[icedgreentea]

I am a sophomore in college and I've been wondering about which areas of study I want to concentrate on for the next two years left of school. Past two years, I really didn't know what I was doing in school, partying and drinking all the time, missing all my classes, and really living away without any directions. Now that I actually NEED to know what the hell I should be doing, I've decided that Psychology will be one of my major/minor options.

So I wanted to ask all psychology majors, what should I be expecting in terms of the actual work I'll be doing as a psych major taking psych classes. Is it a lot of writing, surveying, discussion, etc...? The thing is I like thinking about things related to psychology, reading about it and talking to friends about it. But then when it comes to writing, doing presentations, and the whole academia aspect of work that I'll be expected to do scares me especially because I SUCK at it. I really suck at writing, expressing my thoughts in the clear, organized manner, as is expected, is something I haven't come even close to mastering.

I'll appreciate it VERY VERY much if all you psych majors can give me a little overview of what psych majors (you) do, what psych classes are like (in terms of discussion? writing? presentations?), just the basic expectations on the academic aspects of a psych major.

edit: I know all classes involve discussion, writing, etc. but what carries the most weight in psych classes?

[touche`]

Well, I am a freshmen in college but my major is psychology. So far, Introduction to Psychology is very easy, but I've failed 3 of my exam and pass one. ha! It is a lot of studying.. I'll say it will take about 3 days to study for one exam because a lot of vocabulary words (not unless you are very smart, it'll take you one night to study).

what should I be expecting in terms of the actual work I'll be doing as a psych major taking psych classes. Expect a lot of reading, writing papers, studying and more studying.
Is it a lot of writing, surveying, discussion, etc...? There will be a lot of discussion since it is a psychology class. I'm not sure about survey yet.
a little overview of what psych majors (you) doI'm not sure what my psychology majors do yet since it is only my first year.
what psych classes are like (in terms of discussion? writing? presentations?)I think this is every psychology class.
what carries the most weight in psych classes? I'm not sure what you mean by this but I'm assuming which class is the hardest?

This is a little example that is require for psychology major:
Intro to Psy, Life Span Psy, Abnormal Psy, Physiolocial Psy, Research Methods in Psy, Psychology in Counseling, and Senior Seminar in Psychology.
The rest are elective options psych class but of course, every school is different. IF this doesn't help, i'm sure there are psychology major people out there. :S

[mwtk]

I'm psy major too. I've taken death & dying, health psy, research methods, human development. I felt that the major part is the writing because you have to go beyond facts and express your feelings. I didn't get the hang of it at first because I'm used to writing about facts. Class discussion is the same explaining youself not just giving one answer word. There's a lot of writing and reading (textbooks, other books, and research from medical journals), the studying part is not so much memorizing though. There's always a presentation that you have to do for each class.

[&gravity.]

Writing and reading is basically a constant in every class -- also in psychology. So far, I've done a media portfolio with articles, artwork, etc. from newspapers, magazines, the internet and so forth. I've also done four research paper -- consist of reading journals by psychologists and from that research I had to relate it to one of the chapters studied and summarized the journal, plus give suggestions on improving the weaknesses of the journal (a study). I was also had to participant in studies and write a description on what I did and why the study was conducted and it's relevance to psychology.



Although, I should mention that I'm not a psychology major but a psychology minor and that's what I've done so much for one of my classes. It's likely that every school is going to expect different things from their students. Or even every class is going to expect something different because they are taught by different teachers who has different teaching methods.

[BakaPrincess]

WOW. I guess it is pretty tough. I'm a Psych major too, and a freshman in college. So far, Intro to Psych. is pretty easy. You just have to study a lot to make sure that you really know what you're studying. Like your professor can throw an example at you on your exam, and they expect you to be able to know what's going on, what's expected, etc.

I know that it comes with a lot of writing and researching- a great deal. But if I can handle it, I'm sure you can too.

[(^__^)v]

one of my major is psychology i just haven't made it official x). i'm a freshmen and taking intro psychology 1. its too easy for me and the class isn't challenging. (-__-") I'm going to take psychology 2 and another psych class called cognitive psychology and both with different teacher. I just hope that these teacher would make the class challenging. i just memories the vocabulary for the exam. I was suppose to present my paper but due to the teachers absences he's decided not to do that anymore. So far my professor doesn't give out much presentation or assignments. O_o In my psychology class all the professor does is talk and i take notes. Theres not much discussion.

[&gravity.]

In my psychology class all the professor does is talk and i take notes. Theres not much discussion.

Most of the time it's like that because it's just lecture and not discussion. If you have questions, you would be advise (in my case) to email the teacher, attend review sessions, or email the TAs. Also, I believe you can set up appointment to talk to the teacher hands on about the materials you're learning, and you can always ask her/him at the end of class on things you don't understand.

[novemberbaby]

I'm a university junior majoring in psych. So far I've taken: Intro to Psych, Child Development, Social Psych, Abnormal Psych, Research Methods, Adolescence and Psych Stats. For next semester, I'm only taking one psych class which is Learning and Memory. After all, I'm heading to the 400+ level courses.

Hm. What to expect in psych classes? Aside from reading, writing, and plenty of studying, you have to make use of the concepts that you learn in class. You can start by observing things happening around you. Analyze the situations and the people involved. Try to apply as many concepts as you can. I've tried this and I find that it's so much easier to understand the vocabulary and concepts if I apply it to real life situations.

Most of my psych professors did not require presentations. There are mostly papers, usually three for each course. But as you start taking the advanced courses, there will be lengthier papers to write. If your profs are generous enough to offer to read your paper before it's due, take advantage of that.

If you're scared of psych exams, what I suggest you do is to form a study group with your psych classmates. One of the things that I learned this semester in my Adolescence course is the jigsaw classroom method. Our professor made us form study groups for exams. Each member of the group was responsible for typing notes for a specific chapter and then we all came together next class and handed each other our notes. So then you don't have to go through your book and notebook for important points for each chapter.

I think discussion's really important in my psych classes. When you write your papers, you're probably just writing it in your point of view. When there's a discussion, however, classmates contribute their thoughts and they might help you better understand whatever that you're learning in class.

[BaBi_MeLz]

i'm a sophomore psych major too and boy fall semester was a tough one for me since i took like 3 different psych courses and got a C on Clinical Psychology which is extremely bad when it's an overview of wut to expect if pursuing a career in psychology =x it was a tough class
along with clinic, i took intro to cognitive science, and scientific inquiry which is like research methods this semester.... dun think i got any A's in those courses =( but yea.... next semester is biopsychology and (3) 400+ courses then i'm done

as for classes- of course there will be a lot of information being blasted at ur way da only thing u can do is pay attention and do notes...that's one thing i'm havin trouble with since there's just too much information to remember and comprehend and after da exams, u'll forget everything and also, i haven't written any papers until this semester which ironically was for clinical psychology which i got a perfect score on -___-

as for wut is weighed da most in classes depends on the professors meaning that the syllabus would explain wut is counted more i think it is usually on the exams which are weighed upon the most and is dependent upon ur final grade which totally sucks if i failed an exam

another thing i just learned this year about being a psych major was that i cannot get a grade lower than a C or less than a 2.0 in any of the psych courses or else i would have to retake them or just not become a psych major...becuz sophomore year is usually the year that all the pre-requisites would be completed and be officially a psych major

[be_mellow]

Well...no one said psychology is easy..I hope.
Research in Psychology is a class about writing, basically teaching you how to do a research paper in APA style. I think it's required for all psych majors, you should check your school. But subcategories of psych that are important includes: clinical psych, developmental psych, cognitive psych, biopsych (maybe...mostly for b.s. track major), experimental design (statistic), social psychology. It's good to study more in depth in one of these subcategories that you like and assume you might go into the field later in grad school, but again it's optional. Do some research position in your school (most are for credit) you can gain experience in labs and get a recommendation. Take some psych class that you think are fun, interesting to you. I don't know about you, but I tend to do better in classes that interests me. Otherwise.......eck..

Psychology is really on your own, there's very little discussion groups involved unless it's on the syllabus. Most of the time you just read the materials and the professor talk a bit more about it in class.

The exams really depends on your professor. Some hard ones that are challenging expect you to analyze in depth the concept etc. The easy ones know you have a life and just give you a breeze giving definiton based questions and doesn't use A,B, A & B, none of the above that kinda trick. So it really depends on your professor. If you think you do better in challenging, ivy league professors then go for it, otherwise stick with easy professors unless you really do not have a choice.