The Psychology Student's Survival Guide

by Matt Jarvis (Totton College); Maggie Linnell (University of Portsmouth)

• ISBN13: 9781405167413
• ISBN10: 1405167416
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Finally, there is an indispensable guide for the student considering a career in psychology. The Psychology Student's Survival Guide focuses exclusively on the personal study skills and unique writing and research techniques required of psychology to help the beginning student prepare for a career in this increasingly popular field of study. In addition, the text provides a wealth of practical advice and psychology career pathways available to guide the student in making well-informed choices.Speaking directly to the individual, The Psychology Student's Survival Guide dispenses with jargon as it addresses many of the key questions unique to psychological training with clarity and thoroughness. A collection of interactive exercises in Part 1 is designed to provide valuable personal insights to individual students to help them develop critical thinking skills necessary to enter - and navigate through - the various disciplines in the field of psychology. The text's second section then provides a historical overview of psychology and its key approaches and developments, followed by an introduction to some of the field's contemporary ideas and ongoing debates, and guidance on today's career pathways in psychology.The Psychology Student's Survival Guide is a reader-friendly guide filled with real-world practical advice for students everywhere. It is an essential student companion for developing the critical thinking skills necessary for a career in psychology - and for life itself.

Table of Contents

Getting to Grips With Studying Psychology

This is the most distinctive element of the book, and transforms it from merely a resource to be taken off the shelf for occasional consultation to a primary support mechanism, addressing the concerns of the student and guiding them, not merely on what to expect from a psychology degree but how to adapt to it from their current position..

From lay person to psychology student

An interactive chapter starting with psychological issues as presented in the Media and developing search and critical thinking tasks from these

The aim is to lead the reader through the process of secondary research, drawing scientific conclusions and contrasting these with popular representations of psychology...

From A-level to undergraduate psychology

A further interactive chapter introducing students to the nature of undergraduate study, including the use of primary sources and electronic resources including databases like PsycINFO and statistical programmes like SPSS

Exercises would aim to show the limitations of relying on introductory texts eg. by comparing individualised abstracts with textbook representations of studies...

Understanding your own learning

A reflective chapter encouraging the individual to appraise their own learning style (perhaps using Felder & Solomon's model), balance of creativity and critical thinking (based on Sternberg's triarchic theory), implicit theory of intelligence (using Dweck's ITIS) and learning strategies (eg. using Entwhistle's ASSIST), in order to begin studying psychology with a good level of personal metacognitive awareness...

Study and assessment in Higher Education

A brief informational chapter designed to prepare the student for the learning situations they will encounter, eg. lectures, seminars, practicals, and the nature of assessments eg. exams, reports, essays, presentations

The emphasis would be on clear explanations and basic principles rather than fine details

These can be addressed in more detail in later chapters...

Learning to write psychology essays

.Essays now play a smaller role at A-level than they did in the past so new undergraduates are relatively unprepared for the sort of essays they will have to write

This interactive chapter addresses the content, structure, style and conventions of essay writing, encouraging the student to compare and make judgements about exemplar sections of essays...

Learning to think like a psychologist

An interactive chapter designed to challenge common sense and textbook representation, and encourage students to think independently and critically about psychological material, including theory, studies, research methods and applications

Goes beyond narrow definitions of critical and scientific thinking to talk about the role of creative and practical thinking

Draws on the ideas of McGhee & Mayo...

Writing research reports

.An informational chapter on the conventions of report-writing, including some background to how and why conventions have developed..

The experience of being a psychology undergraduate student

A research-based chapter discussing the experience of being a student, with reference to general student issues such as homesickness and specific research into student perceptions of studying psychology...

Understanding Your Subject

The emphasis here is not on comprehensive c

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