8 great myths about psychology students.

Phrases, beliefs and clichés that all students have had to endure at one time or another.

Psychology is one of the most popular careers in a large number of countries. At the same time, what is done within the faculties dedicated to its study is confusing enough that a number of myths have arisen about psychology students. a number of myths about the students of this career..

Myths about the interests of these people, crazy hypotheses about their abilities, stereotypes turned into caricatures? ideas that, in short, have only served to envelop psychology with an aura of obscurantism that offers a profoundly distorted vision of psychology. that offers a deeply distorted vision of the objectives and methods of this discipline.

Typical Myths about Psychologists and Psychology Students

Here are some of these myths and the reasons why they are not true.

1. They want to become your best friend.

Nothing could be more unfortunate than to think oneself smart or interesting enough to push every psychology student in the place to be our friend, as if they feel the urge to enrich their life by coming in contact with our fascinating, fascinating way of living life.

It's not like that, and they are not likely to like you very much if you insist too much on initiating impostor dialogues with them..

2. They are a kind of spiritual counselor.

A common misconception is that psychologists and psychology students are trained to tell people how to live their lives in the best possible way. Nothing could be further from the truth.

First of all, it is impossible to create a set of very precise rules of behavior that are applicable to everyone and that, at the same time, base their validity on the scientific method, which is used to study generalities. That is why their job is not to give a firm answer when, after fifteen minutes of talking to them about the course of our relationship, the monologue ends with: "So... should I break up with her? should I break up with her?

3. They end up transforming themselves into a bald man with glasses and a gray beard.

A lot of graphic depictions of what psychologists look like characterize them as middle-aged men with round glasses, beards (or mustaches and goatees) and an old-fashioned wardrobe, as if by graduating in psychology students metamorphose into a cloned version of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

However, there is one fact that serves to totally refute this stereotype: psychology is currently a career that is mostly pursued by women..

4. The classic: they will read your mind

This is wrong in many ways.

The first is that, evidently, no one can read anyone's mind.. Currently, the scientific landscape sees as a revolution the creation of machines and software capable of transforming a pattern of electrical activity of the brain into a collage of images that looks a little like the situation that the person being observed is imagining, something that has required years of work and a lot of money. None of this would make any sense if psychology students were even remotely capable of reading what you are thinking.

The second reason is that you can't read minds by analyzing nonverbal language either. One can estimate the likelihood of being nervous, relaxed or slightly upset by observing microexpressions, but little else. This does not allow one to know in detail what one is thinking, nor the motive behind these emotional states.

The third of these has to do with what was said above. Even if they could read your mind, this would require a minimum of effort, and most likely they would not have enough incentive to be interested in what you think with some frequency..

5. They are very interested in the problems of the people around them.

Psychology students need not be particularly self-sacrificing or supportive, especially if we consider that a psychology student has a very high level of interest in the problems of the people around him or her.Especially when you consider that a good number of them do not even plan to go into psychotherapy.

Moreover, some are interested in psychology in order to obtain impersonal and scientific knowledge about the functioning of mental processes in human beings in general.

6. They study psychology to understand their mental disorders.

It is possible that some do, but there is certainly no law of cause and effect that dictates that this must be so. Mental disorders are just one of the many things you study during your degree.

Moreover, it is possible that some of them have started to study this career simply to understand why some people study psychology, or why some people are left-handed and others are right-handed.

7. They would like to put electrodes in your head "to see something".

Of course, the use of techniques to record patterns of electrical activity in the brain is one of the most interesting aspects of psychology, but that doesn't have to turn psychology students into people whose eccentric interests end up scaring away their friends.

In addition, psychology is a field of study, psychology is a very broad field of study, and not all psychologists end upNot all psychologists end up being interested in research in laboratories or in clinics where the nervous system is studied directly. Many psychology students prefer to base their activity on the study of behavior, and not so much on the observation of the functioning of neurons.

8. They see phallic symbolism everywhere.

This is not valid even in the case of people who study psychoanalysis, which differs from what they do in the study of behavior, and not so much in the observation of the functioning of neurons.which is different from what is nowadays considered psychology.

Of course, it is possible that some of them do, but not because of what they are studying, but simply because post-adolescence is taking its toll on them.