• Question: What is the best part of psychology?

    Asked by anon-188268 to Warren, Shanti, Pizza Ka Yee, Paul, Nadine, Alex on 6 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-188267.
    • Photo: Alex Reid

      Alex Reid answered on 6 Nov 2018: last edited 6 Nov 2018 11:33 am

      Thanks for the question. For me, understanding the human brain is one of the major frontiers of science (like the ocean or space). The sheer magnitude of this challenge is something to rise to. Also, despite the brain being so complex, a lot of good can come from understanding it. For example we can develop treatments and cures for illnesses and other interventions that could potentially make peoples lives better. More broadly understanding the human condition, flaws and all, could help us avoid problems we as a species might encounter.

    • Photo: Shanti Shanker

      Shanti Shanker answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      The best part for me is to understand the human brain, especially to see how it functions when there is an injury or stroke or dementia. It is fascinating to see how the human brain can adapt and this varies based on different factors!

    • Photo: Nadine Mirza

      Nadine Mirza answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      Like Shanti and Alex I’m also a big fan of the brain, and how all these individual parts of it work together to make…well.. us! How lots of little nerve cells can sends electric currents to each other and that’s the things that makes us walk and talk and have a personality! And I also love that understanding the brain can help us understand behaviour, in ourselves and in each other, and if we understand behaviour we can understand how to promote good behaviour and fix bad behaviour.

    • Photo: Warren Mansell

      Warren Mansell answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      I think that the best part of psychology is when you get to the point that you realise that there is no clear idea of what makes ‘good behaviour’ or ‘bad behaviour’, and when you see the flaws and inefficiencies in how our society currently operates – in education, mental health, and law – and then you try to do something about it. My way is to demonstrate people how life is a process of control – balancing everything that matters to you – and working out ways not to conflict with others, and even yourself. All problems are ‘relative’ – not absolute, and we can learn ways of resolving conflicts and balancing things just right.

    • Photo: Paul Matusz

      Paul Matusz answered on 11 Nov 2018:

      Hi,

      Thanks for agreat question. I started studying psychology so I can understand what controls us as people – at the level of how our minds are constructed, how we are brought up, how our brain contribute to it. Since then, I was always interested in how we process information in the busy, complex, multisensory environments. As a result, I have been studying how what we know about how people pay attention and learn new information in the world differs between traditional research (that typically uses just visual or just auditory etc. objects) and how information is typically presented in the real world – across multiple senses at once (“multisensory information”). Filling out these lacks in knowledge is probably the most important for supporting how children learn every day as well as in rehabilitation of different disorders – from kids not seeing very well (like when they have a “lazy eye” to kids having problem with learning or older adults who have problems with their memory. So the best part of psychology to me is being a scientist that integrates all these different branches of knowledge to help people.

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