My Reflection
Ever since the start of this course I have been excited to learn new things about psychology. My reason for this is because it is my major, and a very intriguing field to me. So I will start off by defining psychology; it is the scientific study of human behaviour. Even though my knowledge of its definition hasn’t changed, my understanding of it has. After being in general psychology, I now have a deeper understanding of what psychology actually entails. For instance, there are several different fields of psychology, as well as approaches. During this course we touched on each of the most popular approaches, which include the following: cognitive—believes that illogical thoughts and unreasonable thinking are the cause of behaviour/mental issues; humanistic—focuses on conscious thoughts; psychodynamic—focuses on the unconscious; and behavioural—all behaviours and attitudes are a product of learning. These are all psychosocial approaches, but there are also biomedical approaches, which take a medical approach and view on things. Overall, my view has changed in the sense that I realize how complex of a field psychology really is.
Furthermore, one of those most important things that I feel we did over the semester was the research challenges because recognizing research types are an important aspect in psychology. In addition, they helped me to gain a better understanding on the different forms of research. Moreover, a second important activity that we did was the research summaries, but this was also one of the most challenging activity for me. The reason it was important was because being able to write these summaries shows that someone has a grasp on real research, so it was great practice for me since I am going into this profession. On the other hand, even though writing comes quite easy for me, it was difficult because sometimes I found it hard to summarize someone else’s summary. There were times when it seemed as if there was important information missing in order for me to completely understand the study’s intentions, etc. Although these things were very important, there were different activities that I am most proud of.
First off, the awareness and advocacy project made me think about what issues in the world I am most concerned about, as well as gave me the opportunity to bring awareness to one of those issues. The reason I am proud of this project is because we had to think outside of the box in a sense; we had to make others want to take action on our topic as well, and to develop the passion that we have for it—something that isn’t as easy as it might sound. Moreover, I am also proud of my group’s presentation at the student presentation conference. It definitely brought me out of my comfort zone, and in the end left me with a good public speaking experience. Although the experiences I have had in general psychology have left me with a better understanding of the field, there are still some things that I want to learn more about.
I want to learn more about how the different chemical and neurotransmitters in the brain affect people, as well as the role they play in psychological disorders. Which leads me to another topic I am more intrigued in—psychological disorders themselves. This was something that we didn’t have a lot of time to talk about during lecture, nor was it covered in great depth in the textbook. Therefore, I want to know more about the history and diagnosis of these illnesses.
Coming into this class I already had an interest in psychology, as well as knew that I want a career in this field. However, after taking this course, I now have a greater thirst for the everything that I can learn from the specific areas of psychology. I will continue to take as many psychology courses as I can at Delta alone, and then will continue as I further my undergraduate and graduate education. All in all, even though it was sometimes very hard work, general psychology has been one of my favourite classes so far, and has benefited me greatly in the end.
Ever since the start of this course I have been excited to learn new things about psychology. My reason for this is because it is my major, and a very intriguing field to me. So I will start off by defining psychology; it is the scientific study of human behaviour. Even though my knowledge of its definition hasn’t changed, my understanding of it has. After being in general psychology, I now have a deeper understanding of what psychology actually entails. For instance, there are several different fields of psychology, as well as approaches. During this course we touched on each of the most popular approaches, which include the following: cognitive—believes that illogical thoughts and unreasonable thinking are the cause of behaviour/mental issues; humanistic—focuses on conscious thoughts; psychodynamic—focuses on the unconscious; and behavioural—all behaviours and attitudes are a product of learning. These are all psychosocial approaches, but there are also biomedical approaches, which take a medical approach and view on things. Overall, my view has changed in the sense that I realize how complex of a field psychology really is.
Furthermore, one of those most important things that I feel we did over the semester was the research challenges because recognizing research types are an important aspect in psychology. In addition, they helped me to gain a better understanding on the different forms of research. Moreover, a second important activity that we did was the research summaries, but this was also one of the most challenging activity for me. The reason it was important was because being able to write these summaries shows that someone has a grasp on real research, so it was great practice for me since I am going into this profession. On the other hand, even though writing comes quite easy for me, it was difficult because sometimes I found it hard to summarize someone else’s summary. There were times when it seemed as if there was important information missing in order for me to completely understand the study’s intentions, etc. Although these things were very important, there were different activities that I am most proud of.
First off, the awareness and advocacy project made me think about what issues in the world I am most concerned about, as well as gave me the opportunity to bring awareness to one of those issues. The reason I am proud of this project is because we had to think outside of the box in a sense; we had to make others want to take action on our topic as well, and to develop the passion that we have for it—something that isn’t as easy as it might sound. Moreover, I am also proud of my group’s presentation at the student presentation conference. It definitely brought me out of my comfort zone, and in the end left me with a good public speaking experience. Although the experiences I have had in general psychology have left me with a better understanding of the field, there are still some things that I want to learn more about.
I want to learn more about how the different chemical and neurotransmitters in the brain affect people, as well as the role they play in psychological disorders. Which leads me to another topic I am more intrigued in—psychological disorders themselves. This was something that we didn’t have a lot of time to talk about during lecture, nor was it covered in great depth in the textbook. Therefore, I want to know more about the history and diagnosis of these illnesses.
Coming into this class I already had an interest in psychology, as well as knew that I want a career in this field. However, after taking this course, I now have a greater thirst for the everything that I can learn from the specific areas of psychology. I will continue to take as many psychology courses as I can at Delta alone, and then will continue as I further my undergraduate and graduate education. All in all, even though it was sometimes very hard work, general psychology has been one of my favourite classes so far, and has benefited me greatly in the end.