# You know you are a Psychology student when…



## Georgii (Jul 31, 2011)

*You know you are a Psychology student when…*

…you tell someone what your major is and they ask if you can read their mind;
…you see a couple or parents with a child, you try to analyse their relationship;
…people start telling you about their weird dreams;
…you have tried to diagnose yourself with at least three mental disorders;
…you try to cure yourself from them using CBT;
…you blame your bad attachments if it does not work;
…you bang your head and attempt to work out which functions will be affected if you have damaged that area of your brain;
…words like “repression” are used on a weekly basis;
…you blame your problems on obscure childhood events;
…you read anything based on statistics, you wonder how reliable the research methods used were;
…you wish you had an identical twin so you could try to work out which aspects (or traits) of you are genetic;
…you try to do unofficial experiments on people around you;
…you ask someone what they think of something, you are aware of demand characteristics;
…you will never look at lighthouses in the same way again, thanks to Freud;
…you get annoyed when people claim to have OCD, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, or the likeness, when in fact, they do not;
…you know that Schizophrenia does not indicate multiple personalities;
…you have measured your stress level at least once;
…you recognise your Fight or Flight response system;
…you psychoanalyse your friends, parents, relatives, etc.;
…you understand the joke “you are an independent variable … so easily manipulated”;
…biology, chemistry, and physics students see your subject as “not a real science”; you are not sure whether you agree or not;
…you still drink energy drinks despite knowing about the placebo effect;
…a bell rings, you salivate;
…the name “Zimbardo” means something to you;
…you have thought about trying to condition someone;
…you have seen any of these movies: “One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest,” “American Psycho,” “Girl Interrupted,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Rain Man,” “Analyse This & Analyse That,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “51st Date,” and “Black Swan”;
…you try out little experiments like proximity in lifts or staring at people until they look away, and observing their stress/anger levels if they do not;
…you use reverse psychology on a daily basis;
…the words “did you know there was a study done by…” come out of your mouth at least once a day (during exam period anyway!);
…you cite a research article to debunk someone’s arguments about basic psychological concepts;
…you giggled the first time you studied the psychosexual stages (anal retentive, orally aggressive, the “genital” stage);
…the name Stanley Milgram shocks you;
…you have had loaded discussions with people you have never met before about why Freud was wrong;
…you have challenged a theoretical physicist who claims psychology has no concrete evidence etc.;
…you start screaming at anyone who calls psychology an "easy degree," and subsequently start spilling out the parts of the brain with the longest names to prove a point;
…you know anything can mean the exact opposite because of Reaction Formation;
…you start using words like quantative and qualitative data in other subjects;
…you tell others you are a psychology student, they often always say, "Oh, so now you can try to work me out then!”
…others doodle something and ask you, “So what does my doodle say about me? Does it mean I am going to kill someone?”
…you also know that negative reinforcement is NOT punishment;
…you look at a child’s drawing and approximate his or her age based on your knowledge of drawing development in children;
…you look at a child’s drawing and then start to interpret what the different aspects of it mean based on your knowledge of drawing development in children;
…you can win every argument with your parents by arguing that everything wrong in your life is their fault;
…people find you weird, and you are happy about it;
…you break down and analyse everything others say, everything you read, etc.;
…the figure 0.059 causes you to exclaim, “For God’s sake!” out loud;
…you share your hate for SPSS becomes part of your daily routine;
…you wonder about the causes of the onset of mental conditions as manifested in movies;
…you cringe when a non-psychology student tries to explain someone else’s behaviour;
…you sit in lectures and suddenly come to the realisation that the females outnumber the males;
…you see a naughty child and your first thought is “Little Albert,” followed by a trail of thoughts on how to get it through the ethics committee;
…you know who 'Little Albert' is;
…you get carried away talking about the mechanisms involved in the brain when a stimulus is presented, while seeing nothing but blank expressions on the faces of those in the room;
…you cringed when you first learnt about Freud’s Oedipus and Electra complexes, but you secretly thought his theory was fascinating;
…you attempt to make your friends believe an event that never actually happened;
…you spot errors in cinematic interpretation of mental disorders;
…you know the APA referencing system like the back of your hand;
…your copy of the APA Manual is beyond used;
…you know when you have kids that you are just going to analyse and experiment on them, while making sure they are going through the appropriate developmental stages;
…you recognise H.M.’s contribution to our understanding of memories;
…you keep calling estate agents, "Payne, et al." and "Martin, et al." rather than "Payne Associates" and "Martin & Co";
…no one wants to take you to a psychological thriller because you will either spoil it for them or critique it all the way through;
…you see a parent yell or smack their child in the supermarket and your mind runs through its implications, the psychological consequences, and how you would be a better parent;
…in a normal conversation with friends and family, you look at their faces and realise you have gone off on a psychology tangent, while they have no idea what you are talking about;
…you look at couples and guess how long they will last, due to Balance Theory of Physical Attractiveness;
…people ask you to try and figure them out just seconds after introducing themselves to you;
…others wonder what your job prospects are as you introduce your major;
…one of your friends lists a jumble of ridiculous symptoms and asks if they are crazy;
…you attempt to figure out what your friends have inherited by observing their parents;
…you leave children alone in a room just to see how they react when you come back;
…you sit there in your Statistics lectures thinking, “I did not sign up for this”;
…you look at couples around you and can work out if they will stay together or not;
…your first year exams are multiple choice;
…you know that GABA isn't just a music genre;
…you cannot help but cringe when you hear people say “I can just read people” as if it were that easy;
…you think you will know exactly how to raise your children, just because you are studying psychology;
…you pick up on the slightest changes in speech, tones of voice, body language, and the likeness, then attempt to figure out what could be wrong—even nothing is wrong;
…you have read the words “analysis” and “participants” so many times they have lost all meaning and all you see now is “anal—” and “—pants”;
…you can give psychological reasons as to why your previous relationships have failed, and it was never your fault;
…you have assessed your parents’ parenting style (i.e. authoritative, etc.) and analysed the impact this has had on your development;
…your friends ask you to be quiet for talking about retrograde amnesia as they watch "Memento";
…you cannot wait to become qualified, so you can never bother with the Statistics part of Psychology ever again;
…your best friend, whom you have always helped with his or her problems, falls in love with you and you think he or she suffers from transference;
…your university does not subscribe you to the journals that you want;
…you know EXACTLY how to revise through all the particular methods (Like Miller's "Chunking") yet still never seem to get anywhere;
…you cannot watch TV or read science magazines anymore without sitting there and correcting everything;
…you spend “Deal or No Deal” working out what “errors of reasoning” they are committing;
…you can watch Frasier and ACTUALLY understand it;
…you know what Ecological Validity means by heart;
…you see a 6-months-old baby trying to put EVERYTHING into its mouth and say to the person next to you, “that child is going through the oral stage,” then get a strange look because the other person has no clue what you are talking about;
…you get bored of the countless bad re-enactments of Milgram's study;
…you start thinking that the best name for any dog is “Pavlov”;
…you read an article about a study and point out how it only used a limited sample so cannot be generalised;
…you forget that the people around you who do not study psychology have few ideas about how and why things in the mind can go awry, and thus you end up having higher expectations of their ability to tolerate peculiar things;
…you know that ABBA does not refer to a 70s musical group;
…you correct people every time they say you are a “psycho” student;
…you often wonder what had rats done to every single psychologist/physiologist to deserve electrocution and/or disembowelment;
…someone says that he or she has a huge ego, you wonder who does not;
…you wonder what possessed you at the time of admissions to choose psychology as a major;
…you cannot seem to solve your own problems, even though you are supposed to help others solve theirs;
…you can name at least three people in your class who make you want to bang your head against the table when they raise their hand during class;
…you are extremely confused and unnerved about how that person sitting opposite to you would treat his or her patients in the future, while feeling sorry for the poor unassuming bloke;
…you think Thorndike should have just let the cat out;
…by the end of 1st year, you realise that everyone was right—you really are a “psycho” student;
…you ask people if they would like to participate in your research study, but then they suddenly remember that they have a class or have to leave college for some other pending “business”;
…you scream at someone for saying, "So, you are going to be a psychiatrist then?", then having to explain the difference between psychiatry and psychology;
…everyone you know accuses you of “shrinking” them, as though you own an electromagnetic shrink ray or something of the sort;
…you see small children and can pinpoint exactly where they are in Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development;
…you cannot hear the word “nature” without thinking “nurture” and vice-versa;
…you know exactly which part of the sleep cycle has the most probability for you to get your roommate to talk in her or his sleep;
…you know what Savant Syndrome is and you did not learn about it from the movie "Rain Man";
…studying for a class exam on the psychological effects of sleep deprivation is actually causing you sleep deprivation; 
…you can remember every part of Erikson and Piaget's theories of development, but you cannot remember your roommate’s birthday; 
…you cite your over abundant caffeine consumption as an "Alzheimer's prevention method";
…you see a baby and instead of thinking, "Aw, how cute!" you think, "Hmm… I wonder if it has grasped object permanence yet";
…you still have and use your Introduction to Psychology textbook;
…you are not indifferent to Freud, you either like him, or you wish to resurrect him from the dead and shoot him for personal satisfaction; 
…you read the previous statement and began to wonder if I had a violent childhood for suggesting such a thing;
…you hear a statistic on T.V. and wonder what the sample size of the study was, and if the study in question truly represents the population at large;
…you have developed an emotional connection to your lab-rat, and would gladly take a bullet for the small furry rodent, as once she dies you will fail your lab research class;
…you think writing a 5 page essay is a nightmare;
…you scream, “APA is HELL!”
…you find no difference between mid-terms and finals, both are equally stressful;
…you hate group assignments if the members are randomly assigned;
…you either hate TurnItIn or love it, depending on the originality percentage;
…you begin to used psychological terms in your everyday conversations;
…only psychology students understand your jokes;
…you begin to analyse your own love life during your Social Psychology course;
…you think that double spacing is a blessing in a 20-page report;
…you stop doing all those things after a while.


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## Lackjester (Aug 16, 2011)

I actually read all of that. Funny stuff.


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## conscius (Apr 20, 2010)

That was funny. I could relate. Thank you.


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## atsleepwalkingpace (Jul 8, 2011)

Related to almost all of them, laughed, then was glad my friends weren't here to see the weird things I laugh at 



....don't analyse the smiley face, it's just a smiley face.


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## EmmaLeigh (Aug 14, 2009)

Heheh. Yeah. <nods>
Actually, what I most often get from others when told my major is, "Oh, you're analyzing me, aren't you..." To which I, of course, reply, "only if you pay me 100 bucks an hour"

And I DO have three mental disorders, what are you talking about? (J/K ... I actually DO have OCD, though. Otherwise, I have plenty of symptoms for different things, but I figure that as long I have a grasp on reality and don't kill anyone, I'm good)


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## Lunacik (Apr 19, 2014)

Lmao why did this thread die? This was fucking great.


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## Lunacik (Apr 19, 2014)

Georgii said:


> …your best friend, whom you have always helped with his or her problems, falls in love with you and you think he or she suffers from transference;


This is actually...accurate. I have a distant friend that imo likes me as more than a friend because of his attachment to his ex. He calls me his best friend but I think he just idealizes me / places me on a pedestal due to transference.



Georgii said:


> …you cringed when you first learnt about Freud’s Oedipus and Electra complexes, but you secretly thought his theory was fascinating;


Tbh I just thought he created an entire theory by projecting.


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