Michael Braun's Blog

If you had to pick one college course that you would recommend for everyone going to college, what would it be? There’s a lot of factors to consider. I had some great professors who taught courses on relatively obscure subjects (Jewishness and Performance, anyone?). And I took some obscure courses that have provided me relevant information over the years (a course on evolution; a political science course on multiculturalism; a course on communicative disorders). And I missed out on some good courses like introductory philosophy for no particular reason. Out of all the courses I could recommend, only one seems like a universal good idea for everyone to take: introductory psychology.

Intro psych, whatever the course number at your institution, is likely to provide you with a lot of practical knowledge. First, simply the parlance of how to talk about certain social scientific matters is well covered in intro psych. What is a theory? What is a hypothesis? What is a trait? These are words that are borrowed from the hard sciences, but often find more everyday use in how we discuss predictions of human behavior. We often theorize about things that could happen, make educated guesses, or talk about whether someone is “just wired that way.” Introductory psychology helps shape our language of these issues.

There’s also a solid history aspect in learning about psychology. Psychologists are often rolled up into history. Freud unleashed a new type of thinking about is really going on in our minds. B. F. Skinner made us think differently about how rewards impact our behavior. Stanley Milgram demonstrated that people follow authority, even when it causes them great distress. No doubt there are other great names I am missing. These researchers gave us new ways to think about how the world works and have earned a place in history because of it.

Because of psychology’s impact on history, its importance is manifest in pop culture. Books and movies, especially from the ’70s, talk about going to an analyst. Electroshock therapy and labotamies (and other treatments) turn up in horror movies. A Clockwork Orange ends with classical conditioning to treat an orientation toward violence. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is all about the problems with how our society treats mental illness. These references aren’t lost if you haven’t taken intro psych, but it’s a lot easier to understand them (and laugh at them in some contexts) if you have the background.

Finally, there’s real practical value in a working knowledge of psychology. Because of its place in history and pop culture, these topics come up frequently. Just today in class, someone referenced a “Skinner Box,” an environment designed to measure repeated responses caused by rewards (and specifically used with rats and pigeons). A Skinner Box is both a historical reference and also a nice metaphor for a controlled environment structured to elicit a certain response. Without the knowledge of this information, the reference is lost. And taking an intro psych class is the perfect place to gain that knowledge.