Course Reflection (to teacher) - Psychology

It was not until my junior year of high school that I was able to discern what sort of career path to pursue. I had various careers in mind, but it was my first psychology class that really grasped my attention and interest. After taking the course, I utterly embraced the concept of becoming a psychologist, not only because it an interesting and relatively new area of science, but because I would get the opportunity to help people in a very effective way. I always knew I wanted to do something that would benefit others, and I saw a great opportunity for this in a career of psychology. Although I did not know precisely what pursuing this career would entail, I wanted to learn and I wanted to help.

Coming to this university, all I really knew was that psychology was the science of mental and behavior processes. I knew that psychologists use scientific principles, carefully defined methods, and precise procedures to present an organized body of knowledge and to make predictions about how people behave. However, I had no clue of the progression that would build up to this. In order to learn about the ways others and myself behave in an interesting society, I had to learn how psychologists approach the situation from the perspective of a career.

Since psychologists are trying to learn from people through means of experimentation, one must adhere to quite a few stringent guidelines before collecting any empirical data. Because they work directly with people as subjects, psychologists need to approach the situation with the utmost moral considerations. In the process of trying to learn about behavior for the good of society, it is only sensible that one looks after the good of their subjects just as well. Respect for people's rights and dignity is very important for psychologists to consider before continuing with any experiment.

Not all psychologists get involved with experimentation, though, as I learned through this course. There are dozens of fields of psychology,