What to study?

[Olivia]

I am interested in how different factors (birth order, home environment, genetics, etc.) influence personality and behaviour. I am also interested in brain disorders and differences, such as multiple personality disorder, bipolar, psychopathy, eating disorders, ADHD, schizophrenia, etc.

I'm not super enthusiastic about math, but I can deal with it if need be. Science is good, even fun, provided that it's interesting and new, and not chemistry.

Based on this information, I'm wondering if psychology, psychiatry, or neuroscience would be a better fit for me.

Also, if this information is of any help or interest, I'm homeschooled and in 10th grade. That basically means that I can take any high school or AP course through my online school, regardless of the grade level of the course. So if anyone knows which maths and/or sciences I should take, that would be helpful too.

Thanks!

 

[Teffnology]

Biopsychology was a game changer for me. Just enough science to help explain Psychological patterns and processes.

Abnormal psychology was another one of my favorite subjects, mental disorders and sanity.

Sociology and Cultural Anthropology are also very intriguing subjects along similar lines for me.

Something that doesn't get a lot of credit is the Psychology of Business and Advertising. That has always been a driving force for me in my education. Finding out about how Psychology and Economics intersect. The show Mad Men really set ideas into motion that had been lingering in my periphery while I was growing up.

Game Theory is my favorite though. Basic math, my strongest educational attribute, and strategy all rolled up into one.

 

[Analyzer]

Biopsychology was a game changer for me. Just enough science to help explain Psychological patterns and processes.

Abnormal psychology was another one of my favorite subjects, mental disorders and sanity.

Sociology and Cultural Anthropology are also very intriguing subjects along similar lines for me.

Something that doesn't get a lot of credit is the Psychology of Business and Advertising. That has always been a driving force for me in my education. Finding out about how Psychology and Economics intersect. The show Mad Men really set ideas into motion that had been lingering in my periphery while I was growing up.

Game Theory is my favorite though. Basic math, my strongest educational attribute, and strategy all rolled up into one.

Yeah was going to say marketing and advertising as well. I think this a very under appreciated role especially for INTP's.

 

[Pizzabeak]

NeuroChemBio

 

[Teffnology]

Yeah was going to say marketing and advertising as well. I think this a very under appreciated role especially for INTP's.

Look no further than Edward Bernays. He took sales and advertising and made it into a science using concepts that his Uncle, Sigmund Freud, developed.

The Godfather of "Public Relations"

 

[Analyzer]

Look no further than Edward Bernays. He took sales and advertising and made it into a science using concepts that his Uncle, Sigmund Freud, developed.

The Godfather of "Public Relations"

Thanks for this, never heard of him.

 

[Teffnology]

Thanks for this, never heard of him.

It is quite a shame that no one actually has heard of him. The Zeitgeist movies actually turned me onto him and his concepts.

It is shocking how prevalent the concepts he developed are in EVERY facet of our current consumeristic lives. I almost wish I didn't know this kind of stuff because now I sit there and analyze any sort of advertisement or business promotion. I long for the days of being an ignorant consumer again! Knowledge is power but also a burden. Ignorance truly is bliss.

I just hope that I can use these tactics to get mine. I have been a victim of them all my life, it is time i actually use them for my own benefit instead of blindly supporting corporate culture.

So thank you?... and damn you?... Eddie Bernays for creating such an exploitative system. Depending on which side of this dichotomy I ultimately reside in.

 

[Analyzer]

It is quite a shame that no one actually has heard of him. The Zeitgeist movies actually turned me onto him and his concepts.

It is shocking how prevalent the concepts he developed are in EVERY facet of our current consumeristic lives. I almost wish I didn't know this kind of stuff because now I sit there and analyze any sort of advertisement or business promotion. I long for the days of being an ignorant consumer again! Knowledge is power but also a burden. Ignorance truly is bliss.

I just hope that I can use these tactics to get mine. I have been a victim of them all my life, it is time i actually use them for my own benefit instead of blindly supporting corporate culture.

So thank you?... and damn you?... Eddie Bernays for creating such an exploitative system. Depending on which side of this dichotomy I ultimately reside in.

My initial impression of public relations/marketing/advertising before studying them was how much it's related to human action(economics) which I have more of a background in. It's sort of like social engineering. Economics tries to understand the laws of market processes like exchange and supply, while psychology is about understanding the content or the why of such actions. This is why I find this area pretty fascinating as like you said it ties both of them together.

 

[r4ch3l]

UC Irvine and UC Berkeley have good Cognitive Science programs; UCB's is more science-oriented and UCI's leans toward a more humanities-style curriculum from what I have heard. Both are great schools.

I see you're in Canada. Can we magically swap residency status for a couple of years? Because UBC's tuition for non-Canadians is outrageous.

 

[Olivia]

UBC is pretty expensive for Canadians too. Probably not quite outrageous though.

While the advertising and marketing field is perhaps suitable for INTPs, I myself am not extremely interested in it. However, I am interested in the brain and human behaviour, not relating to ads but relating to social circumstances, family situations, etc.

 

[Analyzer]

UC Irvine and UC Berkeley have good Cognitive Science programs; UCB's is more science-oriented and UCI's leans toward a more humanities-style curriculum from what I have heard. Both are great schools.

I see you're in Canada. Can we magically swap residency status for a couple of years? Because UBC's tuition for non-Canadians is outrageous.

UCSD as well... I think it was one of the first cog science programs in the world.

 

[Teffnology]

Economics is something that you should consider, in the context you have presented of studying people. It is a buzz word that gets bandied about by talking heads on TV that don't fundamentally grasp the concept of it being the study of decision making.

That is all economics truly is at its core. The study of decisions people/agents make. Microeconomics is more applicable here, in analyzing an individual agent and their decisions. Macroeconomics is more of what the media reports and it is based on designing models to explain individual agent decisions as a whole. Start with Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations", that book forced me to examine what economics really is and not some GDP formula that some teacher is showing me on a PowerPoint.

It is not directly related to advertising and selling something but rather the study of how and why something is being sold in the first place. It has much more to do with the human condition than anything else. Economics is used as a tool to help predict and navigate how decisions are made. It just so happens that most of the decisions that we make are tied to money but economics is much larger in scope than just finance and business.

What can actually be done with a degree in Economics is debatable but most employers will say that the analytical skills used can be applied anywhere.

 

[Olivia]

Ok, fair enough. Still, I'm more interested in studying psychology (or something similar) directly.

 

[Brontosaurie]

why not just study psychology for a start and then maybe veer off into neurobiology or sociology or any of the things mentioned? i mean, psychology seems to be your core interest so it makes sense to start there.

 

[Olivia]

why not just study psychology for a start and then maybe veer off into neurobiology or sociology or any of the things mentioned? i mean, psychology seems to be your core interest so it makes sense to start there.

Can't believe I didn't think about that. Thanks!

 

[TBerg]

Another thing to consider is that a strong math background will enable you to work in the language of scientific inquiry.

 

[Olivia]

Another thing to consider is that a strong math background will enable you to work in the language of scientific inquiry.

Right. Good point. At first glance I just saw "language". That reminded me that I was considering going into linguistics. The only problem is that there's not much (that I know of) that you can do with a linguistics degree, aside from becoming a teacher or a speech pathologist. Knowing me though, I might just get a linguistics degree just because xD