How should non-professionals learn psychology?

How should non-professionals learn psychology

You still need to understand some psychology in life, but most people don’t know much about psychology and don’t know how to learn it. The following Psychology Network teaches you how non-professionals should learn psychology!

1. Why it is difficult to learn psychology

It is the season to learn psychology. According to the psychologist Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, when material life is satisfied, the needs of spiritual life will naturally be put on the agenda, and the needs for nature, society, and self will become increasingly urgent. The discipline of psychology focuses on human beings' own mental phenomena and their laws. In this sense, Chinese people who have entered a well-off society will naturally benefit a lot from the study and thinking of this discipline. This is the season for studying psychology.

The significance and value of studying psychology seems to go without saying. Many modern people who care about the soul also try to understand themselves, recognize others, and improve the quality of life through studying psychology. However, many people have problems. Yes: It’s not that I don’t want to learn, it’s not that I don’t want to learn, it’s that I don’t know how to learn well, and I don’t know how to study psychology.

In the current craze for learning psychology, there are often the following misunderstandings:

1. Without understanding the characteristics of the subject, extravagant expectations are entrusted to non-human beings

Everyone who believes in psychology People who are majors will usually encounter this kind of problem when communicating with strangers for the first time. Hey, psychology major, can you guess what I am thinking? At this time, some cunning majors People will use various excuses to excuse themselves, but for some more honest professionals, they will often explain with a little shame: "Psychology is not fortune telling, and we do not study what other people think as the object of research." ?

Of course, there are some shady psychology people who answer like this: "You major in psychology, right?" I'm quite curious and want to ask. First of all, I don't know and I'm not interested in what you are thinking. My classmates and I are all psychologically normal. Psychology is a science subject and mere memorization is not enough. If you are psychologically normal, please go to a professional counseling center in a university or hospital for diagnosis. Not all graduates will become psychological counselors. Can you find a boyfriend or girlfriend to follow? It doesn’t matter what you learn, the key is your face? What’s wrong with you? ?

This is a joke, and it also shows that many people’s disappointment in psychology comes from their unrealistic expectations of learning results. They think that by studying psychology, they can see through people’s hearts and point directly to human nature. It has reached the level of "The Silence of the Lambs" and at least "Lie to me". In fact, it is just a psychology person in some movies and TV shows, and it is just a fragment of the local myth of the subject. For most people, after studying psychology, they will not reach the level. to that level.

So, what exactly does the subject of psychology study? According to the standard, it studies psychological phenomena and their laws. In other words, compared to psychological content, psychology is more responsible for studying psychological processes and psychological laws. For example, psychology professionals may not be interested in what you are thinking about at this moment. They may be more interested in the situations and conditions under which you think about these things. Generally speaking, the objects of psychological research include people's thinking process, emotional process, personality characteristics, and the rules of spiritual interaction between people.

So, those who think that after studying psychology they will be able to guess what others are thinking may be disappointed. Although psychology exists wherever there are people, psychology is definitely not omnipotent.

An issue that needs to be explained here is that psychology cannot be equal to psychological counseling, although the public may be more interested in it. Yes, psychological counseling and mental health are the research objects of psychology, but psychology is by no means the only study of these contents. For example, I am interested in using experimental methods to study psychological content at the social level. This part does not involve the question of whether the psychology is abnormal, but considers more about how people with normal mentality influence each other. .

2. Self-study for the purpose of self-treatment is a misguided approach

In terms of subject characteristics, psychology is a subject at the intersection of natural sciences and humanities, and it contains a lot of content. , it has both very scientific statistical experiments, physiological brain science, etc., as well as very humanistic humanism, psychoanalysis, etc. It has both Wundt’s scientific tradition and Freud’s clinical tradition. It is difficult for a person to have a natural interest in psychology that covers all these aspects. If you teach yourself to read, it is easy to only read what you are interested in. The mastery of psychological knowledge will inevitably be biased, and you will only listen to and believe in psychology in a certain field. Knowledge.

However, if you study psychology just to solve your own problems and self-treat, it’s okay if the problem is not serious, just like it doesn’t matter if you have a cold and see some medical skills; but if your own problem is more serious, it will be fine. The state of mental disorder and mental illness. During self-study, if you happen to feel that a certain theory can explain your problem, this feeling is actually often a kind of correct answer. You will feel that what you said is really good, and the god of psychology is such a great person. The master of psychology is really awesome. Maybe you will change from understanding to believing, and from believing to worshiping. A certain theory in psychology will become your religious belief. This will be dangerous.

It’s like if you don’t have a cold now, but you have pneumonia. The theory you see is that exercise is good for your health and fights all kinds of diseases, and then you don’t take medicine and go for a run. The result can only be a delay in treatment. opportunity.

When studying psychology on your own, you must pay attention: there are many schools of psychology, and certain theories, such as Freud’s psychoanalysis, often have profound and profound implications for understanding certain aspects of human nature more deeply. And it is one-sided; and it is many psychologists like Freud who hold one-sided and profound concepts that make up the whole of psychology. It would be better if you can master some knowledge and theories in all aspects of psychology. , knowing that Freud’s views are only one of many concepts, not all of psychology, and will not be biased. However, if you only read Freud in psychology, use Freud to explain it. If everything is regarded as religious belief, it is easy to go crazy.

In addition, psychology is relatively popular in the market now. In fact, it is not that scientific psychology is popular, but that the concept of psychology is very popular. Many people use the name of psychology to make money and make profits. Many unscientific theories are also packaged as psychological science content and are popular in the market. If you do not have a basic understanding of psychology, enter this subject rashly, and seek medical treatment because of your own psychological problems, then you will The possibility of going astray does exist. Therefore, for those who are looking for solutions to their own spiritual problems, psychology may not be suitable for self-study.

3. Live according to the findings of psychology and imitate others

There are many wonderful discoveries in psychology. Will using them improve our quality of life? The answer is yes, but there are Conditional. Some young people once learned the reinforcement theory of behaviorism and thought it was very good. They used it to fall in love and chase girlfriends. What was the result? Think about it, everyone knows it. So, how to treat the findings and theories of psychology so that they will not be misused to harm others and ourselves?

Compared with some social sciences, psychology will emphasize methods more strictly than theories. , which places more emphasis on experimentation and using data to speak. Give examples: Phenomenological research pays more attention to individual experience and experience, but scientific psychology believes that examples are weak evidence and cannot prove that the concept you support is correct. For example, when people ask an old man why he lives a long life, some people answer: "Smoking, drinking, and not exercising?", then psychology will not immediately conclude that "Smoking, drinking, and not exercising" is the reason for longevity, but through investigation, if it reaches significance Most birthday people hold this view, and we will draw conclusions that support this hypothesis. Therefore, if we say "psychological research shows", it generally refers to the conclusion drawn through surveys or experiments, rather than the results obtained through case analysis. From this point of view, the credibility of psychological research is quite high.

However, we must see that since psychological findings are supported by experimental data, and experiments are conditional, in other words, the application of psychological rules must also be subject to conditional restrictions, and That is to say, certain laws only apply under certain conditions, and only under certain circumstances can certain laws exist. Therefore, if you deviate from the applicable conditions and talk about psychological laws, and abuse psychology regardless of the realistic background of life, you are playing hooligans.

In some current popular psychology books, in order to pretend to be shocking, they often talk about psychological discoveries, intentionally or unintentionally ignoring the prerequisites for the existence of laws. In this way, some readers who do not know the truth will be fooled. , thereby misusing psychology. It’s not that psychology is useless, a good doctor should also prescribe the right medicine.

4. Follow the steps from the beginning and give up halfway

When many academic people advise others to study psychology, they often list them according to the subject structure and the order of study of their own majors that year. Publish a series of book lists for people’s reference. For example, would you recommend the following book list:

"General Psychology", "Experimental Psychology", "Educational Psychology", "Physiological Psychology", "Education and Psychological Statistics"?

Indeed, these are required readings for psychology students. If you want to do some psychological research, you must learn these contents well. However, is it necessary for a person who studies psychology by himself?

We Take the popular textbook "Psychology and Life" among psychology students as an example. As a professional student, it is really a blessing to encounter such a textbook to study. The knowledge structure is comprehensive and complete, and the writing is easy to understand. . However, I personally think that from other aspects, reading such a large book is of limited help to life. If a person reads this book with the purpose of improving his or her quality of life, most of the results will be disappointing. Note that "Psychology and Life" is a textbook. It is of greatest importance for studying for exams and has little significance for application. This is like reading a textbook on "Economics". Will it help with financial management? Will reading a textbook on "Chemistry" help with cooking? The latter seems to be a little helpful.

In addition, psychology itself is an imported product. It is a discipline born and grown in Western individualistic societies. Traditional introductory psychology courses are based on the perception, memory, and knowledge of a normal adult. The focus is on understanding, and the content is mostly basic, which is far from the psychology that we Chinese people think of as focusing on interpersonal interaction. It is said that distant water cannot quench near thirst. Many people study psychology in order to better interact with people, but what they learn is basic psychological brain functions, attention, memory characteristics, etc. Therefore, many people read several books on psychology. The book expresses emotion: The psychology I am studying now is not the psychology I want?

There are only a few types of people who praise "Psychology and Life": ① They are used by other more boring textbooks I have been violently tortured, and then suddenly I saw a book that can make an impression without having to memorize it by rote; ② People who write their own textbooks and give lectures, it turns out that psychology can still be taught in this way, and you can also give such examples; ③ You have to read the designated textbooks , Stockholm; ④ The teacher said yes and I said yes too; ⑤ My major is much boring than psychology; ⑥ Personality is really special.

My life has limits, but my knowledge has no limits. There is no useless knowledge or books. The usefulness of books depends entirely on the reader's purpose and situation. When we recommend books, we tend to be self-righteous and recommend books that seem to be high-end but are actually destructive for your own good. This is similar to recommending nutrition instead of recipes to a housewife who can't cook. The public wants to see some psychology for the purpose of curiosity and entertainment, and you are narcissistic when you recommend psychology and life. Under the influence of some people in the industry, many non-professional psychology enthusiasts started studying general psychology diligently. However, after a few chapters, they shelved these textbooks and gave up halfway through learning psychology. , cherish life and stay away from psychology from now on.

2. How to learn psychology well

At this point, it seems that learning psychology is too difficult. Does it mean that we should give up before the difficulties? Of course not.

It is true that in the craze of psychology learning, due to the characteristics of the subject, there is the possibility of misunderstanding and misuse. However, psychology is not an unattainable beauty. If you understand her background and some temperament, You can still capture the heart of psychology. It’s not that psychology is bad or that psychology is useless, it’s that we haven’t used appropriate methods to learn targeted psychological knowledge.

1. Be mentally prepared

If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools. To learn psychology, especially self-taught psychology, it is necessary to adopt suitable strategies and targeted methods. Different people have different purposes for learning psychology, and the learning strategies used for different learning purposes should also be different. For students taking exams, it is the right way to follow the textbooks step by step; for patients with mental illness, it is easy to find reliable hospital doctors. Here, we are targeting ordinary people with normal physical and mental health who are interested in psychology and do not seek self-treatment for exams. They just want to understand themselves, recognize others, and improve their quality of life. How can these people learn something? Psychology?

We need to recognize some realities:

First of all, in the current psychology book market, it can be said that a hundred flowers are blooming, but the good and the bad are mixed. People often say, "Wherever there are people, there is psychology." As an interdisciplinary subject of natural science and social science, psychology involves all aspects. The books named psychology on the book market are also dazzling and dizzying. Among these books, there are both rigorous scientific research works and many unreliable chicken soup-for-the-soul publications in the name of "psychology". If there is no relevant knowledge base, reading these so-called "psychology books" on your own will not be of much benefit to your work and life. Not only will it not improve your individual happiness, you may even go astray and go astray.

Secondly, even in formal and scientific psychology publications, a considerable part is remedial psychological knowledge, that is, it focuses on how to treat mental illness and restore mental health. It may be helpful for professional psychologists or people who are troubled to read it. However, the benefits of reading such books for ordinary people are limited. There are many more normal people around you than sick people (of course, if you feel Everyone around you is sick, so you should be the one seeking medical treatment), and they don’t need your help. Moreover, if you read too many books about this kind of mental illness, it is easy to put yourself down because of the existence of "self-validation tendency". Common problems with people around you come down to psychological disorders.

At least from what I have seen, in terms of psychology learning, it is not really beneficial to open books. When it comes to learning, you must apply your limited life to the most cost-effective learning, and select appropriate content and methods in a targeted manner in order to gain something.

2. Choose appropriate content

For most people, the purpose of studying psychology is not to conduct psychological research, but to let the conclusions of psychological research inform our real life. Service, improve the quality of life and work through learning psychology. Based on this, in the face of a large amount of psychological knowledge, some contents can be temporarily ignored or not focused on. For example, in introductory psychology courses, there is basically an introduction to research methods. This part of the content is somewhat difficult and obscure, and is very important for conducting research. However, it has little to do with real life, so you can ignore it. For another example, the physiological basis of psychology and the discussion of brain science are also hot topics in psychology at present, but they are far away from reality, so you can ignore this aspect of learning for the time being.

So, where should ordinary people start to learn psychology? The author recommends the following:

First, the history of psychology.

There are many schools of psychology with a wide range of contents. Which contents are within the scope of scientific psychology, which contents are the wisdom of folk psychology, which ones are reliable, and which ones are nonsense. Reading history can make people wise. These questions are all It can be solved by studying the history of psychology. By studying the history of psychology, we can know how psychology became a science and what kind of development it has experienced. What is the status of each school in the history of psychology? What do you like? What is the status of psychological research and theory in history? Wait. Through understanding the history of psychology, you may have a better understanding of the origins of various concepts and research in psychology, as well as where you are interested in psychology, what you learn will meet your work needs, and what you learn will improve your psychological quality. .

Recommended books: Merton Hunt, "The Story of Psychology"; Keith Stanovich, "Say No to PseudoPsychology"; Roger R Hock: "40 Studies That Changed Psychology" "; Lauren Slater "The Greatest Psychological Experiment of the 20th Century"

The second is social psychology.

Some people may have questions: Does social psychology talk about social changes and the mentality of the masses in different societies? Does this have anything to do with our work? It’s really not the case. In English, social psychology The "social" in (Social Psychology) is not the "socialist" society in our daily concept. In psychology, social psychology actually talks about the psychological phenomena and laws of human interaction, involving The content is mostly about how people know themselves and others, why people like and love each other, how prejudice is formed, how people are influenced by others, etc. A more precise expression seems to be? Interpersonal interaction psychology study?.

A psychologist once said: "Psychology was unfortunately created by Westerners. As a result, Western psychology has studied too many abnormal psychology and personality behaviors." If psychology was created by the Chinese, then it must be a basic discipline emphasizing social psychology? When Chinese people study psychology, they usually discover what they like the most when they study social psychology. If people want to understand themselves and influence others, they must study social psychology. Mastering the laws will not only help to understand themselves, but also be helpful in dealing with various interpersonal interactions in life.

Recommended books: David Myers, "Social Psychology", Robert B. Cialdini, "Influence"

The third is an introduction to psychology.

If you read the history of psychology and social psychology with great enthusiasm, and psychology not only does not scare you away, but also makes you more and more interested in psychology, it means that you really like psychological science. . Therefore, let’s start with the first book for Westerners to learn psychology. It may be a bit boring, but after passing this level, you will truly enter the world of scientific psychology. It’s time to read Introduction to Psychology.

Recommended books: "Psychology and Life", "The Best Introduction to Psychology"

After reading these books, the rest of the content is not recommended. You have already established it in your mind. After understanding the basic psychology subject framework, you can now enter the free reading stage according to your interests. If you are raising children, read "Development Psychology"; if you are an official, read "Organizational Behavior"; if you are in love, read "Intimacy"?

One more thing, my Sina Weibo @ChiYukai I once opened a topic: #ReadPsychology Books, in which I recommended some psychological readings, including the characteristics of each book and the audience it is suitable for. Those who need it can search on Sina Weibo.

Welcome to the world of psychology!

3. Use multiple forms

Now that you know the key points of learning psychology, where can you find these contents?

First, books. Read the book a hundred times, and its meaning will become apparent. Self-improvement in psychology is inseparable from unrolled reading.

However, with the dazzling array of psychology books, how do non-psychology majors judge whether a psychology book is reliable or not? In fact, it is not difficult. To find a book you like, first check the publisher. Reliable publishing houses will always produce reliable books. As far as psychology books are concerned, the quality of psychology books published by several university presses is relatively high, such as Peking University, Beijing Normal University Press, Renmin University Press, East China Normal University Press, etc.; in addition, some The books in the book series are also good, such as the Thousands of Psychology series, the Zhanlu Culture series, and so on. Secondly, let’s look at the author. Although you don’t know some psychologists, if it is a book that has been painstakingly written, the author will often talk about the characteristics of the book and the difficulty of writing it in the preface and postscript. Compared with other books, the preface and postscript are not included. None, the editor is unknown, so be careful with books like this.

The second is film and television. In addition to books, there are more and more movies and TV shows about psychology, especially the existence of open courses in major universities on the Internet, which allows everyone to study around the world without leaving home. There is also some psychology content in open courses such as NetEase and Sina, and most of them come from world-famous schools. Studying psychology with them is like competing with the masters, and you will naturally benefit a lot.

The third is comrades. When three people are walking together, there must be a teacher, but when studying psychology, you must also find someone who shares the same path. Of course, it is better to have colleagues who like psychology around you, so that you can promote each other's learning. If there are few people around you who are interested in psychology, don’t be afraid. Today’s Internet is noisy and rich in resources. If you go to Weibo, WeChat, and Douban, you will quickly find people who share the same interests. Moreover, some professional science popularization websites Psychology content is also constantly being updated, such as Yipsychology, Guoke.com, etc. If you browse, you will find ideal content and suitable people.

3. Will studying psychology make me abnormal?

Additional question, what will happen if you study psychology? Will psychology people be scary? Will studying psychology help you learn about yourself? Are you also perverted?

1. Are psychologists scary?

In the minds of many people, people who engage in psychology have deep eyes and sensitive souls, no matter what you are like He will analyze the motives behind your actions, and he is a very powerful and unapproachable character. It is not surprising that the public has come to such a conclusion, because there are not many psychology professionals in our country. Many people get the image of psychology professionals from movies and television, thinking that all psychologists are like those in "Silence of the Lambs" How terrifying is a cannibalistic psychologist?

Maybe there are such psychological practitioners, but at least in real life, I have not seen such a person. In fact, due to the vastness of the research field in psychology, compared with other majors, psychology professionals will show more diverse characteristics. Some people who study human attention or memory are more likely to behave like physicists; some people who study the physiological mechanism of the brain may be more like physiologists; some people who study psychological theoretical schools may be more like physiologists. A historian; some people who study the psychological characteristics of different cultures may be more like an anthropologist? For the study of psychology, you can study it from the perspective of natural sciences or use the methods of social sciences, which is also the basis of psychology. The fascinating thing is that everyone who studies psychology, regardless of his personality and preferences, can find his own place in the field of psychological research. Perhaps no one can tell what a psychologist is like, but it is definitely not just a single image of a psychologist as shown in movies and TV shows.

2. Will studying psychology lead to perversion?

From my personal experience, among people who study psychology, it is true that perverts may be higher than the general group. . But looking into the reasons, I don't think the reason for the abnormality is due to studying psychology.

There are generally three types of people studying psychology. One type is people with professional interests who have been interested in the interaction between self and others since childhood; the other type is those who mistakenly enter the psychology camp for some reason, and they are either willing or unwilling. are studying psychology; there is another type of people who are studying psychology and have certain psychological problems themselves. The reason why they come to study psychology is to solve their psychological problems. In other words, they did not become perverted by studying psychology, but they learned psychology after becoming perverted. It is precisely because of this reason that the public feels that studying psychology has more psychological problems. In fact, there is a problem here of abnormality and who learns first and who comes last.

In addition, it should be noted that psychology is more of a science and a perspective on problems; it is not a religion. But in reality, there are also some people who are more obsessed with studying psychology and regard certain theories of psychology (especially those related to psychoanalysis) as a kind of belief rather than a kind of study and objective treatment. attitude, this is indeed prone to some problems, especially when learners have some personality defects. In short, why there are so many perverts among people who study psychology is not because they become perverted after studying psychology, but because some perverted people study psychology and use perverted methods. ;