Sunday 16 September 2012

My Final Schedule

So my schedule has been finalized for this term. Which is good. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get into that one class that I wanted. And talking to the Administration revealed that there were over a hundred people on the wait list and it was a first come first serve basis.

One spot opened up after about half a week and it was gone within 15 minutes, maybe less. With these kinds of odds, I decided I was better off trying to get into another class.



But I refused to give up my 4 day weekend. Thus I am now taking another course in Cognitive psychology. It's not so bad so far, nothing too interesting.

My other 3 Psychology courses are Aging psychology, Social influences, and Conservation psychology. Aging psychology is pretty self-explanatory. Exact opposite of Child psychology, we are now looking at how people age and the changes that occur. Social influences is going to have us looking at how other people try to convince and sway us into doing various things.

It's amazing how people can be manipulated.

The last one is a bit weird and is kind of a new course. My professor believes that the heart of any conservation effort needs to take a look at humans and how we think in regards to conservation. Think about it, bluefin tuna aren't jumping onto our plates to be eaten nor are whale hunting themselves to death. They're dying because they're a "commodity". Rainforests and marshes aren't clearing themselves away either.

No matter what angle you look at it, our attitudes towards nature is what has caused so much destruction. You don't need a biologist to tell you that all is not well with our environment. And my professor wants to see if we even have the capacity to change the way people see conservation, because clearly what we're doing isn't near enough.

Eeyup.

Last thing before I close this post up. I think I may have finally figured out what I want to do with this Psychology degree. There's some sort of career conference in the upcoming weeks and if I like what I see, I'll go right into it if possible. I have most of the course requirements already but if I do decide to enroll in this Master's program I'll need to take a few more courses in the following term.

Best of luck to me.

32 comments:

  1. I've been changing my mind on whether to do psychology or law so much recently and this has once again swung my mind. Great to hear that your classes are all sorted out dude, best of luck in everything on your course this year.

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  2. I especially like the last one, quite interesting!

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  3. Best of luck to you indeed. I'm doing Cognitive Pyschology right now, and I'm finding it quite interesting really. But I can't wait to reach things like social influences. I do think we should see how we can change how people think about things, but it's a long and slow process :(

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  4. good luck!

    yeap. we need sustainability in all developments.
    to change people's minds on conservation may not be easy in some demography.

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  5. Definitely wishing you good luck...sounds like you've found your passion.

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  6. Ah, good thing you kept your long weekend! And I agree with your professor on the commodity thing.

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  7. a four day weekend, ah Demian, I so want to spank you!
    Love the panda by the way...

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  8. Good luck! If you've figured out what you want to do with your degree, that's awesome. I know people who are 40-50 and still don't know what kind of degree they want or what career they want, so cheers!

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  9. Good luck with all those courses, at least you still have a good long weekend and yeah humans are at fault, we are a plague on nature.

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  10. I highly recommend going the grad school route, if not for career access reasons (and job availability), simply for the experience.

    Keep us posted on the conservation psychology class... I'm really interested in what your professor has to say.

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  11. You might know what you want. That's great considering how early on you are.

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  12. I'm glad that you may have figured out what you want to do with your degree! That's exciting :) And I'm sorry to hear that you didn't get into that last class, but at least you tried.

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  13. Yes, best of luck. I don't know what is harder getting the degree or figuring out what to do with it once its gotten!

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  14. Yes, best of luck indeed Damien!

    And that conservation psychology course sounds really intriguing!

    I took AP Environmental Science my senior year and we had a big class discussion once on why we has humans don't care about the environment and we came to the conclusion that humans are generally too lazy and too greedy to care.

    Depressing.

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  15. Too bad you couldn't get the class you wanted. The study of Social Influences sounds quite interesting. Personally, I think we have gone so far there is no saving this earth. It will get hotter and hotter, more and more terrible weather. We have destroyed ourselves. :) I hope I am wrong.

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  16. its good that you are thinking about Psychology degree and what to do

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  17. Sounds like some interesting courses. I'm excited for you to be finding a new career path!

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  18. Best of luck to you, for sure. The human mind is such a capable tool, and so full of potential. Your path is very commendable. Even though our paths are starkly different, I look to you as a role model.

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  19. Make sure to pay attention in Aging Psychology. I may need you sooner than later.

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  20. I totally agree about the environment. We need to change our thinking. I have no idea how though.
    Good luck with that conference and deciding where to go with your career.

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  21. The conservation module sounds really interesting and I agree with what your professor said. As a geographer, we are asked to think about the environment and the climate as well as developing countries and development issues and all tie in with the environment. It's very important for future survival. I'm glad you got all your classes sorted too, and thanks for the kind words, it's always sad when you lose a pet. xxx

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  22. Glad your schedule is all cleared up, even if you did not get that class. And happy to hear you have a possible direction now too.

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  23. yes good luck to you! Psychology is interesting.

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  24. why do we always end up getting the things we never wanted. lols

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  25. It's definitely harder to find an internship in Psychology. Most positions I found were in childcare!

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  26. Those sound like pretty interesting classes, good luck with them! I'm still debating going for a master's in psychology, but if I actually do make it into the field I want (working with kids in juvie...) I know I'll end up either with 100 foster kids, or locked up in the loony bin. :/

    Good luck at the career conference!

    xo

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  27. Hopefully humans can change their attitudes towards conservation and nature before it's too late. I think it all goes hand and hand with putting the future of humankind, and the survival of the human species, above money and profits.

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  28. Good luck!

    Conservation psychology sounds interesting.

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  29. I wasn't able to find an internship (my field of study was Psychology) but your tenacity is so apparent. I know you'll do well!!!

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