Psychology in My Profession

Psychology is involved in almost every job field in the modern era. Marketers use psychology to figure out how to convey their product to consumers. Car designers use psychology to give their cars features that would persuade potential buyers to choose their car. Doctors use psychology to understand their patients better. My chosen profession is education, and there are an unlimited number of applications for psychology. In teaching, psychology is the basis in which teachers understand their students.

The specific area that would be most pertinent to teaching would probably be social psychology. College students basically take the same courses over their 4-year tenure in the university. But only certain students want to regurgitate the knowledge that they have acquired over the years. These are the students that have chosen teaching as their profession. The ones that want to pass on what they have learned to students need to not only be knowledgeable in their subjects, but need to know how to understand the students. If a teacher can not understand their students, then there is very little hope for the professor teaching the student anything.

Understanding a student is a complex process that takes a lot of training. A teacher needs to know what the child is thinking in order to fully understand them. Teachers need to be able to communicate with the students so the student can tell the teacher what he is thinking. Another way to understand a student is to study social psychology. Social psychology is the study of the effects of people on people. More specifically, social psych observes how interactions between people affect an individual. Social psychologists study how people react in groups, emotional behavior, and attitudes and opinions of people. Since there is never a time in school when a child is alone, it is imperative that a teacher understands how children act and react when they are placed in a group or classroom. A teacher needs to understand why some kids are more outgoing, while others seem to fade away in classes. It is the teacher s job to know the reason a child is not learning to the best of his capabilities. Social psychology looks at these problems and researches solutions that will remedy a child s abnormal behavior in the classroom. A teacher that is fluent in social psychology and understands the way a child thinks is much more equipped to take on the everyday problems of teaching.

Even though a teacher is more apt to benefit through social psychology, School Psychologists specialize in clinical psychology. While a teacher may deal with problems that a child has interacting with others, a school psychologist deals with behavior problems that do not necessarily have to do with the class. School psychologists study the individual instead. They deal with all aspects of school, not just teaching. They monitor not only learning and social relation, but testing, substance abuse, neglect of the child, and violence. But in the end teachers and school psychologists have the same goal in mind, which is creating the best learning environment for all students.

Teachers have a great responsibility on their hands. They are accountable for what a child does in his school career. A teacher needs to know the best way to help a child learn. Psychology is a great help to let a teacher know what is going on in the mind of his student. Psychology is the key to a teacher understanding his students. The better a teacher can understand his students, the more the student can learn. If a student can learn, then that teacher is the most successful educator in the world.