• Question: Do you have any advice for young people interested in psychology?

    Asked by anon-237786 to Peter, Mhairi, Madeleine, Catherine, Andrew on 13 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Catherine Talbot

      Catherine Talbot answered on 13 Mar 2020:

      Go for it! Psychology is super interesting and covers a lot of different topics, so there’s sure to be something you like. Be prepared to learn how to do statistics and conduct psychology experiments!

    • Photo: Madeleine Pownall

      Madeleine Pownall answered on 13 Mar 2020:

      Psychology is so wonderfully broad. It encompasses all different kinds of people, different behaviours, in different settings.

      Therefore, I would advise you to think about what specific part of human mind and behaviour you are most interested in.

      Are you interested in people’s memory and thinking? You might like cognitive psychology
      Are you interested in social relationships? You might (like me!) make a good social psychologist
      Do you want to talk to people about their feelings and thoughts? Maybe look into clinical or counselling psychology.

      There are so many different routes a career in psychology can take you, so really think about which ‘strand’ interests you the most.

      You could then try and reach out to people and get some work experience or volunteering to test out that particular field! You might change your mind… which is also fine!

      Keep trying, tasting, learning… you’ll get there!

    • Photo: Mhairi Bowe

      Mhairi Bowe answered on 14 Mar 2020:

      Psychology has something for everyone. Have a look at all the potential careers on the British Psychological Society website and the breadth of topics within psychology in university prospectuses. If you want a career in psychology in a particular area think about doing some volunteering or shadowing to get a feel for what that career path might be like.

    • Photo: Andrew McNeill

      Andrew McNeill answered on 18 Mar 2020:

      Stay away from (most) popular psychology books. Far better to stick with academic sources if you want to know what psychology is really about and what it can really show. Using a website like Google Scholar (scholar.google.co.uk) will show you lots of academic articles about topics you are interested in. Some of them might be hard reading, but skip the tricky bits and focus on the parts you can understand.

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