“If you can’t do, study psychology.”
This is the warped mentality society has developed regarding the field of psychology and related subjects. For many years, people have questioned the importance of psychology, and it’s no secret that psychology is seen as a “joke” major. In fact, I hear numerous people say that psychology has the easiest statistics classes at my university, so those with other majors that require a statistics credit to graduate should take psychology stats to earn “an easy A.” It blows my mind how one person in one major can tear down another person in a different major like this. If it weren’t important to society, it wouldn’t be studied, right? This is an issue I have held my tongue about for so long and that I feel isn't being heard enough. As a psychology major who hears how unimportant this field is all the time, I think I should give you my two cents now.
One major example of this blatant disregard for the field that fed into the “psych is pointless” mentality was seen in 2015 during the presidential campaigns when presidential candidate Jeb Bush made a few snide remarks about the psychology, among other fields. An article in The Washington Post credited Bush with saying “Universities ought to have skin in the game. When a student shows up, they ought to say ‘Hey, that psych major deal, that philosophy major thing, that’s great, it’s important to have liberal arts … but realize, you’re going to be working [at] a Chick-fil-A,” which jumpstarted the infamous “ #ThisPsychMajor ” campaign. While I do enjoy Chick-fil-A (and don't judge anyone who works there), Mr. Bush, I don’t think that my hard work in earning a psychology degree equates to working in the fast food industry for the rest of my life. So, you and all the other non-believers out there can feel free to take a seat while I tell you the reasons why your interpretation of the field is totally wrong.
Have you or someone you love felt down, emotionally scattered, broken, and unable to face the world? To who did you or your loved one go to for support? Oh, that’s right, you went to a counselor or psychologist. I’ll give you one guess to figure out what they probably majored in college. Do you think it’s unimportant to have someone there to support you in ways that other people in your life can’t? Is it stupid that someone devoted 4 (or more) years of their life to studying conditions like depression, personality disorders, and substance abuse for the sole purpose of bettering the lives of those suffering from them? Does a person who works so diligently to prevent teen suicide by helping teenagers cope with the struggles of adolescence have no use in the workforce? Imagine a world where psychology never existed and nobody ever studied mental illness. That's a world I sure wouldn't want to live in! Who do you turn to help you cope with these kinds of problems?
What about the criminal justice system? Who are the people that are necessary for profiling serial killers? What individuals evaluate the mental state of convicts to determine if they are criminally insane and help find a suitable punishment for their crime? Do you know the answer? Fine, I'll give you the answer. That task belongs to the psychology major, yet again. Where you have a detective, it’s likely that there is a forensic psychologist not far behind them studying the characteristics of the crime scene to develop a profile that will ultimately help bring the criminal to justice. It’s just as likely that a psychologist will help in some way with your average court hearing as well. Did you ever consider that?
Oh, and don’t think for a second that big companies and the business industry don’t need psychology either! When developing advertisements or commercials for the next big thing, who do you think studied the kinds of persuasion techniques that work best for bringing in customers? Ding, ding, ding! Psychologists. Who do companies hire to help develop leadership and training programs within their corporations? Industrial/organizational psychology graduates! It’s actually so fascinating how useful it is, isn’t it?
While I could go on and on about how many other fields rely on psychology majors, I’ll leave Jeb Bush and all you other doubters out there with this: my psychology major will open so many doors and help so many people in the future. The brain is an incredibly complex entity that nobody fully understands, but it is the field of psychology that develops new theories and understandings of the brain every single day. The possibilities are endless when you study the mind. Maybe if Mr. Bush had taken a psychology course or two in his lifetime, he'd have known this and would have figured to use psychology to appeal to his voters and strengthen his campaign strategies while running for president. But hey, if you're reading this Mr. Bush, don't feel bad. Don't ever hesitate to call #ThisPsychMajor over here if you have residual sadness about your loss and need someone to help you deal with it.
