And a new contender enters the ring…
FFS! Just when I thought I’d narrowed my study options to physics (with a focus on astrophysics or materials sciences or quantum computing) I’ve now had to add Psychology to the mix as a serious contender.
For most of my life I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and discussing how we humans tick, what goes on in our brain, yet I hadn’t really considered psychology as a viable option. I’m not sure why yet. I’m definitely going to have to consider this more, but judging by the number and strength of emotions going on right now, it’s not something I can ignore. Nooo siree!
What triggered the emotion was my realisation of the reason for my interest in the posts I’ve written recently, and for the discussions I’ve had both on and offline. Spirituality itself doesn’t interest me, but the reasons by people are or aren’t spiritual do. Beauty itself is worthy of discussion, but of more interest to me is the different interpretations people have of beauty, and why there are those differences. Ultimately, why do we believe the things we do? Why do we interpret the world in the way we do? It’s fascinating!
I’ve posted about science in general, but I haven’t posted anything about physics. Perhaps because I still have to learn about it, but well, I haven’t studied psychology and it’s still getting a lot of my attention!
So one big question remains; why, when a few of my friends are studying psychology and I’ve spoken to them about it, did I not consider it before? *scratches head*
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May 14th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Psychology? I thought you were planning on studying a real science?
Seriously though - perhaps sociology would be an interesting place to look from. You ask the question, why do people need spirituality - is that not a question of society, more than any individual?
Chris (posting a comment, as promised)
May 14th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Real science means real work. This way I’d get paid to mess with people’s heads
Cognitive neuroscience would be a good compromise…
You’re right, sociology is another option. Thanks, I needed to make the decision harder. Melbourne Uni’s new model is looking promising; generalised to begin, then specialised in the third year. I could potentially cover all my areas of interest before finding out which I really want to focus on.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Funny, the first thing I thought of when I read this was also sociology.
Something you might want to try as you figure out what the future holds. I’ve been doing this and the results are very interesting especially if you want to incorporate your feelings into your decision making process a bit more.
I sat down about six months ago and realized that the things I thought would make me content weren’t and couldn’t quite figure out why. I decided to start figuring out what direction my life should go by identifying as near as possible what a “perfect� day in my life would be. I started with a weekday, and then added what a perfect weekend would look like (and funny enough in “perfect land� they weren’t all that different…). This was a good start but just looking at a daily/weekly view wasn’t enough as it left some things out that I really love but wouldn’t necessarily want to do every day or even every single week such as get a pedicure. So I added the things that I would do to make a perfect month (theatre, a road trip or dancing), then a perfect year (traveling, visiting family, setting aside time for reflection & planning).
The whole process was very enlightening and quite different than what I would of expected! It took me awhile to figure this out because inevitably I started with what I thought would make a perfect day instead of what really makes a perfect day in my life (I say this realizing of course that perfection doesn’t exist). I’ve done three trials of an ideal day and this last one was very, very close. The cool thing is as I’ve become more aware of what I value on a daily basis my life has started gradually shifting that direction and I’d guess at this point approx. 60% of my day corresponds to my ideal day.
May 16th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
60% of a perfect day is a great achievement. Congrats!
I tried that once and ended up with as hazy a picture of what that day included as is the picture of what I want to do for a job. I could detail how I wanted to feel, but not exactly what I could do to feel that way. But I have a better idea now so it’ll be worthwhile doing it again, I think.
May 16th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
…doing it and then trialling the elements of my perfect day to see if I really do enjoy them.
May 16th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychology
“Cognitive psychologists are interested in how people understand, diagnose, and solve problems, concerning themselves with the mental processes which mediate between stimulus and response.”
Sounds about right to me
May 16th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
LOL, cognitive psychology/neuroscience it is…:)
May 18th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Clarification:
I should have mentioned this but didn’t. When figuring out an ideal day/wk/month, etc. I wasn’t looking to feel “happy” or “contentâ€? all of the time. I was looking for a life that was challenging, kept me interested, and allowed me to do the things that I am good at in an area that interested me.
I don’t mind being unsure, frustrated, annoyed and so on as long as it comes with flashes of realization, joy, understanding, competency and (if talking work) again and most important I am interested in the subject. I also wanted to make sure I took time to do the things that are meaningful to me (and my relationships) but are easy to neglect in the crush of life.