Why do so many pre-meds take psychology?

[Guest archchivalry]

I'm just wondering

many pre-med first year students take

psychology as their 5th selection

(rest four are bio, physics, calc, chem)

 

Is there any reason?

(the people I talked to who take it even have any interest to the course!)

[Guest Lorae]

Psychology is a very versatile first year course. Don't forget that there is no specific "pre-med" pathway... people have to meet the requirements of the degree program they are in. Every degree program requires arts and humanities electives and psych is a great one to "try out". Undergraduate studies are all about trying different branches of learning and discovering what areas you love.

 

If you are registed in 4 heavy science courses (with labs) it's a good idea to take one of your arts/humanites courses as your 5th. If you make your semesters too full of lab courses, things can get too heavy.

[Guest Lactic Folly]

At the U of A, psychology courses can be either arts or science, depending on the topic of the course (for example, personality would be an arts course while sensation/perception would be a science course). Therefore, having the intro sequence makes it possible for you to fulfill both arts and science options in the future.

 

Also, it's a broad field, and in my opinion, very relevant and interesting.. from principles of behaviour to the biological side overlapping with neuroscience, I've found it quite useful.

[Guest blinknoodle]

It's not just pre-meds that like to take psych in first year. I think nearly all the engineers on my floor in residence also opted to take psych as their elective. I took intro psych and really enjoyed it. At Mac, it was a good overview of many aspects of psychology (experimental design, brain and behaviour, learning and cognition, etc) without delving into too much nitty gritty. Like Lactic_Folly, I found it to be a very relevant and practical course (I actually discussed one the experiments we learned in intro psych during my med school interview!). I never took any more elective psych courses, but I did find it to be a good intro for my other classes (anatomy, psychobiology, etc).

 

If you are at all curious what psychology entails, you can check out Mac's website for the 1A03 course. It looks like they have some screen shots from the videos. I'm sure all intro psych courses touch on nearly all the same kinds of topics.

 

intropsych.mcmaster.ca/intropsych/

 

Cheers,

-bn

[Guest 007]

Lots of people I know didn't. Instead they opted for English, or a new language, sociology, history, politics, geography, philosophy...etc etc

[Guest Steve U of T]

At U of T, the "big three" first year electives for life science students are psychology, sociology, and anthropology (and this is probably similar at most other schools). There are other options, but those are the ones with the most space. I've been an orientation leader a couple of times, which has given me the opportunity to speak with numerous incoming life science students (and of course my own classmates). I think some pre-meds may choose psychology because they perceive it to be more related to medicine than the other two. That's not a good reason to be choosing a course, especially since it's not true (considering the availability of upper year courses in medical anthropology and sociology of health care systems). However, some incoming first year science students may not realize that there is no prescribed pre-med program of study, and go with what they think will help them get accepted. Of course, I'm sure the majority choose psych because they have some desire to better understand human behaviour. Actually, I know of several people who were originally planning on entering medicine, but after a couple of years studying psych, decided to become clinical psychologists.

 

As others have mentioned, a lot of pre-meds don't take psych in first year. I took anthropology (and followed it up with a second year course). Some of my friends went with seminar courses, which are really good because they are limited to 15 students. I was looking into the "who shot JFK?" seminar course, but decided to go into a program that required upper year courses in either anthropology, psych, or sociology, and therefore required me to take one of the big first year courses. Anthropology is such a broad subject, and I'm really glad I chose it, because I really learned a great deal.

[Guest noncestvrai]

Taking intro to psych gives you an idea about the field, and if you like you can take after neuropsych or social psych...which is really entertaining and you learn a lot about the little things in the behaviour of your fellow premeds hehe.

 

noncestvrai

[Guest studentz]

I know a lot of high school kids mix up psychology and sociology (many don't know about or aren't prepared for the large bio section of Intro Psych, at least at UofT).

 

I was just interested in it (I went on to do a psych minor), but looking back, it is extremely relevant to medicine, especially the more specific disciplines like social and health psych. I would argue that it is more relevant to medical practice (as opposed to health in general, but possibly that too) than the other two in the "big three."

 

Health and disease are social & psychological constructs as much as they are biological. I think the courses I have taken in psych have definately given me a better appreciation of what causes people to a) perceive that they are ill and seek treatment. Also, in health psych, you learn a lot of interesting things like how people cope with terminal illness, how psychological states affect recovery etc. Plus, a large proportion of patients presenting in primary care settings do so with problems that are largely psychosomatic in nature.

 

People engage in different behaviours that can promote or compromise their health. Obviously, psychology examines behaviours, attitudes, and how to modify the two, all of which are very important.

 

I could go on, but you get the idea. At UofT at least, the intro prof is outstanding, and the course really opens up doors to very interesting courses in later years.