Question: Why do you think teaching kids about psychology will benefit their lives?

James Munro answered on 11 Mar 2019:

Hey Leyton,

Thanks for the question!

Psychology is all about busting myths about how people “should” be. We research how people “are” and how to make people feel happy about their lives. Kids about your age are surrounded by their pals all day, going through puberty and learning how to make decisions for themselves about some really important stuff. Learning about psychology will help you understand other people, treat people with respect and learn from them. It will help you debate your ideas, explore your sexuality and help you learn that poor mental health is not weird or unusual – but a perfectly normal part of life for almost everyone. You are so likely to have, or have friends friends with, autistic spectrum disorder, or who suffer from anxiety, or who have some other condition that makes them different. With psychology you can understand those conditions and use their differences to make all your lives better and more interesting.

Plus, just like other sciences, you might learn something that inspires you to do it as a job. You might want to study animal minds, or the human brain, or transgendered people. You could discover something that no one knows yet – and share it with the world.