Being a Psychology major can be a struggle. From research studies to Freud's Pchoanalytic Theory of Personality, it's fascinating, yet an overload. Some people see it as an easy major (wrong), and some people find it weird, but overall, it's a very interesting major to be in. A lot of psychology majors (and the general public) also seem to be big fans of American Horror Story, so I am here to list the 13 struggles of being a psych major, as told by American Horror Story:
1. When all you do is research, research, and more research:
Being a psych major means constantly having research papers, research studies, learning about different research, and trying to get research for your resume. It's probably the most time consuming part of our major. It can be pretty interesting at times,except when you are pulling all-nighters looking for scholarly articles to back up your paper at 3 AM.
2. When other people think you must be strange because of your major:
We get it, we learn about some creepy stuff sometimes, but that doesn't mean we are creepy individuals. I mean we are a little weird, but come on who isn't?
3. Those people who tell you they don't think psychology is a serious major because they don't believe mental illness exists:
There's always going to be someone who comments on your major and says it's a waste of time because there is no such thing as being mentally ill. Those people are just ignorant to the growing mental health awareness so don't waste much of your time on them.
4. Trying to get a meeting with your advisor to set up internships or help with research papers:
We understand that our advisor has a full plate and hundreds of students to deal with, but all we want to do is get some help from them. It's been two months, answer my emails!
5. When you hear about the Pavlov's Dog Experiment for the 100th time:
The more psychology classes you take, the more repetitive the studies get. If we have to hear about Pavlov's drooling dogs or little kids punching a clown one more time we might explode!
6. When you're learning about different mental illnesses and begin to think that you have them:
Schizophrenia, Anti-Social disorder, Bipolar disorder, the list goes on and on, but over time sometimes you begin to think you have the symptoms and question you're own sanity. Don't worry though you're probably just being a hypochondriac, oh wait, isn't that a mental illness too?!
7. When you take one counseling class and think you are a therapist:
As a psych major, you're probably going to take at least one counseling and communications class. The positive aspect is you are gaining more insight into talking like a professional, but the downside is you might start talking to other people like you're their therapist.
8. When you find out you pretty much have to go to graduate school to find a good job:
We go to college to get a degree so we can get a decent job, and finding out that most psych majors need at least a masters degree to be successful is crushing to the soul.
9. You realize your life revolves around writing papers and reviewing case studies:
In every psych class you are pretty much guaranteed to write at least one paper, so if you hate writing this is definitely bad news for you. The best part is, all of your sources have to be peer-reviewed, scholarly articles.How fun is that?!
10. When you're trying to understand APA format:
Most likely in high school you were only taught MLA forma,t so when a professor tells you to write every paper in APA you die a little inside because you don't understand it.
11. When you're desperately trying to figure out how to get research on your resume for graduate school:
Everyone tells you that you need research on your resume to get into graduate school, but they make it so hard to find any research to be a part of! It either has a prerequisite that you do not have or requires a degree, so you spend your day calling places trying to find something you add to your resume and are left empty and sad.
12. When you discover that you have to use math:
When you think of psychology you probably don't think of math, so when you find out you need to take statistics and actually use it in research studies its not easy news to hear.
13. Finally, you pray that all your hard work pays off and you get into graduate school:
As much as it's a struggle, it's also awesome to be a psych major. Instead of sitting through boring lectures about the Civil War or the names of all the human bones, you get to learn about creepy case studies, fascinating mental illnesses, and what makes up human personality. It's a beyond stressful, yet rewarding major, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
