• Question: Why does psychology intrigue you? (What gave the initial spark to pursue a career in psychology?)

    Asked by anon-204918 to Sally, Lucy, Louise, James, David, Dan on 6 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Sally Tilt

      Sally Tilt answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      I think in part, one of the intriguing things about studying human psychology, is down to my being a human! (you’ll be pleased to know 🙂 )

      Many people enjoy filling out those quick ‘personality tests’ in magazines – likely because it feels intriguing that a model or theory can describe and summarise our behaviours and how we are likely to act in future. So one of the fascinating things about psychology is that it helps to understand the world and the people around me, as well as to understand myself!

      Lots of my colleagues describe early psychology heroes, or an interest in crime drama or writing – but I can’t say I recall any such early experiences. When I got to university however, my tutor was fantastic – I’d say that she was a big motivator for my decision to follow a career in psychology.

    • Photo: Lucy Maddox

      Lucy Maddox answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      I grew up in quite a new age hippy town in Devon where there were a lot of mind-body alternative treatments going on – like floatation tanks (you go into a little tank of water and float about) and gong showers (someone bangs a gong around you). So I think I may have been primed from an early age to think about mind-body links.
      I really loved both science and arty subjects at school and I when I started reading the odd book about psychology it made me realise that here was a subject with aspects of both, which I really liked.
      I applied to study psychology, philosophy & physiology at university because it was to do with the mind and the body, and was scientific but also involved essay writing which I liked. I also had a great experience at uni and a very good tutor [in fact I think @Sally that we had the same one!]. I never had any one moment where I knew what I wanted to do though (and still have days when I dream about other careers) but I kept coming back to things to do with psychology and being interested.

    • Photo: Dan Taylor

      Dan Taylor answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      For me this is really simple, I am fascinated by people, in all their variation and uniqueness. “Psych” comes from the ancient Greek for Psyche, which roughly translates to soul. I think it sums up psychology really nicely for me, its understand why we are the way we are.

    • Photo: Louise Rodgers

      Louise Rodgers answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      I honestly think we are all born psychologists and then that spark of interest may be kindled or snuffed out as we grow older, probably depending on the adults and influences around us. If you can do something in life that is ‘congruent’ with your genuine interests/value/likes it will never get boring or stale.

      I didn’t know it at the time, but since I can remember I was always wondering what other people were thinking, why they said what they did, what their feelings might have been, whether they were thinking the same thoughts as me. I never got fed up of listening to my friends talking about relationships, problems, worries, goals or anything in their mental life … and I still don’t!

    • Photo: James Munro

      James Munro answered on 8 Mar 2019:

      Nice question S,

      When I was growing up, it seemed like the worst thing possible was to be weird. The people around me were usually also kids – who had the potential to be free and wild and be anything they wanted to be… but most people tried so hard to be the same. I couldn’t understand it. My friends were the guys and girls who tried to look and act different from the others – but then of course, we all ended up looking the same as each other!

      So I wanted my future to be about finding out who people really were – not just the masks they wear. I see in your profile that your favourite scientist is Rosalind Franklin. Excellent! She made *amazing* discoveries about DNA, molecules and viruses which have helped humanity grow and become better over the decades. But that is just one small part of who she was. She was born just after the first world war and was in her teens when the second one began. She lived a life without a religious faith despite being very consciously a Jew. She suffered the sexism of her time and was occasionally sexist herself. Then she had to deal with the experience of having cancer. She was an amazing, varied woman who contributed a lot to society but struggled – like we all do – with the trials of normal living. I am fascinated to learn people’s stories, and Psychology was a way for me to do that.

      When you start to realise the magic and weirdness behind even the most quiet and normal person, life looks a lot more colourful.

      Thank you S 🙂

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