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Ask Doctor Bob Questions about psychology Week of September 15, 2003 With the first quiz coming, I thought I'd answer some questions about tests and studying. Q. Is this class going to be HARD? Is there a lot of work to do? How long do you think assignments will take us to do? Q. Will I learn skills in this class I can use outside of class? A. While I don't think of Introduction to Psychology as HARD (at least, not harder than it should be), too many students make the mistake that it's EASY. Lots of people seem to think that if a course doesn't involve math, then it's easy. As an introductory social science course, Introduction to Psychology tries to teach how social scientists do their work. If you're successful in this course, you will learn a new way to think about the world. Since people resist changing their beliefs about the world, this is not likely to be easy. But, you will learn a new way to weigh evidence, and to think about how things work. You should also learn the basics about why people act as they do, which will give you helpful tools in interacting with other people. As for the amount of work, I expect you should do the same as any other college course: whether I give an explicit assignment or not, you are expected to spend about three hours of time each day for every hour you spend in the classroom. That means that psychology, like most other courses, should take about three hours a week in the classroom, and nine hours a week of reading and studying.
Q. How common is it for someone to take psychology as a major
and completely follow through with it as an occupation? A. I can't answer this question directly, and I doubt anybody can without a lot of work. I'll bet your real question is a slightly different one: how hard is it to get an advanced degree in psychology? The answer is, it's very hard, but I don't think it's any harder than any other program that requires an advanced degree. (See, that's thinking like a social scientist: what's your comparison?) It sounds like an awful lot of work when you're just starting out, but you do it in stages. First, get your associates degree at Morrisville State, and then we'll see what happens.
Q. Why do exams stress the mind? A. Because we feel they are important. The more importance we
place on a test, the more our internal "fight or flight" response
(arousal) is activated. Arousal pressures us to make fast, easy responses,
so we can escape and be safe, and makes it harder to think and act carefully.
Since taking a test requires careful thinking, arousal works against us
and lowers our score. That's one reason why it's important to try to relax
when taking a test. Q. Why do students lose focus when they're studying? A. There are many reasons. According to the work of Csikzentmihalyi
(don't try to memorize that name), we only become totally absorbed in
a task when it is a perfect match for our skills. If the task is perceived
as too easy or too hard, we are unhappy and distractible. Odds are most
students find the work too hard, therefore they cannot become totally
immersed in it.
Q. How does an IQ test relate to psychology? A. IQ tests measure how well you can do the sorts of things you
need to get good grades in school. Getting good grades in school is related
to other things that are important to our society, like getting into college,
and doing well at high performance jobs. Some people claim that these
skills either are intelligence, or are closely related to intelligence.
Others argue that these skills are only part of intelligence, and we should
adopt a broader definition. Cognitive psychologists are interested in
problem-solving skills, and intelligence certainly is related to that,
no matter how you measure it. Submit your own question: email me at dushayr@morrisville.edu See earlier "Ask Dr. Bob" pages:
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