• Question: Being a psychologist, do you feel that you over-analyse everything?

    Asked by anon-204923 to Sally, Lucy, Louise, James, David, Dan on 6 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: James Munro

      James Munro answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      A teacher once told me that knowledge is like turning on a light in a dark room. With knowledge you can see all the stuff you could not see before, but you can see there is more stuff than you will ever be able to understand.

      Becoming an expert in some parts of Psychology has made me aware of how much I don’t know. I think I analysed day-to-day things MUCH more when I was starting my studies, because I believed one day I would be able to understand it all. Now, I know I might understand small parts of some things, but I will never learn about it all.

      Personally, I like to let people be their wonderful, mysterious selves and I try to enjoy all the variety and confusion in the world without seeking to understand all of it.

    • Photo: Lucy Maddox

      Lucy Maddox answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      I do tend to over-analyse but I’m not sure that is as a result of being a psychologist. I think it’s more likely to be the other way around – that I enjoy psychology because I am the sort of person who likes to think about situations and people and motivations, including my own!

    • Photo: Dan Taylor

      Dan Taylor answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      I think I would agree with Lucy. I do over-analyse, but I think my tendency to do that is what drove me towards psychology, because I often over-analyse my own thoughts, feelings and behaviours – which are all big parts of psychology. I think if I didn’t have that side to me, I wouldn’t have done as well in psychology if i’m honest.

    • Photo: Sally Tilt

      Sally Tilt answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      I’ve just spent 5 mins deciding how to start to answer this question – because I was thinking about what I thought about the question! So I probably do reflect on things quite a bit. I’m not sure I’d identify with over-analysing – this suggests getting a bit stuck by applying too much analysis 🙂 I’d say I do analyse stuff but when I analyse my analysis it doesn’t seem like over-analysis!

      Phew – I think I need a cup of tea now!

    • Photo: Louise Rodgers

      Louise Rodgers answered on 7 Mar 2019:


      I honestly think the opposite – by which I mean that I wish I had more time and opportunity to analyse things, because its so helpful and enjoyable too. I’m thinking that by analysing you mean reflecting on something, considering it from different angles, weighing it up? All excellent things to do. Of course there are times when you have to make a decision quickly (a train is coming towards me!) but with the big issues in life – relationships, decisions, etc I think that thinking about them and talking about them gives you miles more clarity and insight. Oh dear, did I just over-analyse the word analyse ….?

    • Photo: David Chadwick

      David Chadwick answered on 11 Mar 2019:


      I am not a psychologist, but I still do a lot of analysis, both in my life and in my job. I am always analysing problems and looking for solutions.

      What do you mean by over-analyse?

      Analysis surely operates under the law of diminishing returns, when there will come a point that the effort you put in does not bring any measurable benefit (because you have exhausted your options).

      But on the other hand some scientific problems are analysed for decades by lots of different people, before someone finally comes up with an answer. That is not over-analysis, is it?

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