Studying Psychology at the UNED: 10 reasons that can motivate you

Online training: a good or bad idea?

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of students enrolled in distance learning universities.. 

To illustrate the example, the UNED (National University of Distance Education) has gone from 126,500 students enrolled in degrees in the 2012/2013 academic year, to 150,000 in the 2016/2017 academic year, with the Degree in Psychology being the most taken degree. However, the dropout rate is very high: only 2 out of 10 enrolled will obtain the prized degree.

Among the multiple reasons that can lead to dropout, two stand out:

• Impulsivity when choosing the number of subjects, ignoring the time that should be devoted to them.The result is obvious: the failure rate is high and demotivation takes over, undermining the chances of continuing.
• Satisfying the desire to knowThere is a percentage of students who enroll for the pleasure of studying certain subjects. However, their ultimate goal is not to graduate.

Is it a good idea to study Psychology at UNED?

At this point it is worth asking, what motivates the remaining 20% to finally get the scholarship and the university degree? In this article we have proposed to offer you ten keys that can help you decide to study Psychology online (...or not).

1. Passion for the field of Psychology

Being passionate about an area of knowledge is in itself a very powerful source of motivation.. Psychology would classify this passion within intrinsic motivation since the mere fact of studying that area produces an activation of our behavior that leads us to seek learning without the need for external stimuli. Simply: the pleasure of knowing.

2. Eagerness to excel

Whoever sets out to obtain a distance career establishes a clear goal, the achievement of which may face challenges, difficulties and fears, and which will have its best and worst moments. But not only challenges are overcome, but we also carry out an overcoming at a personal level.. On this path, skills, competencies and attitudes that lead you to the goal you have set are developed and flourish, which are also strengthened by the knowledge about motivation, learning, behavior... that the study of psychology confers.

3. Personal satisfaction

We can define it as well-being, a feeling of pleasure when getting something you want or need.. Throughout the study of a career such as Psychology or any other, we must not forget that not only does it produce a pleasant satisfaction to finish it completely, but also that, by achieving short and medium term goals, you get closer to that final objective.

Doing good work, passing exams, seeing another academic year come to an end, or being able to apply and explain Psychology content in your day-to-day life, are small challenges that generate satisfaction in themselves.

4. Fostering resilience

Resilience is defined as the capacity of the human being to adapt positively to adverse situations, being able to overcome them.being able to overcome them. Studying at a distance presents benefits, but also some difficult moments such as not passing exams, being forced to adapt the usual way of studying to that of a non face-to-face teaching or having miscalculated the study time of a subject that is more difficult than expected.

Experiencing these situations may cause some discomfort, but, at the same time, it promotes reflection and the implementation of strategies to avoid or cope with them in the future. While studying Psychology, studying Albert Bandura's "Self-Efficacy Theory" helps you become much more aware of it.

5. Personal, social and professional assessment

Taking the step of studying this (or any other) career at a distance/online, why not say it, is a challenge.. You know it, your friends and family know it, and whoever will hire you in the future will take it into account. Overcoming day by day, year after academic year, brings a sense of self-efficacy, which, in your environment, is also perceived.

On the other hand, at a professional level, the fact of obtaining formal training through this modality is valued because it reflects perseverance, tenacity and responsibility, among many other skills that are highly valued in the workplace. On the other hand, the habit of study acquired by distance learning students is an essential tool for those who are considering taking competitive examinations.

6. Contact with classmates and professors

Contact is less than in a face-to-face university, however, as Psychology is one of the most popular courses in the distance learning modality, there is a great deal of collaboration with other students through official and unofficial forums, blogs and social networks to share contentIn addition, there is a great deal of collaboration with other students through official and unofficial forums, blogs and social networks to share content, notes, ideas, study methods, opinions, etc., creating a very enriching atmosphere of mutual help and understanding among classmates and professors.

On the other hand, in the case that some face-to-face or online hours are taught in streaming, these are very motivating and allow you to meet other people with whom to share the experience and support each other during the study.

7. Development of critical sense

Working individually on the contents encourages reflection on them. and, why not, the debate with fellow students in forums and autonomous research, leading us to draw conclusions that, perhaps, do not appear in the content to be studied.

On the other hand, through the so-called Continuous Assessment (modality of the Degree in Psychology of the UNED), students carry out work, which promotes reflection, allows the application of evidence and / or knowledge and verification of results in real or fictitious situations, promoting the practice and first-person experience of what has been studied.

8. Development of organizational skills and time management

Let's use a scenario: "September. You have enrolled in four subjects for the first term, each of which consists of between 10 and 16 topics. For each subject you can submit a practical work proposed by the teachers (of different modalities depending on the subject, such as the analysis of a book or a small research with 20 participants) whose delivery dates are different (usually for Christmas) and the exams are set for the last week of January and the second week of February".

In the first year, it is common not to be aware that no one but oneself can structure such a scheduleBut eventually, calendar in hand, the distance student learns to organize his or her time, taking into account factors such as the difficulty of the subject or the time devoted to assignments.

9. Commitment and perseverance

As with any long-term project, commitment and perseverance are essential values to maintain over time the action that will lead us to obtain the degree. Thus, they influence the motivation to study every day, to attend classes, to pay attention to deliveries and to finally arrive at the final evaluations with homework done. homework done.

The Degree in Psychology is structured in four academic years, time that can be extended depending on personal needs. In this case, and specifically in the UNED, there is no time limit to finish the degree, which is an advantage to be highlighted.

10. Increased curiosity

Psychology is a science that studies and analyzes the behavior and mental processes of individuals and groups in different situations, and while it explains a great variety of facts, there are also many others that have not yet been explained, such as intuition or deja vu.

This fact, linked to the passion for the field of study, autonomous work, critical sense and the possibility of debate with peers and teachers, highlights the tenth of the motivations for studying a degree in Psychology: the development of a mind hungry for knowledge, eager to explain the many phenomena that surround us.

And you, would you like to study Psychology online or at a distance?