most of us knew several psych majors in college who pretty much fit the stereotype to a T: they were either hot girls who were really in college for the MRS degree; scholarship athletes who needed an easy flexible program; or those going to college because they were going to college and needed to pick something.
Basically the quality of the degree got defined by the quality of the students seen taking it. I suppose there were some taking in because of a serious interest in psych and grad school, but you never saw them.
Old thread, but what the heck. My observation, which of course is not data, but who cares on CD, is that the issue with psych is not the field itself, but who takes it. Most of us knew several psych majors in college who pretty much fit the stereotype to a T: they were either hot girls who were really in college for the MRS degree; scholarship athletes who needed an easy flexible program; or those going to college because they were going to college and needed to pick something.
Basically the quality of the degree got defined by the quality of the students seen taking it. I suppose there were some taking in because of a serious interest in psych and grad school, but you never saw them.
As someone with a psychology BA, I do think the bad rep is at least somewhat deserved. I graduated with a 3.5 GPA, and to be honest it wasn't all that difficult. Psychology is an easy major even relative to other liberal arts majors.
I bailed on a psych major because it was too inexact to suit me
Basically this^^^.
As a general rule any major that is inexact will be easier than a major that is exact.
Let's compare psych with math: On the math exam 1 + 2 = 3. There's only one correct answer, you either know it or you don't. On the psych exam 1 + 2 = at least 5 correct answers, probably more. As long as you write down a well thought out intelligent answer, you will get the question right. Anytime there's more than one correct answer to a question and the answers are more about feelings than facts, it will be easier to pass.
I would classify STEM majors, engineering, accounting, finance, math, law, and medicine as more exact majors since most of the time there is only one right answer to a question in these areas. Sure there might be some variation to the only one correct answer at the higher levels, but any correct answer in these areas is normally driven by facts, rules, and regulations, and not based on feelings.
Psych, communication, the arts, ethnic studies, education - all of these majors are more inexact because usually there are multiple right answers to the majority of questions asked and as long as the answer sounds intelligent and well thought out, it is usually considered correct. Therefore, these majors are easier to get through because you can "feel" your way through the answers.
There are also majors that are somewhere in between - I would put economics, history, languages and most business disciplines other than accounting/finance in this category.
As a general rule any major that is inexact will be easier than a major that is exact.
Let's compare psych with math: On the math exam 1 + 2 = 3. There's only one correct answer, you either know it or you don't. On the psych exam 1 + 2 = at least 5 correct answers, probably more. As long as you write down a well thought out intelligent answer, you will get the question right. Anytime there's more than one correct answer to a question and the answers are more about feelings than facts, it will be easier to pass.
I would classify STEM majors, engineering, accounting, finance, math, law, and medicine as more exact majors since most of the time there is only one right answer to a question in these areas. Sure there might be some variation to the only one correct answer at the higher levels, but any correct answer in these areas is normally driven by facts, rules, and regulations, and not based on feelings.
Psych, communication, the arts, ethnic studies, education - all of these majors are more inexact because usually there are multiple right answers to the majority of questions asked and as long as the answer sounds intelligent and well thought out, it is usually considered correct. Therefore, these majors are easier to get through because you can "feel" your way through the answers.
There are also majors that are somewhere in between - I would put economics, history, languages and most business disciplines other than accounting/finance in this category.
what psych courses did you take? were you studying under Freud?
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