You still need to know something about psychology in your life, but most people don't know much about psychology and don't know how to learn it. The following psychological network teaches you how non-professionals should study psychology!

First, why can't you learn psychology well?

Learning psychology is at the right time. According to psychologist Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, when the material life is satisfied, the demand for spiritual life will naturally be put on the agenda, and the demand for nature, society and self will become more and more urgent. However, psychology focuses on human psychological phenomena and their laws. In this sense, China people who step into a well-off society will naturally benefit a lot from the study and thinking of this subject. This is a season to learn psychology.

The significance and value of learning psychology seems needless to say. Many modern people who care about the soul also try to learn about themselves, others and improve their quality of life by studying psychology. But the problem of many people is that they don't want to learn, but they don't know how to learn psychology well.

In the current upsurge of learning psychology, there are often the following misunderstandings:

1. Don't understand the characteristics of the subject, expect too much, and ask for inhumanity.

Every psychology major will encounter such problems in the first communication with strangers. Hey, psychology student, can you guess what I'm thinking? At this time, some cunning professionals will prevaricate with various excuses, while some honest professionals will often explain with a little shame: psychology is not fortune telling. We don't study what others think. ?

Of course, there are also black-bellied psychologists who answer like this:? You study psychology, don't you? I am curious. First of all, I don't know what you are thinking, and I'm not interested. My classmates and I are both mentally normal. Psychology is a science. It's no good to recite. Please go to the professional consultation center of a university or hospital for diagnosis. Not all of you are counselors after graduation. Whether you can find a boyfriend or girlfriend has nothing to do with what you study. The key is your face. What do you want to ask? It's nothing. ?

This is a joke, which also shows that many people's disappointment with psychology comes from their unrealistic learning results. They think that by studying psychology, they can see through people's hearts and point directly at human nature, and they can reach the level of being a silent lamb or at least lying to me. In fact, they are just psychologists in some movies and TV series, just fragments of local myths in their disciplines. For most people, studying psychology can't reach that level.

So, what does psychology study? According to the standard, it takes psychological phenomena and their laws as the research object. In other words, psychology is more devoted to the study of psychological processes and psychological laws than psychological content. For example, psychological professionals may not study what you are thinking at the moment, but they are more interested in what kind of situation and conditions you will think about these contents. Generally speaking, the objects of psychological research include people's thinking process, emotional process, personality characteristics and the law of spiritual interaction between people.

Therefore, those who think that learning psychology can guess other people's thoughts may be disappointed. Although there is psychology where there are people, it is definitely not omnipotent.

One problem that needs to be explained here is that psychology cannot be equated with psychological consultation, although the public may be more interested in it. Yes, psychological counseling and mental health are the research objects of psychology, but psychology is more than that. For example, I am personally interested in using experimental methods to study the psychological content at the social level. This part does not involve the question of whether the psychology is abnormal, but how people with normal mentality communicate.

2. Self-study for the purpose of self-treatment and go astray.

As far as the subject characteristics are concerned, psychology is the intersection of natural science and humanities, including statistical experiments and physiological brain science, humanism and psychoanalysis, etc. It has both Feng Te's scientific tradition and Freud's clinical tradition. As far as a person is concerned, it is difficult to incorporate these aspects into his natural interest in psychology. If he reads by himself, it is easy to read only what he is interested in.

However, if you study psychology only to solve your own problems and treat yourself, the problems are not very good, just like it doesn't matter if you have a cold. But if your own problems are serious, and you are in a state of insanity and mental illness, if you accidentally feel that a theory can explain your problems in self-study, what kind is it? Think? In fact, it is often a right place, and you will feel that it is really good to say it. Psychology is the true god and a master of psychology. Perhaps, from understanding to believing, from believing to worshiping, a certain theory of psychology has become your religious belief, which is dangerous.

It's like you have pneumonia instead of a cold, but the theory you see is that exercise is good for health and fights all diseases, and then you run without taking medicine, which can only delay the treatment opportunity.

We must pay attention to the fact that there are many schools of psychology, and some theories, such as Freud's psychoanalysis, often have profound and one-sided characteristics in order to understand some aspects of human nature more deeply; It is many Freudian psychologists who hold one-sided and profound views that constitute the whole psychology. If you can master some knowledge and theories in all aspects of psychology and know that Freud's view is just one of many views, not the whole of psychology, there will be no problem and no prejudice. However, if you only look at Freud in psychology and use Freud to explain everything, then as a religious belief, you will be easily possessed.

In addition, psychology is hot in the market now. In fact, it is not scientific psychology, but the concept of psychology is very hot. Many people make profits in the name of psychology. Many unscientific theories are also packaged as the contents of psychological science, which is very popular in the market. If you don't have a basic understanding of psychology and rush into this discipline to go to the hospital because of your psychological problems, then you may go astray. So psychology is not necessarily suitable for self-study for those who seek a way out for their mental problems.

3. Discover life according to psychology and learn from others.

There are many wonderful discoveries in psychology. Will using it improve our quality of life? The answer is yes, but there are conditions. Some young people have learned the reinforcement theory of behaviorism, which is very good and convenient for falling in love and chasing girlfriends. What was the result? Think about it, everyone knows. Then, how to treat those findings and theories of psychology so as not to misuse them to harm others and themselves?

Compared with some social sciences, psychological society emphasizes methods more strictly, and will emphasize experiments more, and speak with data instead of theory. For example, phenomenological research pays more attention to individual experience and experience, while scientific psychology thinks that examples are weak evidence, which does not mean that the views you support are correct. For example, when people ask a person why he lives long, some people answer yes. Smoking, drinking and not exercising? Then the Psychological Society won't come right away? Smoking, drinking and not exercising? This is the reason for longevity, but through investigation, if most birthday girls hold this view, we will come to a conclusion that supports this hypothesis. So, what if Psychological research shows that? Generally, it refers to the conclusion drawn through investigation or experiment, not the result drawn through case analysis. From this point of view, the credibility of psychological research is still quite high.

However, we must see that since the discovery of psychology is supported by experimental data and the experiment is conditional, the application of psychological laws must be conditional, that is to say, some laws can only be applied under certain conditions, and only under certain circumstances can there be such laws. Therefore, if we deviate from the applicable conditions, stress psychological laws, ignore the real background of life and abuse psychology, it is hooliganism.

At present, in some popular psychological reading materials, psychological findings are often talked about in order to put on airs and make amazing words, and the preconditions for the existence of laws are ignored intentionally or unintentionally. This will make some readers who don't know the truth fall for it and misuse psychology. Not that psychology is useless, but a good doctor who helps the world should also prescribe the right medicine.

Follow the trend from the beginning and give up halfway.

Many academic people often list a series of books for reference according to the discipline structure and the learning order of their own majors when suggesting others to study psychology. For example, the following book list is recommended:

General psychology, experimental psychology, educational psychology, physiological psychology, pedagogy and psychostatistics?

Indeed, these are all required books for students majoring in psychology. If you want to do some psychological research, you must learn these contents well. However, is it necessary for a person to study psychology by himself?

Take the textbook Psychology and Life, which is widely sought after by psychology students. As a professional student, it is a blessing to meet such teaching materials to study. The knowledge structure is comprehensive and complete, and the writing is easy to understand. However, personally, from other aspects, reading such a voluminous work is of limited help to life. If the purpose of reading this book is to improve the quality of one's life, most of the results will be disappointing. Note that "Psychology and Life" is a teaching material, and learning and examination play the greatest role, but it is of little practical significance. It's like reading an economics textbook. Is it helpful for financial management? Is reading a chemistry textbook helpful for cooking? Oh, the latter seems a little helpful.

In addition, psychology itself is an exotic product, and it is a discipline that was born and grew up in the western individualistic society. In the traditional introductory psychology course, a normal adult's perception, memory and understanding are the key points, and most of them are basic contents, which is far from the psychology that pays attention to interpersonal communication in the eyes of Chinese people. As the saying goes, you can't hydrolyze your thirst far away. Many people study psychology for better interpersonal communication, but they study the brain function, attention and memory characteristics of basic psychology. So many people read several books on psychology and expressed their feelings. The psychology I am studying now is not the psychology I want, is it?

There are only a few people who praise psychology and life: ① being abused by other boring textbooks, and then suddenly seeing a book that can impress people without rote learning; (2) People who write their own textbooks and give lectures can also say this in psychology, and they can also give such examples; (3) Designated textbooks must be read, Stockholm; 4 the teacher said yes, I said yes; My major is much more boring than psychology; 6. The personality is really special.

I was born without a limit, and I know there is no limit. There are no useless knowledge and books. The usefulness of a book depends on the reader's purpose and situation. When we recommend books, we tend to be self-righteous, thinking that for your own good purpose, we recommend books that look tall and boring, similar to a housewife who can't cook. What you recommend is not recipes but nutrition. People want to see psychology for the purpose of curiosity and entertainment. You recommend psychology and life as narcissism. Under the influence of some insiders, many non-professional psychology lovers began to study hard from general psychology. But in a few chapters, they put these textbooks on the shelf, learned half of psychology, and came back in frustration on impulse, cherishing life and staying away from psychology.

Second, how to learn psychology well

At this point, it seems too difficult to learn psychology. Do we have to give in? Of course not.

It is true that in the upsurge of psychology learning, there is the possibility of misreading and misuse due to the characteristics of the subject. However, psychology is not unattainable beauty. If we know her background and some temper, we can still grasp the heart of psychology. It's not that psychology is bad or useless, but that we didn't learn targeted psychological knowledge in the right way.

1. Be mentally prepared

Sharp tools can do a good job. If you want to learn psychology, especially self-study psychology, you must adopt appropriate strategies and targeted methods. Different people will have different purposes in learning psychology, and the learning strategies adopted for different learning purposes should also be different. It is the right way for students to take exams step by step according to the teaching materials; It is a smooth road for mental patients to find reliable hospital doctors. Here are ordinary people with normal body and mind, people who are interested in psychology, not for exams and self-treatment, just want to know themselves, know others and improve their quality of life. How do these people learn psychology?

Recognize some realities:

First of all, the current psychology book market can be said to be full of flowers, but the good and the bad are mixed. People often say that where there are people, there is psychology? Psychology, as an interdisciplinary subject between natural science and social science, involves all aspects, and the books in the name of psychology in the book market are dazzling. In these books, there are not only rigorous scientific research works, but also many based on? Psychology? The famous chicken soup for the soul is not a reliable publication. If you don't have the relevant knowledge base, look at these so-called by yourself? Psychology books? Nature is of little benefit to work and life. Not only can it not improve individual happiness, but it may also? Go astray? .

Secondly, even in the psychological publications of formal science, there is a considerable part of remedial psychology knowledge, that is, how to treat mental diseases and restore mental health. Professional psychologists, or troubled people, may be helpful to read, but for ordinary people, the benefits of reading such books are limited. There are more normal people around you than sick people (of course, if you think everyone around you is sick, it should be you), and they don't need your help; And there are many books about this kind of mental illness. It's easy because? Self-confirmation tendency? The existence of common diseases of oneself and the people around you is attributed to psychological barriers.

At least in my opinion, there is really no benefit in learning psychology by opening books. If you study, you must spend your limited life on the most cost-effective study, and choose the appropriate content and methods in a targeted manner in order to gain something.

Choose the right content

For most people, the purpose of learning psychology is not to carry out psychological research, but to make psychological research conclusions serve our real life and improve the quality of life and work through learning psychology. Based on this, in the face of a lot of psychological knowledge, some contents can be temporarily ignored or not focused on. For example, the course of introduction to psychology basically introduces research methods. This part is a bit difficult and obscure, which is very important for research. But it has little to do with real life and can be abandoned. 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 from reality, and we can also ignore this aspect for the time being.

So, where do ordinary people study psychology? The author suggests the following:

The first is the history of psychology.

There are many schools of psychology, including the category of scientific psychology, the wisdom of folk psychology, and the reliability. What nonsense reading history makes people wise? These problems can be solved by studying the history of psychology. By studying the history of psychology, we can know how psychology became a science, what kind of development it experienced, what position each school has in the history of psychology, and what position your favorite psychological research and theory have in history. Wait a minute. Through the understanding of the history of psychology, you may be more aware of the sources of various ideas and research in psychology, as well as where your interest in psychology lies and what you have learned, which will meet your work needs and improve your psychological quality.

Recommended bibliography: Merton? Hunter's The Story of Psychology; Keith. Yanu's Say No to Pseudopsychology; Roger R Hawke: 40 studies on the psychology of change; Lauren Slater, the greatest psychological experiment of the 20th century.

The second is social psychology.

Some people may wonder: does social psychology want to talk about social changes and the mentality of people in different societies? Does this have anything to do with our work? Not really, social psychology of English? Society? (social), not in our daily concept? Socialism? In that society, in psychology, social psychology actually talks about the psychological phenomena and laws of interpersonal communication, involving how people know themselves and others, why people like and love each other, how prejudice is formed, how people are influenced by others and so on. Interpersonal interaction psychology? .

A psychologist once said: Unfortunately, psychology was founded by westerners. As a result, western psychology has studied too much abnormal psychology and personality behavior. If psychology was founded by China people, it must be a basic discipline that emphasizes social psychology? . China studied psychology, usually social psychology, before he found what he liked. If people want to understand themselves and influence others, social psychology must study hard and master the rules, which will not only help them understand themselves, but also help them deal with all kinds of interpersonal communication in life.

Recommended bibliography: David? Miles' social psychology, Robert? b？ Siodini's influence

The third is an introduction to psychology.

If you read the history of psychology and social psychology, psychology doesn't scare you away. On the contrary, your interest in psychology is getting stronger and stronger, which shows that you really like psychological science. Therefore, it is necessary to start with the first book of western psychology. This book may be a bit boring, but in the past, you did step into the world of scientific psychology. It's time to read an introduction to psychology.

Recommended bibliography: psychology and life, the best introduction to psychology

After reading these books, the rest are not recommended. You have established a basic framework of psychology in your mind, and now you can enter the stage of free reading according to your own interests. For children, read developmental psychology; If you are an official, read organizational behavior; Love, read intimacy?

By the way, my Sina Weibo @ Chi Yukai once had a topic: # Reading psychological books #, which recommended some psychological books, including the characteristics of each book and its adaptation to the crowd. If necessary, you can go to Sina Weibo to search.

Welcome to the world of psychology!

3. Take various forms

Knowing the contents and key points of learning psychology, where can I find these contents?

One is books. Reading a book a hundred times is self-evident, and psychological self-improvement cannot be separated from reading. However, for a wide variety of psychology books, how can non-psychology majors judge whether a psychology book is reliable? In fact, it is not difficult. To find your favorite book, you must first look at the publishing house. Reliable publishers always publish reliable books. As far as psychological books are concerned, the quality of psychological books published by several university publishers is relatively guaranteed, such as Peking University, Beijing Normal University Press, Renmin University Press, East China Normal University Press and so on. In addition, some books have been published very well, such as Thousand Talents Series and Zhan Lu Culture Series. Second, look at the author. Although you don't know some psychologists, if it is a painstaking work, the author will often explain the characteristics of this book and the hardships of writing in the preface and postscript; Compared with other books, there is no preface and postscript, and the editor is unknown. Such books should be cautious.

The second is film and television. In addition to books, there are more and more movies and videos about psychology, especially the existence of open classes in major universities on the Internet, which allows everyone to travel around the world without leaving home. In Netease, Sina and other open classes, there are also some psychological contents, and most of them come from world famous schools. Learning psychology from them is equivalent to playing tricks with experts, which naturally benefits a lot.

Third, comrades. In a threesome, there must be a teacher, but you should also find a kindred spirit when you study psychology. Of course, it is better to have colleagues who like psychology around, and they can promote each other's learning. If there are few people around who are interested in psychology, they are not afraid. Now the internet is full of people and rich in resources. Go to Weibo, WeChat and Douban, and you will soon find like-minded people. Moreover, some professional popular science websites are constantly updating the contents of psychology, such as "One Mind" and "Shell Network". After browsing, you will find the ideal content and the desirable person.

Third, learning psychology will not be abnormal.

Additional questions, how about studying psychology? Will a psychiatrist be terrible? Won't you go to the psychological society until you finally become a pervert?

1. Is the psychiatrist terrible?

In many people's minds, people who engage in psychology are far-sighted and sensitive. No matter what kind of performance you have, he will analyze the motivation behind your behavior, and he is a very interesting and inaccessible role. It is not surprising for the public to come to such a conclusion, because there are not many psychological professionals in our country. Many people get the image of psychological professionals from movies and TV, thinking that psychologists are as terrible as cannibal psychologists in The Silence of the Lambs?

There may be such psychological practitioners, but at least in real life, I have never seen such people. In fact, because of the vastness of psychology research field, people in psychology industry will show more changeable characteristics compared with other majors. Some people study human attention or memory, so they are more likely to behave like physicists; Some people study the physiological mechanism of the brain, which may be more like physiologists; Some people study psychological theory schools, which may be more like a historian; Some people study the psychological characteristics of different cultures, perhaps more like anthropologists? For the study of psychology, we can use the methods of natural science and social science, which is also the charm of psychology. Everyone who studies psychology, regardless of his personality and preferences, can find his place in the field of psychological research. Maybe no one can tell what a psychologist really looks like, but it is definitely not just a single image of a psychologist in film and television.

2. Will you learn psychology abnormally?

From my personal feeling, among the people who study psychology, the truly abnormal people may be higher than the general group. However, I don't think the reason why it is abnormal is learning psychology. There are generally three kinds of people who study psychology. One kind is people with professional interests, who are interested in their interaction with others since childhood. One is that for some reason, they have strayed into the psychology camp and are either willing or unwilling to study psychology; There is another kind of people who have certain psychological problems between studying psychology. The reason why they come to study psychology is to solve their own psychological problems. In other words, they are not mentally abnormal, but psychologically abnormal. It is precisely for this reason that the public feels that there are many psychological problems in studying psychology. In fact, there is a problem of pervert and who learns first.

In addition, what needs special explanation is that psychology is more of a science and a perspective; It is not a religion. But in reality, there are also some people who are obsessed with learning psychology more often, and regard some theories of psychology (especially those related to psychoanalysis) as a belief instead of adopting an objective attitude of learning and treating, which is really prone to some problems, especially when learners have some personality defects. In short, why people who study psychology are so abnormal is not because they have changed their state after studying psychology, but because some abnormal people are studying psychology and adopt abnormal ways.

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