<p>Can anyone give me a solid description of these majors? What to expect, what kinds of things should people have an interest in to follow these majors? etc. I'm planning on double majoring in business and one of these at Berkeley and I have an interest in all of them but obviously I have to choose one of them.
Help me!</p>
<p>I have a BA in psychology. Most schools make you take a variety of "intro"courses to all of the subcategories; e.g., social psychology, clinical psychology, counseling, development (adult and/or childhood), cognitive, etc. Depending on how large the program is, you might be able to go a little in-depth with one of those areas by taking another course or two in them, but most of your knowledge will come from research papers or being involved in research projects. </p>
<p>Research methods and statistics are an important component all programs should have, so you should at least be able to tolerate math and have some critical thinking capabilities. Some students find these courses to be very boring and slow, while others (like me) find them very interesting. I love to analyze data and question everything, so I liked learning how to detect reliability and validity, etc.</p>
<p>Some programs are more biology-based and may require extra cognitive (neuroscience) psychology courses and other biology courses. </p>
<p>Ultimately the BA or BS in psychology doesn’t really teach you to do anything in particular upon graduation. You can’t go out and become a counselor or clinician or a researcher without additional training and degrees. Some bachelors students get jobs where they are called counselors, but they’re ultimately the blind leading the blind, and the company has to invest in a great deal of training. Human nature is too complex to learn, and diagnose, and treat in just a few years of undergrad.</p>
<p>However, I did learn a lot of useful information, such as the statistical analysis and research methods component so I can problem-solve effectively. I am able to pull together converging evidence and draw my own conclusions. I am sensitive to body language and what people do (and don’t) say in certain situations. I can predict reactions to certain events, and catch myself when I fall victim to stereotypical thinking. These might not seem important, but they are critical components to business as well. You’ve got to be a people person, you’ve got to be able to analyze data, and you’ve got to be able to predict outcomes and realize your own prejudices. </p>
<p>I’m getting pretty tired, so I hope what I said makes sense. You can ask me more questions if you’d like clarification. Personally, I would choose psychology over sociology, but I don’t know much about anthropology curriculums.</p>
<p>How hard was the bio portion of psychology? I’m a bit worried about the competition in those courses because of all the pre-med students and their competition at Berkeley.</p>
<p>Cognitive Neuroscience was a little tough for me because it’s mostly memorization and I prefer critical thinking courses. You learn the basics about the neurons, the parts of the brain and their functions, then you learn about various topics such as sleeping, memory, and neurological disorders. It’s pretty dry in the beginning until you have the anatomy down, and then it gets interesting. You do have to study quite a bit to remember everything, but I wouldn’t say it’s terrible. I was never a fan of anatomy, but there’s certainly a lot more to the course than that.</p>
<p>It depends on the teacher you have and how good or tough they are. I actually had to take the course twice - first at a college where it was called “Psychology as a Natural Science,” which was ultimately neuroscience. When I transferred to a new college the new school didn’t recognize the title as neuroscience, so I had to retake the course to fill the cognitive requirement (titled “Cognitive Neuroscience” at the new school). </p>
<p>I had a terrible, dry professor for the first one, and I hated it and had a tough time. For the second one I had a more upbeat, passionate, creative professor. Sure, I was going over the same material so that may be why it was easier the second time around, but I can’t say I remembered anything from the first course and I will credit the second professor with my higher grades. She had us sculpt clay structures of the brain and play games…it seems silly, but I am a very visual and hands-on learner, so this made it much easier to remember than just reading it in the book. </p>
<p>You’ll also come across some of these neuroscience topics in clinical psychology courses, because you’ll learn how some medications affect the brain. My gender identity course looked at some biological differences between girls and boys. My developmental courses looked at some biological changes as we age, but most of these courses only touched on it briefly and were not as challenging as an actual neuroscience course. </p>
<p>Overall, it is do-able as long as you take the necessary time to study. The students weren’t particularly competitive in my class (that I’m aware of), but don’t let other students affect you; you’re there for yourself, and you will learn and think and act how you want in order to reach your goals. They should worry about their own goals, not how you or anyone else is doing.</p>