Blog 4: Cali Ruth Hays

In recent years, psychology has become one of the top or most popular major among any campus. It is often perceived as an "easy" major that ultimately will not benefit you in the long run. Or people believe that the only path psychology leads to is being a psychologist or some type of therapist. However, these perceptions are all wrong. The Psychology Major's Companion lists all of the skills and benefits of getting an undergraduate degree in psychology. Some examples of this are: recognizing and fostering diversity, taking a creative and skeptical approach to problem solving, communicating effectively, and applying psychological principles to numerous different areas in our everyday lives. Nicky Hayes, who has a PhD in Psychology, lists several skills obtained from majoring in psychology. A few of them include: trained to write in more than one literacy format, highly numerate, computer literate, environment awareness, research skills, etc.  Psychology basically prepares us for the real world and real world problems. But, in order to be prepared for the real world, it is essential to start preparing now. As college students, we should put in max effort into everything we do and take school seriously. We are becoming adults now and it is the time to start acting like it. One point Dunn and Halonen make that caught my attention was about not spending too much time on how you did on a test. Yes, tests are important and we should strive to do well on them but our generation is so focused on the score we get rather than the actual material. Once we receive a grade, there should be a time limit on how much we celebrate, mope around, or stress about it. It is more important to review the test and see what we missed, reflect on how we studied, and see what we can do differently to improve ourselves. Students worry way too much about what grades they get on things rather than actually learning and remembering the information. That's why I hate standardized tests so much. A test score does not define who we are, how smart we are, or our capabilities. Our society is leaning more and more towards scores to determine your future rather than more important things. In Rethinking the SAT: The Future of Standardized Testing in University Admissions, by Rebecca Zwick, it talks about how the SAT does not measure our level of academics, but rather, the score we get has become an exaggerated importance in the public eye. There is argument that it serves as an aptitude test, but not ENOUGH of an aptitude test and I completely agree. Chapter 6 of The Psychology Major's Companion talks about how to navigate through the psychology major and different steps to take in order to succeed. There are so many questions to ask yourself and it can be overwhelming. One thing that I thought was important is where they talked about different stages of the major. Each stage serves as a crucial learning experience where we develop the skills and tools we need to be the best psychology major we can be. 

Dunn S. Dana, Halonen, S. Jane. The Psychology Major's Companion. 2017. New York, NY. Worth Publishers. 

Hayes, Nick. European Psychologist. 1996. Hogrefe and Huber Publishers. Retrieved from http://wagner.edu/psychology/skills/

Zwick, Rebecca. Rethinking the SAT: The Future of Standardized Testing in University Admissions. 2004. New York, NY. RoutledgeFalmer. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=7QhG8g-y22wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false