I honestly love being a psychology major! I love the study of people and the power we have as people to act, think, and behave a certain way. Because everyone comes in contact with some form of psychology literally every day, people tend to put it down as a major. Well, we have a few things to say. On behalf of all psych majors, we would like to defend and educate.
1. Psychology is hard.
Psychology is often compared to other majors in the science field. It is considered a "soft" science because theories are always changing and are never really concrete. It is not considered a "soft" science because it is girly, easy, or feminine. Do you find writing essays every week, easy? Or how about doing hours and hours of research?
2. We cannot read your mind.
"Are you gonna tell me what I'm thinking?" How many of us have received this response when we tell people our major is psychology? Every single one of us. First of all, it is so old and unoriginal. Also, very ignorant. We are not psychics. We are psychologists! It is true that we can predict behavior patterns based on past experiences and how the brain works, but we can't tell you what exactly what you're thinking (and we probably have no interest in it either).
3. Not all of us have an interest in being a therapist.
The typical psychologist is a lady wearing glasses, pen and notepad in hand ready to take notes, legs crossed, sitting in a chair across from a couch with a patient lying on their back. There are so many fields a person can go into with their psychology degree. There's business, social work, criminal justice, education, etc. Psychology is a good foundation for a lot of different occupations. I want to be a criminal psychologist so I will be listening to people, but the scenery will just be a little different.
4. We love to analyze people.
We like to know the reasoning behind everything when it comes to people. We want to know your whole life story sometimes. We love to hear people talk about their backgrounds because in our heads we are piecing together why they're the way they are. We mean it in the best way - everyone is not a case to us. But sometimes, involuntarily, we'll realize that a specific behavior someone does is associated with something else.
5. We do it for the people.
What better way to enjoy people than to get to know them? We genuinely love people, and we love to hear what they have to say. We are all about conversation and every new person is fascinating. We can about the past, present, and future of every individual.
