Studying Psychology

[Xekojm]

Is there any highschool courses that will be good for studying Psychology in collage, im kinda intrested and want to see if I'd like it as a carrer. I know theres a class called Psychology, but is there any other classes that would help me out in that carrer. (sorry for any spelling/grammer errors)

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I imagine that depends on the curriculum in your particular area. However, generally courses that would be useful for a university psychology major would include biology and perhaps chemistry. In this area, high schools also offer a combined course in Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology.

 

[Eunoia]

Depending on which area of Psychology you want to go into or are interested in, different courses might be relevant... usually, Bio gives you a good background for biopsych, cognitive psych etc.. sometimes Chem too. Does your high school offer a course called Family Studies? That's a good start as well, and any other communication class, or one that focuses on society, social systems, relationships... if there aren't any specific classes and even if, you should look into whether your high school has peer counselling programs and try to join one- 'hands on' experience so to say. I did this and it was one of the best experiences. If not, you can also look at commuity resources or nation wide organizations to volunteer at, ie. crisis lines. Basically, just start w/ some research on what different schools offer in terms of their Psychology programs, if they have any specific requirements or recommendations for h/s, and the areas within Psychology (ie. are you interested in health-, bio-, developmental psych?) they focus on.

 

[Xekojm]

I'm sorry, its Sociology my school offers, im not sure about Psychology and Anthropology. People say its an easy class (maybe they have other units that explain the other 2 a little more, im not sire). I'm thinking about taking it.

 

[Lana]

If your school has a counsellor, I'd speak to him/her and ask which courses would be best. I recently started university to study Psychology and of all things, Calculus was one of the requisites.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

There is also a difference in prerequisites between a B.Sc. program in psychology and a B.A. program in psychology. Unless you plan on working in neurophysiology or neuropsychology, in most cases you won't need the B.Sc. version.

 

[Peanut]

I think statistics is a good class to take for psych if you can. Also as Dr. Baxter said I had a psych teacher that recommended biology and chemistry. My school (college) also suggests courses in sociology, anthropology, and philosophy too.