Dilemma of psychology students: which approach to follow?

Hello friends!

I have already said in other texts, comments and on our fanpage – Tudo sobre Psicologia – that psychology should be thought of not as Psychology, but as Psychology. That is, the area of ​​study known as psychology is multiple, it has different approaches that do not agree on the place where they place knowledge (epistemology), nor do they agree on study methods and generally do not agree on treatment techniques or practices.

In principle this is not a problem. If we think of other sciences, we will also see that there are areas of approach in physics, biology, sociology and so on.

In this text, I will try to dialogue with a frequent question of psychology students, which is the following: “What approach should I follow?” I will also talk about my way of seeing the issue and how the “choice” of my approach was for me.

The approaches within psychology

When I say here about approaches within psychology, I am not specifically referring to areas of activity, such as hospital psychology, school/educational psychology, organizational psychology, etc. When we say approaches to psychology, we are talking about ways of understanding the psyche (psychology is the science that studies the psyche). In other words, there are several ways to understand the human being.

If you’re a psychology student, you obviously know this, but I imagine you probably didn’t. before to enter college. And probably didn’t know you should either choose approach.

Depending on your college, you may have a strong focus on subjects and only take a few classes above others. Or it can be balanced (with multiple teachers on each approach).

During my graduation, at the Federal University of São João del-Rei, I had excellent professors in all the main approaches. It’s interesting to look back and see, in my first class, a definition of psychology from a professor who studied the behavioral approach. For her, psychology should be defined as the study of behavior.

Other teachers would say other definitions. With each one pulling to their side, it is easy for the student to get confused and not know which would be the correct approach to be “followed”. Because, at the end of the day, it is very complicated to study all the approaches in depth and, as they are critical of each other, the most common thing is to see people choosing an approach of preference and strongly criticizing the others. Even the famous cliques are formed, each group defending its approach, its line of psychology.

What approach to psychology should I take?

Well, to answer that question, I’m going to tell you from my personal experience and what I saw and heard during college.

I entered the faculty of psychology with the main objective of getting to know psychology. Knowledge, therefore, was my main objective, much more than having a profession afterwards. So that when I wanted to know psychology, I always wanted to know everything.

In the first year, I studied more related areas than psychology itself. I studied philosophy, anthropology, logic, sociology, neuroanatomy, physiology, statistics… all of this to provide a good basis for us to start getting into psychology. I had already studied some authors like Freud and Jung and I knew that the authors were very critical.

In the course on the History of Psychology, this issue became even clearer. I remember as if it were today, asking my professor of this discipline if there was any possibility that psychology could be unique, that is, all approaches would come to an agreement in the future. He said no. What he saw in the future was the specialization of each discipline, increasing the distance from one approach to another.

So there I was halfway through psychology school. But, deep down, I never had any doubts about which approach I would study. I always liked Jung’s view of the psyche and his understanding of clinical psychology. And, right at the beginning, I understood that to understand Jung’s analytical psychology I would have to study psychoanalysis a lot. This is because Freud’s psychoanalysis was used by Jung at the beginning of his works to the point where he himself entered the psychoanalytic movement to, a few years later, leave it and create his own approach.

In summary, to study Jung it would be highly recommended that I study Freud. And that’s what I did. However, in college almost everyone studied Freud according to Lacan. Lacan was an important psychoanalyst, perhaps the greatest after Freud. Although Lacan says he was a Freudian (and not a Lacanian), there are indeed many changes in thought and practice.

Anyway, I ended up studying a lot of Freud – and Lacan.

Veja – Documentary about Lacan

Other approaches, such as behavioral, existential-phenomenological, social psychology, humanistic, also interested me and, in fact, I am interested in them until today. One of the books I’m about to buy and study with dedication is “Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior” by Skinner. I mean, all approaches are interesting and help us to understand human beings better.

The question if we have that choosing an approach – as psychology students – or not is a bit tricky. I would say that sooner or later, we end up finding a worldview that fits our worldview better. An author who thinks and answers many questions as we would (which does not mean that we will not also criticize).

However, in addition to having a main approach, let’s say, I believe it is essential to know all the others. Be interested in other problems and other worldviews. And I say this not only within psychology. We must always remain curious, and study history as much as biology, literature as chemistry, neuroscience as neurolinguistic programming. And this because knowing more helps us in many aspects in the clinic.

For clinical psychology, Jung’s sentence closes the question: “Know all theories, master all techniques, but when touching a human soul, be just another human soul”.

Conclusion

For many people, choosing the psychology approach to dig deeper is a dilemma. Some students see all approaches as correct and true, others think now with one and now with another, and for others all are indifferent.

When there isn’t one that calls our attention and makes us even more motivated to study, the issue of choice must be postponed. Studying is a logical-rational behavior. However, to study more and better we have to have passion. For example, if you are going to study Russian, the best way is to fall in love with the language, the culture and the country. This way it will be much easier…

Therefore, when this passion is not awakened, in the case of approaches to psychology, we must leave it for later. It could be a book or a class that will awaken us to the best area for us. And anyway, we should always stay curious with all theories as well.

Related