Arts/Psychology anyone? (1 Viewer)

[journeysgrrr]

Hey i'm a year 12 student, with only a few months to get an idea of what i want to do at uni-- future. pretty clueless, but I am interested in the possibility of Arts- Psychology at MAC?

i'm not specifically a science person, with my strongest subjects being art and english. does the degree require any prior subject knowledge.. and what type of work and experience is needed throughout the course? .. lots of questions! would love to know more!

take care

 

[James87]

Hey there

You sound like me when I was in your position (finished 2005)
I was very into art and english at school, but also had an interest in business-type areas - a very weird combination - I guess the only thing that bothered me was science - really dislike it.

Now, I am in second year at Macquarie studying business and psychology
(or BBA BA-Psych) and I am really enjoying it. There is not too much science in psychology, well not in first year (which is all I can comment on so far) - you basically get a small sample of all the areas e.g. social, developmental, animal behaviour, neuropsychology.

This leads into later studies in psych. There are core units you must take with an element of science - but after only doing science up2 year 10 - i am finding it interesting and with a bit of effort - not too hard.

Good luck with your studies

 

[MaryJane]

I'm procrastinating at work, unlike poor Cyan!

Jamie (Cyan) has covered pretty much everything there is to know. As he said, check out past threads because there are absolutely stacks on Psych.

One word of 'warning': If you choose to do a BA-Psych, be sure you want to become a registered Psych, because coming out of a Undergrad degree = nothing. You need to complete an Honours year (4th year) and then either a 2 year Masters degree, or complete 2 years work experience (which apparently the APS is phasing out) before you can call yourself a Psych. Its a long, hard road... but well worth it, in my opinion But, if you aren't sure whether Psych is what you want to make a career out of, I would recommend looking in to some of the double degrees available. Like James87 and Skittled (another member) you could do a BBA/BA-Psych, or, like me, there is a BA-Psych/LLB if you are intersted in law. I also know you can double it with health...

Re: Work experience throughout your Undergrad. The only way you will get experience is by volunteering; there are no (or very few) paid psych positions out there for undergrads, because we are not qualified to do anything, not even to visit the Test Library (where all the Tests are stored). As Cyan mentioned, there is Lifeline, which is looked upon v. highly. But there are specific Organisations out there, for example, the Schizophrenia Fellowship and Eating Disorders Foundation (who I am currently volunteering for!!).

Oh no, work has arrived on my desk! Hope that helps

 

[journeysgrrr]

yay you guys are awesome. thanks!
yeah i heard to be a psychologist, you don't just finish the course-- there is much more work ahead and experience to be gained for another few years to be called a Psychologist.
i looked hard for previous threads, didn't offer much. but i will look again if theres anything to help me out. any extra info on the course would be awesome especially on what sort of work you are doing,and the likes and dislikes of the course.

:wave:

 

[journeysgrrr]

James87, very much alike...I'm doing economics and business together with art and english + maths....... weird combination .

 

[MaryJane]

Do a search in the general MQ forum, because no one really uses these off-shoot forums. You will get more hits there

The course is listed here: http://www.handbook.mq.edu.au/programofstudy.php?edition=2007&code=PSYC02.

Something else I forgot to mention: With stats, I didn't do maths from year 10 onwards (ie. not the HSC), and I have done fine. Stats is not maths by any stretch, it is a completely different kettle of fish. At first, I resented it, like most students, but by the time you realise that you want to follow through with the whole psych process, it is just accepted, and sometimes (for freaks like me), you start to actually enjoy it. So I wouldn't freak out about stats at all, it is totally doable.

Likes/dislikes: It is easier to list the dislikes because there are less of them. I disliked PSY237 - Perception and Cognition. It was difficult because I was not interested in the perception side of things in the slightest, even though it was really interesting. This unit has the highest failure rate; when I did it in 2005 I think it was close to 30% of the course failing (or so I heard). PSY104 and 105 are quite boring, there isn't anything to sink your teeth into, because they breeze over everything so quickly. But it is a good overview of the area. So dont become disheartened if you feel like you didn't get a whole lot out of first year PSY units. Finally, STAT170 is absolutely crap, and do not judge the rest of the stats units on it. It is run by the stats dept (rather than being a PSY unit), and so it is pretty full-on and boring as all hell. But once you are through that, it is smooth sailing.

Apart from those three things, I really, really love psych at MQ. It is the most popular and well-recognised Australian uni for psych, for obvious reasons once you're in it and doing the courses and can compare it to other uni's. I might be slightly biased, but there are other facts you cannot deny. For eg, most of our academics (who have journal articles coming out of their ears!) came from USYD in the 80s' because of the poor psych culture there; they were - and still are - overly focused on psychoanalytic theory, and dont capture the science part of things.

Anyway, I should stop procrastinating, and go finish off my health law essay *cries*

 

[journeysgrrr]

woo. no hardcore maths is great lol.:rofl: stats is annoying but its better than anything else in maths.
after completing a 4 years at uni,are work opportunities leading to being a psychologist easy to find? cos it would be terrible to finish the degree and be left with heaps of difficulty in making it useful, since employers want experienced psychologists.

is the course more so analytical? as in your own theories, studies, comparisions etc etc. or is it theory based on sciencey topics to do with brain, reactions etcetc?

:wave: thanks heaps! i think i'm nearly finished my bombardment of questions about this course

 

[MaryJane]

In regards to finding work after your 4 years, it is really difficult, because you need to have 2 years supervision under a Psychologist before you can call yourself a registered psych (keep in mind this is unpaid work). So basically, when you come out with your Honours, you still aren't anything in the psych world. This is why most people go through the Masters/Doctorate path straight after (or pretty close to) finishing their Honours. The alternative is you can pay a college a few thousand and they will get you your work experience. Or, you can do what my partner, Skittled, is thinking of doing, and joining the Army as a Honours psych, because they pay you and give you the 2 years supervision, but you have to be with the Army for 4 years or something. A good idea if you are interested in Org Psych, but you wont get anything from it if you want to follow clinical, neuro, forensic or anything like that.

My plan is to join the Federal Government in an intelligence/analyst role for a few years, get some money together so I can fund my Masters (or, preferably a Doctorate because its free!), and then get into the psych field. I want to eventually come out and be a qualified Forensic Psych, so I can join my psych and law together, and still work with the Government in the Correctional area, or in a more clinically area.

Re: Theory vs Prac, it really depends on the area of psych. Things like Perception, cognition, bio - things you can actually grab at and witness - are more 'sciency', but of course they have the theory behind them. Then, there are things like social which is a combination of the both, and personality which (to me) is more theoretical. I prefer the more sciency ones, personally (although they do tend to be more difficult and full-on studyload-wise).

 

[MaryJane]

Was just doing some research, and the main organisation that does the paid work experience is www.copp.com.au. The fee for the 2 year work experience placement is $14,000.

 

[ahen]

o0o0oh i'm interested in doing this course and i also love art and english the only reason i haven't considered macquarie uni until now is because its quite far from where i live and so it could be a hassle travelling.
also, just out of curiousity, what's the social life like at this place?
but its good to know that maths and science aren't a big deal in this course because my careers advisor was seriously scaring me by going on and on about how much statistics she had to do in her psych degree etc etc.

 

[MaryJane]

Oh no, dont get us wrong, there is a lot of statistics. A unit every year, if you want to do Honours (4 years). If you're only in it for the undergrad, its only two years of stats. Then, the psych units also incorporate stats into the unit, so you will have to write a report, and do the stats. The stats arent hard, they are just draining and boring sometimes (except PSY331, which is awesome, but now David is leaving, so I doubt it will be as cool).

Mac is the only uni which makes their students do stats every year, and thats why Mac has the fantastic rep that it has for statistics.

 

[clairegirl]

i didnt really any of what mj and cyan wrote... but i do arts-psyche too and i back everything they just said jejeje they're the psychology pplz of this thread