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MARCH 2004

So You Want To Be A Psychology Major
by Sarah N. Lynch

Although she always had a strong interest in psychology, it was not until college that Lisa Son really began to explore the research side of psychology.

Son, who works as an assistant professor of psychology at Barnard College, now specializes in learning and memory, or more specifically–metacognition–a field that's really starting to grow.

"I was always interested in psychology," Son said. "I was interested in more abnormal psychology, which is what a lot of people think of psychology as–they think of the clinical side–but when I got into college, I started working in an animal lab. As I was working there, I became interested in the experimental questions of psychology."  Son describes her field of metacognition as "the study of how people know what they know," or "thinking about thinking. This includes things about studying strategies, monitoring learning, and how children know what strategies to use when they're studying for a particular test," Son said.

But a psychology major who is still new to the field cannot study such a narrow, focused field as metacognition without first learning the basics. "In terms of requirements, at most schools you start with an introductory psychology course and this really goes through all different topic areas of psychology," Son said.

Some of the topics that students will begin to learn about in an introductory psychology course include neurology, perception, social psychology, abnormal psychology, learning, memory, personality and clinical psychology. After a student gets a sampling of these areas, then he or she can pursue a topic of choice.

Students will generally get the chance to study an area of psychology not only through lecture courses, but also by conducting experiments of their own. Son said that lab courses are really the best way to apply theory.

"That's where you gain the most experience and [you learn] what it means to be an empirical researcher," Son said. "You also learn to write up lab reports because later, if you're really going to be a psychologist, you have to publish." But not all psychology majors are interested in research or clinical practice. Marcela Vallarino, a senior and psychology and French double major at Barnard College, hopes to pursue organizational psychology upon her graduation in May.

"I took an organization psych class in Barnard and that teaches you about behavior in companies," Vallarino said. "You understand decision-making, you understand how to motivate people and you learn how to work in a group environment." Vallarino said organizational psychology is appealing to her because it allows the individual to deal closely with people while still working in a corporate setting.

"I don't totally identify with money or economics, but I'm not the total opposite of that either, so I feel this [organizational psychology] is in-between," Vallarino said. "You're in a company and you're dealing with people–You get to see the human side of everyone."

According to Son, a student graduating with a degree in psychology has a lot of possible career options. These can include anything from research, counseling, and social work to marketing, law and finance. "Psychology is such a broad field that just being able to learn about it, and having a background and becoming an expert  in this area gives you a lot of different options," Son said. But Vallarino said that majoring in psychology is also good because it provides knowledge that is useful in the everyday world. "If you learn psychology, you can understand people," she said.#

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Education Update, Inc.
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