Awesomes & Oddities of Psychology

1. Awesomes & Oddities of Psychology Welcome to Psych Club!

2. Abnormal Psychology • Awesomes • There are some fascinating therapies out there – some that are select for certain disorders • There are a number of cases where people make extraordinary recoveries • Oddities • Some of the disorders are completely bizarre – Dissociative Identity Disorder • The U.S. disagrees with the rest of the world about disorder classification - DSM v. ICD

3. Behavior Analysis • Awesomes • You have the ability to shape your own behavior as well as other people’s! • Is one of the few fields in psychology with tangible measures • Oddities • It’ll take away your free will – and provide a logical argument while doing it! • But that’s okay because everything is under control

4. Cognitive Psychology • Awesomes • The true study to understand the human mind • Explores the ideas of attention, memory, learning, etc. • Oddities • The brain is thought to compose the mind, but the brain alone doesn’t have a mind! • Duality v. Unity v. ?

5. Developmental Psychology • Awesomes • Cognitive development spans the majority of the lifespan of a human • Language is one of the most complex developments that we, as a species, gain • Oddities • The most neurons you’ll ever have you gain during your first year of life • As you develop, learn, and understand your neuronal count actually goes DOWN!

6. Engineering Psychology (Human Factors) • Awesomes • Some crazy cool things come out of this field • Engineering psychology has a very strong friendship with the field of robotics • Oddities • As it is based in ergonomics, there are a variety of strange body measures that have been collected and maintained • Requires intense level of consideration when developing various designs

7. Industrial/Organizational Psychology • Awesomes • Overlap of a number of fields: industrial engineering, teams research, network science, sociology • Has made great strides in improving the workplace on a variety of levels • Oddities • One of the most mathematically complex areas of psychology – hard enough to study an individual! • There’s a lot of focus on the idea of emergence

8. Neuroscience • Awesomes • This is the actual study of the brain and what it does • The average human brain weighs approximately 3 pounds – that’s a lot of brain! • Oddities • Not actually a field of psychology, but a field of biology • The brain is not so great at protecting itself, but thankfully it has a backup plan…plasticity

9. Social Psychology • Awesomes • Understand how people operate in groups and the reasoning for various social behaviors (yawning!) • The idea of multiple selves (not the same as multiple identities!) • Oddities • Social psychology is a notoriously negative field • Group size has a tremendous effect on our social interactions