Online College Club

Introduction to Psychology is the first class of the course of study for those who are interested in being psychology majors.  This course is a pre-requisite on most campuses to taking further classes in a program as students must complete this initial survey course in order to have a basic knowledge of this field before proceeding onwards in their endeavor into the process of learning of the inner workings of the human mind, allowing them to take full advantage of their scholarships.

For some students the Intro to Psychology (or Psych 101) course can be burdensome as their knowledge of this arena may have already advanced past what’s covered in the introductory course.  Some students may have come into the class having taken advanced placement courses this genre.  Students who pass the AP Psychology test (which is administered by the College Board) with a grade of 3 or higher can receive credit for the course instead of having to take the class.

Students have many reasons as to why they’ve decided to become psychology majors.  Some may be interested in the different theorists.  Others may be interested in becoming counselors.  There are students who are interested in a specific person or disorder.  Fortunately, students will gain exposure to pretty much every area of psychology.  The drawback is that students will not be exposed in depth to the various aspects of psychology.

Schizophrenia is possibly the most infamous of all psychological disorders.  This is the disorder where people “hear voices” and often act out violently because they are completely unable to control their disorders without being heavily medicated.  Those who wish to major in this field are usually interested in this disorder due to the continuing lack of knowledge of how the disease works.

Those will carry through to a major in this area also have great interest in the many figures that have impacted the science throughout the years.  Some psychologists are more colorful in nature, while others are more staid.  There are many researchers who are covered throughout the semester and students must have background knowledge about all of them to pass the course and to advance their studies. Students will be standing on the shoulders of giants in psychology during their college psychology courses so it’s important that they know where they stand.

Many students know of people such as Freud; however one of the first psychologists students will meet is Jean Piaget.  Piaget’s theory of cognitive development was the first of its kind to deal with how children learn how to act within a social context, as well as how children learn in a scholastic environment.

One of the researchers who followed Piaget was Erik Erikson.  Erikson was very concerned with the idea of identity.  He was the person who coined the phrase “identity crisis”.  Intro to Psychology students learn about Erikson because he is responsible for taking the conflicts of identity and expanding them from just children to adulthood and even all the way to the elderly.

What is beginning to happen thanks to advances in technology is that there are free psychology courses online for students to take, to see if this is something they would like to pursue.  As some schools require a course in this field, scholarship and grant monies can often be applied.  Psychology majors will end up specializing in different areas, following ideas of different theorists, and ultimately some may end up creating new ideas that are accepted by the mainstream as well, but they must start at the introductory level. Once they’ve built their way up they can start to leverage their free colleges for all its worth in the job market.

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