Thread: Psychology, so many roads, so many opportunity´s

Hii people, I was wondering if someone could clear some stuff op for me. I am a 15 year old student (still at highschool) I'd love to study psycology, but i just don't know what sort i should take next e.g. There's behaviourism, forensic psycology and so many more. I really love to be able to observe and acces people, or be able to know why someone is displaying a certain kind of behaviour. I would also love to work for the cops or help people with my problems. So could someone maybe help me chose ? I don't have anyone in my school that want's to study psycology ( it's a relatively small scool) and my mentor didn't help either. So maybe someone here could help.

You're still at school. If you want to do any kind of psychology you need a good grounding in maths and science.

Learning psychology requires pretty intense attention to statistics, so you need a good maths education to back you up in these endeavours. And you don't yet know what will and won't interest you career wise, so I'd keep science going so you've got a backing if you eventually decide, 10 years from now, to go down the neuroscience path rather than the practicing psychology route. And there are another half a dozen options you might find more appealing or interesting as you learn more about the subject, so it's a good strategy now to keep all your options open for further education.

I only know books in English so I can only recommend well-known books that I think might have Dutch translations. If I were you I'd start by looking out for ...

Oliver Sacks The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and
Norman Doidge The Brain That Changes Itself

They've both been around for a while and I know Doidge's book has been translated into about 20 languages. The Sacks book has been around forever - and been used as the basis for an opera - so I'd expect it's been translated into most European languages.

I'd also recommend articles by Dan Willingham. His main focus is educational psychology (with maybe the occasional touch of developmental stuff). But he's very clear and understandable. (If you read any of his stuff, it wouldn't be a very good idea for you to tell your teachers that they're "doing it wrong" if they're using some of the techniques and approaches that he criticises very strongly.) He's probably the one you'd go to for debunking stuff like left-brained, right-brained thinking and we only use 10% of our brain and visual-aural-kinetic learning and some people don't have a brain for maths and a whole lot of other unproven, but mostly disproven, unscientific ideas about psychology in general and learning in particular.

Thank you so much! Just as you said there are alot of options and indeed i don't know what wil benefit my career yet. It was just this morning that i wondered what classes I would need for this study so thanks for clearing that up to. As of the rest, I don't have any trouble with english books, i understand most difficult words and if not I would just google them so that's oke. I'l check the library first thing tommorow for the books. I really apreciate the feedback. Do you happen to have a background in psychology ?

No. Just educational / developmental stuff mainly. Interest developed from there.

Hii, so i looked up the books you recommended and they weren´t there :'( So i got another book and a encyclopedia about psycological disorders. Can't wait to actually read them (I had a debt (A) so i couldn't borrow anything yet until paid, so i hid them i'l pick thoses babe's up tommorow) Just wanted to keep you posted ^.^

I got my books! I have been reading all day long So interresting, i might order the books you recomended me after i finished these.