Ag majors are hillbillies and education majors play with finger paints all day. Business majors are money sharks and English majors are grammar Nazis. Just like everyone else, those who major in psychology have an entire set of their own misconceptions. Whether or not it's fair is a completely different argument. When explaining to someone that I am majoring in psychology, I am usually met with a barrage of questions and some funny comments.
"You wanna' counsel me sometime?"
"Are you reading my mind right this second?"
"You don't really look like a psychology major."
That last one is probably true. I sometimes look a little funny walking into my Experimental Psychology lab wearing Twisted X Bombers and a baseball cap. But regardless, psychology majors are not all destined to wear earth toned sweaters and ask you about your childhood (I mean we might, but not as undergrads). I have compiled a list of the most common misconceptions about psych majors and why those misconceptions make us laugh our heads off every.single.time.
1. We have it easy.
Psych majors read. A lot. We also write just as much. Our course load is not a bunch of hypothetical "how do you feel?" scenarios. It's actually complicated and thought-provoking. We spend a lot of time reading (and rereading) journal articles and theories to prepare for all the annotated bibs and research papers we have to write.
2. We are psychoanalyzing you at all times.
I have no idea what your childhood was like just by watching you eat a salad. I'm actually too enveloped in my burger to pay attention to your subconscious tendencies.
3. We are qualified to counsel people before/during/after we graduate.
Everyone thinks we are ready to solve problems the minute we declare our intentions to be in the psychology program. If only it were that easy. You actually have to have a couple degrees and a license to even think about stepping foot into a clinic.
4. Psychology is just a default for people who don't know what they want to major in.
That's communication majors.
I'm KIDDING.
5. We all want to be psychologists.
There are plenty of avenues you can take after you major in psychology. A lot of them don't lead to counseling or research. Many people major in psych so that they have an upper hand in areas like advertising and marketing.
6. We have zero problems of our own when it comes to people and relationships.
Navigating this so-called thing called life is not a breeze for anyone- psych majors included. We may study people, but we are not the masters of behavior.
7. We can manipulate you with mind tricks.
I saw an episode of the Big Bang Theory where Sheldon used Operant Conditioning to manipulate Penny into good behavior. That's pretty much the only mind trick I've learned thus far.
