I would say that when I first started my psychology degree, I was embarrassingly naïve. After being completely enthralled by A-level psychology, I prepared for a psychology degree which would make me an expert in understanding the new parts of psychology. To me, a psychology degree meant learning about the psychology of deviance and abnormality — it’s a common misconception.
In sixth form, we learned about Zimbardo and how people are evil, about mental disorders like schizophrenia which make people seem erratic and unstable, and about abnormal feral children who have attachment difficulties. In reality, A-level psychology is relatively misrepresentative of what real-world, applicable psychology is. A psychology degree focuses less on the anomalous aspects of psychology, and more on how it’s applied and utilised. This does not mean that A-level psychology was wasteful, or that university-level psychology is boring. It simply means that A-level psychology doesn’t necessarily help your degree in psychology.
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