Psychology: Who has studied it?

[Chiyocities]

I was wondering if any of you have studied psychology or parts of it in school? I do find it an interesting subject to study and have once considered a degree in the field, but that's before I realized that it leans more towards secular teaching (the whole 'look inside yourself for answers' thing).

Though I have always wondered if certain aspects of psychology be helpful to use as a Christian? Such as developmental psychology (who we are at different stages of life), studies of socialization and it's affects on the individual, or the concept of self-actualization?

[Debitt]

I haven't studied psychology formally, though I will be doing so in a couple of days. ^_^ Personally I find the subject interesting, so I have done some casual reading on it.

I tend to "analyze" people, but not in specifics. Usually I either generalize or focus on my characters because, as you said, it leans somewhat towards secular teachings. I realize that psychology can be used from a Christian perspective - both of my friends parents are marriage counselors and psychologists and they both practice from a Christian stand-point on the subject. I think doing something like take takes a fair degree of spiritual maturity because of some of psychology's teachings, which is why I steer myself away from closely looking at real individuals. ^_^;

[Nate]

I'm in the second part of Psychology and find it absolutely fascinating. The secularism of it depends on the instructor you have. The professor I have happens to be Christian, so, there isn't much secular stuff there (however, in the interest of fairness, he doesn't state that things necessarily point to God either, he says we are free to make our own interpretations as to why things are the way they are).

I wouldn't major in it or anything, but it's a good subject, and I thoroughly enjoy it. It's interesting to find out how our brain functions and the like, and how things are learned.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I tend to study it on my leisure time. Well I used to, now I put more focus into studying apologetics on my free time

Originally I wanted to get a degree in psychology, but that changed now.

[The Coldwood]

Oh yeah, I've studied Psychology.

[K. Ayato]

I have a bachelor's in psychology.

[Archan]

I luved this topic during my college years...I actually had an active Shink as my instructor....was too fun.

I actually had the same Instructor for both my Psychology course and my Philosophy course....and they were both pretty fun. I was taught the very very very secular models of Jung and Frued and had fun disceting them both. Even made the Shrink, (Her name is Ada, we are actually now very good friends) think twice about a few things....alot of it I found in terms of the models themselves has to do with interpretive thinking....or rather having a high reputation with no one around to challenge you (Freud....what a guy that was). And, for those of you whom have known me long enough, I have aot of innovative ways of thinking myself when it comes to models of one of the greatest mysteries we have....the brain.

God bless,
Josh

[Tenshi no Ai]

I'm in the second part of Psychology and find it absolutely fascinating.

Likewise. Although do you mean second year or second part of the year? For me, I just had it last semister and taking it again this one. It's the only class that goes by fast for me, and the prof is fun to learn from.

[Nate]

Psychology 202. We're learning about language development at the moment. Good stuff.

[mechana2015]

I took Psych 201.

[Tenshi no Ai]

Psychology 202. We're learning about language development at the moment. Good stuff.

No way! Me too! Reading through the chapter on thinking and language. It's kinda one of those blah ones. But hey, who knew baby babble can technically be talk from any language? You learn something new everytime in that course!

[PleaseDrinkMilk]

I took Psychology 101, and for being an auditorium class, wasn't so bad. A few things bored me but I was generally interested. Then I went to an Introduction to the Psych Major class my college provides, and with that, I realized how seriously disinterested I was.

[Nate]

No way! Me too! Reading through the chapter on thinking and language. It's kinda one of those blah ones. But hey, who knew baby babble can technically be talk from any language? You learn something new everytime in that course!

I think it's more interesting learning about how babies learn to pick out phonemes from the language they are raised around, and learn to block out the ones from languages they don't recognize.

Even more interesting is learning about feral children and how difficult it is for them to grasp human language.

[PigtailsJazz]

I'm a music therapy major, which involves a lot of psychology. You just have to be careful with what you hear and analyze it.

[shooraijin]

I moonlight in psychiatry (I work and see patients twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays), but psychiatry is a medical profession and psychiatrists don't do a huge amount with psychology per se. One needs to be aware of it in the field, of course.

[Deny_Yourself]

I majored in psychology for 5 years, took every undergrad course available at two colleges...fascinating stuff, but the longer I'm a Christian, and the more I counsel others, the more I agree with NANC and other Biblical counseling organizations that the majority of emotional/mental problems are spiritual in both root and nature.

At first, I thought that was a horrible stance to take, and even judgmental, but I don't think so anymore. I've seen more troubled teens go deeper into depression and self-destruction with secular counseling & meds than I can stomach. But places like House of Hope and Teen Challenge are turning out success story after success story.

[Taka]

s that the majority of emotional/mental problems are spiritual in both root and nature.

At first, I thought that was a horrible stance to take, and even judgmental, but I don't think so anymore. I've seen more troubled teens go deeper into depression and self-destruction with secular counseling & meds than I can stomach.

I understand what you are saying. While I do think that ultimately, we have big holes we try to fill with all sorts of things, that only God can, which makes us frienzied and prone to addictions and bad forms of copeing with life. But I also think there is validity to psychological things. True, we are all sinful, and need God, and he is the only one who can truly satisfy us. BUT, that doesn't mean all psych stuff is just psychobabble. For instance, what ya'll were saying about babys and how they develop, that just facinates the heck out of me! And who made it like that? God. So, I don't agree that all things psychological are bad. I think humans can develop specific, distinct patterns, (good or bad) that influence how they see, and live their lives.



Anyway. I'm looking at being a psych or social work major, possibly.

[Mikomi]

Psychology is very interesting...some of it's crazy, but still very interesting. I took a few psychology classes in college. I thought abnormal psychology was the most fun and so was developmental. My husband got a bachelors in psychology, but went on to get his masters in something else.

[TallHobbit86]

I took psychology 100 as a gen. ed. course, but that's about all I've had of it. I personally think there are acceptable portions of psychology that do not conflict with the Bible, while other portions of psychology are baloney... Being motivated to seek to reach the height of your potential as defined by the psychology term self-actualization is certainly a noble cause. As Christians we should seek self-actualization especially in terms of our spiritual walk: to live our lives motivated to keep God's statutes to the height of our potential and to seek Him with all our heart.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I was taught the very very very secular models of Jung and Frued and had fun disceting them both. Even made the Shrink, (Her name is Ada, we are actually now very good friends) think twice about a few things....alot of it I found in terms of the models themselves has to do with interpretive thinking....or rather having a high reputation with no one around to challenge you (Freud....what a guy that was).

lol yeeeeesssss! awesome you are

[Technomancer]

I've never done anything involving developmental or behavioural psychology. I do however deal with computational neuroscience/neurocomputation. Mostly this involves understanding the sensory system and brain using neural models. My specific work involves neural computation for hearing, acoustic localization and speech intelligbility.

The only psych course I did was cross-listed in computer science, and naturally involved neural networks. I also did a grad course on the subject, but that mainly involved the computational side and focussed on problems in signal processing.

[Doubleshadow]

I'm in PSY 200 this semester. I'm taking it as a humanity requirement, so I don't know if I'll appreciate this class as much as I could.

Ooooh, technomancer you have me drooling with that description. What I wouldn't give to see the functions for that research. Makes me think of the presentation I saw by the physical chemist who knew the transtition states of the solar system after combining his research with Jerry Marsdens work.

[~Natsumi Lam~]

i would have minored in PSY.....

but i didnt want a secular teaching because they leave God out of the whole psy makeup and it is impossible to do that and know.

For example... they have no idea how to really treat MPD [Multiple personality disorder]. Only those christian psycologists have been truely sucessful. I have studied the difference.

i just say it is too deep of a study to leave God out of.... so i am sceptical for myself.

~NL~

[ClosetOtaku]

Part of the study of Medical Informatics is the study of cognitive psychology, how humans perceive. I tend to like this more than standard psychology as (a) it is more evidence-based (e.g. studies and tests rather than hypothesis), (b) the mechanics are almost identical in everyone, and (c) it is really fascinating -- covering everything from optical illusions to why $14.99 seems so much lower than $15.00...

[Technomancer]

Ooooh, technomancer you have me drooling with that description. What I wouldn't give to see the functions for that research. Makes me think of the presentation I saw by the physical chemist who knew the transtition states of the solar system after combining his research with Jerry Marsdens work.

If you like:
http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/Psychology/sb.html
http://psycserv.mcmaster.ca/ljt/
http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/psychology/racine-web-page/
http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/psychology/faure/index.htm
http://www.ece.mcmaster.ca/~ibruce/

I work here, but the webpage is hopelessly out of date:
http://soma.crl.mcmaster.ca/ASLWeb/

[shadowblade]

I took two general psych classes, but now I'm gonna try human growth and development. ^^ It seems like it'll be a really interesting class.

[Rachel]

I took a class in highschool. Our teacher was kinda crazy. I did learn a few things though. My favorite part was the bit on abnormal psychology.

[Chiyocities]

Wow! Seems like a lot of people here have taken psychology in school or have studied it alone. Nice to also know that there are even a few psychology majors on the board as well. The class I took was "Psychology in Modern Life", which you can say is an introductory course to psychology. We covered every theory from Erickson, Freud, Jung, Fromm and Maslow... all in one semester. And I believe that a lot of the theories can be rationalized in a Christian perspective, considering that most of these men studied under their own secular viewpoints.

(Though Freud's theories does scare me a little...)

Being motivated to seek to reach the height of your potential as defined by the psychology term self-actualization is certainly a noble cause. As Christians we should seek self-actualization especially in terms of our spiritual walk: to live our lives motivated to keep God's statutes to the height of our potential and to seek Him with all our heart.

I feel that self-actualization is indeed a very important concept in psychology. Fufilling the most basic needs in order to help society through our Lord. In a way, it does hold true to Christianity when you talk about helping others within the peak of your spirituality.