If you clicked on this article expecting me to address all of the incredible highs of being a psychology major while only addressing one or two lows, you’re about to be horribly disappointed. Granted, despite currently being in a funk about psychology, I’m writing this article in effort to look back on the brighter side. I hope this article brings about balance and honesty with a side of understanding.
Let’s start with the highs. I love psychology; a subject and its many subfields will never be as interesting as I have found psychology to be. From social psychology to abnormal psychology, heck, even my learning and memory class has proved to be mind-blowing in its many forms of classical conditioning. Maybe I’m biased, but I have yet to find another major with as many different subtypes as psychology. Every semester-long course can be an entire master’s or doctorate degree. Our classes just barely skim the surface of all that is to be known about these subfields. Sometimes it can be daunting to think about how much there is still left to know.
While just a bachelor’s degree in psychology won’t get someone very far in actual psychological practitioning, the possibilities are endless when built upon this psychology foundation. Every aspect of human work involving human collaboration benefits from having a background in psychology. Industrial-organizational psychology is a booming field with a lot of potential. These psychologists work to solve problems within the workplace to improve work and life quality for the employees. When people think psychology, they automatically jump to clinical work, such as therapy and psychiatry. It’s hard to imagine a workforce that wouldn’t benefit from knowing more about the mind and behavior of others.
But, maybe that’s what I’m struggling with. I came into psychology with a one-track mind focused on clinical or counseling psychology as the end goal. As my options and horizons broaden with every non-clinical class I take, the possibilities become too endless. I have no idea what I want to do anymore. Something about clinical still feels right, but I want to explore other options that I may not even know exist yet. As I talk to other psych majors and professionals, this appears to be a fairly normal part of my budding career in psychology. It can be overwhelming at times, yes, but for now I’m realizing this is part of growing and learning more about myself and my studies. With graduation a little over a year away, it’s hard not to be thinking about the future. In reality, I need to be driving this energy into the here and now because the future won’t come without continuing to do what I’m doing now.
With classes, exams, and research looming over my shoulder, psychology feels like too much to carry sometimes. As if the classes weren’t demanding enough (and, no, not all of them are as easy as PSY180), involvement outside of the classroom is expected for any higher level education acceptance. This includes research, the part I’ve been dreading the most. It’s not that I don’t care about research, I just have no desire to conduct my own in order to get into a 5 or 6 year long doctorate program where I’ll only be conducting research. But again, this appears to be a normal stage in the process.
I know I’m not the only junior in college questioning all of their current and future life choices, but it sits very heavy on my mind. I enjoy having everything perfectly planned out, now and in the future. It was comforting to know I had my life plan figured out and all I had to do was graduate and get there. Now, it’s currently shattering before my eyes and I question what I want out of my psychology degree because it’s way too late to turn back now. However, it’s comforting to know I would never want to turn back. There is nothing that could bring me more joy to learn about than psychology. I know this is where I’m meant to be. I’m just still figuring out where I’m meant to go.