• Question: Why did you pick psychology as a degree?

    Asked by anon-374656 on 15 Nov 2023.
    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 15 Nov 2023:


      I didn’t! I studied Natural Sciences, specialising in zoology and animal behaviour. From there, and from reading a book called The Selfish Gene, I thought a really interesting area was to study humans like a zoologist would study other animals. And that led me to a career in my field of psychology.

    • Photo: removed scientist

      removed scientist answered on 15 Nov 2023:


      Because I was interested in the brain and how that influenced so much about how we behave.

    • Photo: David McGonigle

      David McGonigle answered on 15 Nov 2023:


      Not a direct answer to your question, James, but it’s also worthwhile to realise that it’s possible to work in the field of psychology in research if your undergraduate degree is different; mine was in neuroscience, for example. Dave

    • Photo: Berengere Digard

      Berengere Digard answered on 15 Nov 2023:


      Personally I’ve never picked Psychology! I did an undergraduate degree in Biology. I realised the brain was my favourite, so after that, I did a Masters in Neurosciences. But then, I realised I preferred working with people instead of cells or mice, so when I decided to do a PhD, I looked for research ideas I focused on ideas with people. I found a researcher in the department of Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh who was working on an idea I was interested in, so I got into a PhD program in Psychiatry. After the PhD I got new research ideas, and the people I wanted to work with were in the Department of Psychology, so I moved there. And that’s how I got into Psychology!

    • Photo: Jaime Benjamin

      Jaime Benjamin answered on 15 Nov 2023:


      Honestly, the short answer is cause my mom told me.

      I had been kicked out of my first university (or technically i was “polietly asked to leave”) where I was studying something completely different. I didn’t know what to do so my mom said “study psychology” because she knew it was just a good field to go into with lots of flexibilty (and slight pressure/suggestion from her to become a therapist). So I did.

      And I just had my world blown open and went “yep, this is what I’m doing with my life now”.

      Sometimes life is funny that way and you just come across something that fits 🙂

    • Photo: Viktoria Mileva

      Viktoria Mileva answered on 16 Nov 2023:


      I actually did Biology as my first degree, but then moved into Psychology through my Masters and then PhD as the human mind/human behaviour fascinated me! 🙂

    • Photo: Rachael Hulme

      Rachael Hulme answered on 30 Nov 2023:


      I was interested in learning about how and why people behave the way they do, but my small secondary school didn’t offer Psychology as a subject so I’d never studied it before I started university!

    • Photo: Emma Sullivan

      Emma Sullivan answered on 11 Dec 2023:


      I really enjoyed studying it at A level and wanted to learn more about it!

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