Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mental or behavioral characteristics of an individual or group. The primary focus of the psychology department at the University of Oklahoma has changed from clinical psychology to scientific psychology, according the Department of Psychology website.

“Psychology is a good major to start with when you don’t know where you want to go in life.” Reanna Patton, a former behavioral health rehabilitation specialist at Red Rock said. “It’s useful in your daily life because you study how other people function and how you function around them.”

Thomas Cline, a psychology graduate, said a psychology degree starts with theorists and theories, like Sigmund Freud.

“Freud was interesting but he’s also full of crap,” Cline said. “He’s a revolutionary thinker but you have to take everything he says with a grain of salt.”

Cline said that he liked his psychology professors.

“The professors are good at what they do,” Cline said. “I didn’t have a psychology professor that I didn’t like. They also weren’t vicious about giving lots of work. They expect you to work hard but they aren’t unreasonable.”

Cline said that his classes during his senior year required extra work.

“I studied a lot,” Cline said. “Probably more than the average student. But it was worth it to get the 3.8 GPA.

“Seminars and some of the later classes made us read a 250-400 page textbook in two weeks. The books were interesting but since we have a lot of other classes it takes up a lot of our time.”

Professors expect students understand the material.

“Psychology is more about understanding the whole rather than regurgitating the individual specifics,” Patton said.

“More than anything,” Cline said. “Professors expect creative analytical thinking.”

Cline and Patton recommend psychology capstone classes.

“I highly recommend the capstone, Psychology and Law,” Cline said. “Everyone should know just how messed up our system is and how demonized it is. I recommend it if you have the stomach for it. Frankly I found the details really nauseating.”

Patton recalled her capstone class with Professor Robert Terry.

“He asked two students to go out of the class so that he could tell the other students a story and then the two students had to guess what the story was about,” Patton said. “After the students left, he said that he wasn’t going to tell a story and that if our birthday was an even number then we must always answer ‘yes’ to all their questions. The story that they came up with was something about Mexicans, fish and dancing. It was hilarious.

“This experiment was about assumptions. The fact that he was a teacher gave him enough authority to convince others that he was telling the truth. Professor Terry always does stuff like this in his classes.”

Patton entered psychology because her little brother is autistic.

“I was always interested in mental health,” Patton said. “I want to get out there and help people.”

Patton recalled the most memorable experience she had while working at Red Rock.

Patton met a poor troubled boy whose shoes were falling apart while working at Red Rock. The councilors decided to buy him some shoes but they couldn’t afford the brand he wanted.

“I apologized when I gave him the shoes but he just smiled,” Patton said. “The look on his face just to get any shoes was priceless. When he acts out, it’s the disorder talking, but I really got to see the kid underneath. It was touching.”

The availability of jobs for students depends on whether they go to graduate school, Patton said. Jobs available for a bachelor degree includes social work, rehabilitation specialists, mental health technicians, and councilors.

Cline said he plans on going back for his masters this fall.

“I had this idea in my head that I wanted to be a psychologist or counselor,” Cline said. “I’m not so sure anymore. I’m still in the process of figuring out what job to get. It’s really hard to get your foot in the door anywhere with a bachelors.”

When Cline is not working or studying for the GRE, he is playing video games and drawing comics.