Actually, psych is a science, so you can't say that it's "not very sciency". If you get into BPsych or decide to major in psych, you're required to do statistics. If you're relatively good at maths, the stats won't be too much trouble.
Psych isn't boring. Although I must admit that some of it does bore the hell outta me and I have fallen asleep in a couple of psych lectures, but don't let a couple of dull topics discourage you. Psych is very broad - in first year, you learn a bit about everything and then in the following years, you get more specialised. MC final exams are awesome! Especially if you're not into writing short answers.
To register as a psychologist, you need to do the 4-year BPsych degree and then either:
- 2 years psych masters: clinical (the most competitive - they only accept about 15 of the top people at UNSW), organisational (where the big money is), or forensic (working with the law)
OR
- 2 years supervised training - you get to be more specialised but you don't get the breadth and experience like in masters
So that's 6 years altogether to become a psychologist..
If not... There's always PhD and become a "doctor", which is 3 years - it's research and this is mainly for people who want to be academics i.e. work at uni. You can either do this after the bachelor degree or after masters.
I think if you truly love what you do, you're more likely to excel. Psych is a relatively more relaxing course compared to computing at least. At least that's what I think. The workload is reasonable. And depending what other subjects you choose, the number of hours per week (if you're in BPsych or majoring in psych) is comparable to a commerce/economics degree (around 15 hours).
EDIT
About the MC final exams - the 130 questions if only for first year psych. In 2nd year, it's much less than that plus you have a few short answer questions as well. At least that's how it works at UNSW.
Funny guy lecturer? If he was American, he could have either been Bill von Hippel or Bart Anderson. But then again, there are several funny guy psych lecturers at UNSW. It helps to have a good lecturer (so you don't fall asleep).
There are lots of different areas in psych. 2nd year courses are basically and extension of first year intro stuff.
- Social psych: very applicable to everyday life e.g. attraction and affiliation, advertising strategies (!!!! Once you're aware of these, you'll be less likely to be sucked in!)
- Developmental psych: adult and child dev
- Learning: different models to explain learning e.g. classical conditioning
- Physiological psych: brain and chemicals + some on abnormal psych e.g. schizophrenia and other mental illnesses - definitely not my favourite
- Perception: lots about cool illusions e.g. colour afterimages and why/how that happens because of our visual system
- Cognition: how people think e.g. semantic networks for remebering things
- Assessment: basically the stats involved in psychological testing (warning!!! VERY BORING!!!)
- Personality: sounds like fun? It involves stats... But it can be interesting e.g. the Big Five framework which says that all personality traits can be categorised into 5 broad categories: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience
