The first misconception

"So, you can read my mind?" he asked for the second time.

He was my driving examinator and there was no way I would be able to convince him that was not even close to what we were supposed to be learning in college. There was no way he would be listening to a second explanation of exactly what it was I was studying. There was no way I would be trying yet another time, as I also wanted to receive my driver's license.

About reading minds

How to explain your field of study to the layman? It's probably the same in every other field. Like I believe archaeology students are only digging up dinosaurs' bones and law students have to read the lawbook from front to back and know it by hard.

Which is probably not true. Just as I can't read minds.

However, I wish it were the case. Wouldn't it make it all that much easier? Knowing exactly what is going on with the patient facing you. Knowing right away what is bothering him or her. Knowing his or her deepest thoughts and concerns. It would be ideal if I could just read their minds, decide on the right diagnosis, and combine it with a matching treatment.

Wouldn't every psychologist want that? It would make our (future) job much less challenging, though. That is, IF you become that kind of psychologist.


Another deceit. Not all psychologists are the ones we meet on the couch, feeling miserable and lonely. You might think that is all there is to it. The man with the trimmed gray beard and his sofa, smoking a pipe while watching you with a mesmerizing look in his eyes.

Behaviorism

We are not all Freudians. There have even been psychologists who didn't believe in the existence of the mind at all! Ever heard of B.F. Skinner and his world famous Skinner box? He believed the mind was more like a black box. We don't know what it contains, just as the black box of an airplane. It might be there, but we don't need to know more than its existence. All we need to observe is our behavior. There is no more to it.


Skinner's major subjects were animals: pigeons and rats. He placed them in his Skinner box and teached them to respond in certain ways by using reinforcers. For example, a rat is given a bit of food (i.e. a reward) whenever he hits a blue button, but not the red. This rat will learn the blue button results in a reward and therefore more frequently he will hit this button. Another fascinating video shows a pigeon who learns to peck whenever a sign says "peck" and turn whenever the sign says "turn".

The scientist

So, there is more to psychology than talking with patients and trying to figure out what is behave the way they do. But obviously it is all about this behavior. The mind and behavior of human beings is what drives the psychologist, whether he's a behaviorist, a psychoanalist (like Freud) or a cognitivist (who is mainly focused on the mind and how all is connected within).


In psychology the largest part is centered on doing research. In my college, we are educated to become scientist-practitioners. Not just doing research, not only talking with clients, but a bit of both. You can't really be one without the other. 

So what is it you are studying?

If it would have been easy to explain, I would be finished just about now. Which I obviously do not believe to be the case. Explaining psychology is not a straightforward thing to do. I could give you some terms and explain some phenomena, but you would just read and nod. Therefore, I'll try to do it otherwise. I will try to relate the things I have learned the last years to everyday life.

So hopefully, one day, my examinator will read this and think: "Ah, you can also observe from my behavior what is going on in my mind."