What Psychology Has Taught Me

Being the main issue at the moment this blog is created (I just earned my Bachelor of Psychology degree), I believe this topic would be suitable to be written as my first post for this blog. I decided to create a new blog as I felt that my ability to write in English has improved, and also as I have begun to pay attention on my own writing. Several external contributions played a huge part for the latter, but with all due respect to all of them I will mention only one, which is the final test I have to take in order to earn my bachelor of psychology degree: the undergraduate thesis and comprehensive exam to defend it. I give thanks to my comprehensive examiners who have brought me to realize the importance to pay a very close attention to it; from diction to the consistency of argument and ideas throughout the writing. I am well aware that it is still a long way for me to be able to meet their expectations and also several expectations other than writing that I believe also exist; much longer to meet those that are higher. This only proves how much I need guidance in order to improve myself. Therefore I feel thankful for all the guidance and valuable lessons I had throughout the past four years because all of that has made me to become a better, more capable person.

When I first came to psychology all I could think about was the fact that I have the capacity to learn and make achievements out of it. I believe that I have finally come to learn something that is understandable, comprehensible, and because of that, valuable. This belief gave me comfort and assurance that I am a capable learner at that moment. Perhaps this belief stems from the fact that I actually never got anything valuable from what I learned in high school. This fact was a very terrifying fact that unconsciously I chose to cover it by making good marks out of everything I learned. Being able to get good marks, even though it was mostly by chance, gave me a certain kind of assurance that at least there was something I could get from all of these subjects in school I actually never understood well. It turns out that I never understood whatever high school has taught me. Of course, I cannot say all of my friends who also attended that school felt the same way too; there are a lot of factors that make each individual's life from never exactly the same to completely different from another individual. Also, it can be erroneous to judge that the school is bad right away; perhaps, it is me that is bad and not suitable for the school. It should stop where it should stop in this context: "I didn't learn anything valuable during high school" (well, to be honest, there is one: my habit of studying; but honestly, it also has a bad side). And what psychology has taught me is to realize all of this.

Nevertheless, the illustration of my life as I presented above is only one case from so many cases on which I apply what psychology has taught me. It has provided me with so many insights other than the reason why I was comfortable learning it from the start; from matters of relationships to matters of achievement. I guess what I am trying to say is that applying what I have learned in the faculty of psychology helps me to understand my own issues, and eventually, other people's issues as well. Although I believe that there are still a lot of things in this life that I could not explain yet, life has never felt so clear for me until now. Learning and understanding something has become a lot easier, though not necessarily faster. Finally, the most important thing is that because I get to know about myself and my own issues, I feel more capable in making decisions for myself, and because of that ultimately, I am also more able to take responsibilities for those decisions too.

From what I have observed, people from other majors think that those who chose psychology as their major in the university become freaks (of course, this does not apply to all). Personally, considering myself to be a 'freak' too, I think they are freaks from the beginning, and by choosing psychology they (consciously or unconsciously) think they will gain closure to their own issues. Life is never perfect for anyone, and by perfect I meant that it never goes the way we wanted it to be. Sometimes we are able to make adjustments, sometimes we can't, and we're wondering why, and finally what we should do about it. Despite the fact that this argument is merely a guess, what I think is clear is that psychology actually helps people to do that, if people put some effort to learn and understand the materials. Of course, I am far away from having a complete understanding of it, but I can say that it is quite obvious it has helped me - a lot. 

I also noticed that being part of the social science that is often popularized through self-help books and magazines or simply considered close to daily lives, and therefore easy to learn, I found some people look down on psychology (and also people who are studying it). Despite the fact that looking down on others being considered an ignorant and childish act by yours truly, I think these people didn't realize how much effort these popular books' writers gave to finally come to the list of prescriptions and how-to's delivered in their work. Behind every prescription there is supposed to be an underlying argumentation  and building up an argumentation is not an easy task. With the increasing level of education people have, they will start to challenge ideas other people presented; questioning them and criticizing them. Psychology make arguments about people as its object of study, and heaven knows how complicated men are and can be. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that we should undermine the value of common sense and intuition in dealing and judging people, but while not everyone has a good intuition, intuition in itself does not provide a complete information. That is why there is a systematic study about people as individuals called psychology.

It has been my whole point to demonstrate that I have gained a lot of benefits from my experience studying psychology and I am thankful, if not proud for that. Honestly, despite the fact that it is the only major I chose while I was applying for college and I chose it out of the blue, it turns out it is exactly as what I needed. For this I would also like to give thanks to my Lord who has led me to this path. No matter confusing the choices I have for my life ahead regarding what a psychology undergraduate can/should do, I am glad I am a psychology undergraduate.