[Dmon1Unlimited]

Possibly a very stupid question but meh... As the title says I.e with mental issues that may limit you from being very sociable, can reading up with gcse/a level/uni level psychology books offer any benefit even if it's minor? E.g understand how they react to how you interact with them

I don't know much about it and was curious about what kind of impact it may have when reading one. or am I misunderstanding what psychology really is?

[DontJudge]

You can understand as to why people have certain personality traits/characteristics, which stem from the way they were raised in childhood. About whether they had a secure attachment with their parents or not.

[mel_1991]

Sometimes.

I study Psychology at Uni and I'm still very awkward socially but I can suss other people out pretty quickly.

[Dmon1Unlimited]

(Original post by mel_1991)
Sometimes.

I study Psychology at Uni and I'm still very awkward socially but I can suss other people out pretty quickly.

what do you mean by 'suss people out'?
despite still being awkward, if you imagined you did e.g. maths for a course instead, would you say reading psychology books is worth it in terms of effort put in vs benefit?

[Clare~Bear]

I find psychology very interesting and I understand your question, but I don't think psycholgoy would help with it. Although I don't think it would help with your interactions, I think it helps you to understand other people and why they do certain things and empathise with them.

Sociology might, but I don't do that so I don't know what it includes.

However it might depends on what topics you do. I've done; memory, attachment, stress, social influence and abnormalities.

[mel_1991]

(Original post by Dmon1Unlimited)
what do you mean by 'suss people out'?
despite still being awkward, if you imagined you did e.g. maths for a course instead, would you say reading psychology books is worth it in terms of effort put in vs benefit?

I mean I can work out what peoples intentions by how they act, their body language, how they say things etc.

It is worth it because you'll pick up a few interesting bits and pieces that even if it isn't a lot of information, will at least stick in your head. Good idea is to read a book/look at information related to what you want to know.

[Dmon1Unlimited]

(Original post by mel_1991)
I mean I can work out what peoples intentions by how they act, their body language, how they say things etc.

It is worth it because you'll pick up a few interesting bits and pieces that even if it isn't a lot of information, will at least stick in your head. Good idea is to read a book/look at information related to what you want to know.

with the bold, that sounds quite convenient, did you learn that from books or are you naturally able to?

thanks

[Dmon1Unlimited]

(Original post by Clare~Bear)
I find psychology very interesting and I understand your question, but I don't think psycholgoy would help with it. Although I don't think it would help with your interactions, I think it helps you to understand other people and why they do certain things and empathise with them.

is it not similar? as in with the bold, if i understood what i did to them (what stimuli i gave them e.g complimenting them), then based on what you said, i should be able to have an idea of why they do those 'certain things' i.e. why they react a certain way to the stimuli ive given...

either way, sounds like an interesting topic to read up on i guess

[ANIGAV]

Psychology is a pretty interesting subeject in itself, it helps you not only understand other people but most importantly, it helps you gain an understanding about yourself which alone would probably boost your confidence thus making you a little morre sociable. You start to grasp all those processes and interactions going on, and maybe even start to laugh about them since everyone does it and you are the one understanding it, it's pretty cool.

[ANIGAV]

Start with Bystander and Halo Effect, understanding those concepts alone will help you a great deal.

[Clare~Bear]

(Original post by Dmon1Unlimited)
is it not similar? as in with the bold, if i understood what i did to them (what stimuli i gave them e.g complimenting them), then based on what you said, i should be able to have an idea of why they do those 'certain things' i.e. why they react a certain way to the stimuli ive given...

either way, sounds like an interesting topic to read up on i guess

Oh I suppose. I thought you meant that if you had a mental illness, would it help you to socialise. Which it might do. Szasz believes it's all about control, so if you've got some illnesses, you can appear to be normal if you have self control and don't let over people control you or your illness. But this is more effective with some illnesses than others.

[wanderlust.xx]

(Original post by Dmon1Unlimited)
what do you mean by 'suss people out'?
despite still being awkward, if you imagined you did e.g. maths for a course instead, would you say reading psychology books is worth it in terms of effort put in vs benefit?

Just as an interesting remark, I've always been interested in behavioral psychology and I ended up doing a maths degree. I've read a good few books on the subject and they're all pretty interesting, and you can in fact apply certain parts to your own life.

Best of both worlds imo.

[Dmon1Unlimited]

(Original post by Clare~Bear)
Oh I suppose. I thought you meant that if you had a mental illness, would it help you to socialise. Which it might do. Szasz believes it's all about control, so if you've got some illnesses, you can appear to be normal if you have self control and don't let over people control you or your illness. But this is more effective with some illnesses than others.

I did
I may have difficulty in socialising but i can at least minimise any difficulty by trying to understand what one would think after I interact with them

I.e what I'm doing wrong etc

[mel_1991]

(Original post by Dmon1Unlimited)
with the bold, that sounds quite convenient, did you learn that from books or are you naturally able to?

thanks

A bit of both; I've always been observant but the books do help to expand this and pick up on the little things

And no problem, I am happy to help

[Nutty_Psychologist]

It depends which course you do at uni tbf. The course I'm doing is very biologically, so it gives you the biological reasons behind our behaviour which is very interesting. a lot of what I do at Uni is not what I thought it would be when imagining psychology. The abnormal behaviour module was really good though, talked about anxiety, depression, schizophrenia etc
Pop psychology books are usually helpful with those sorts of questions you want to know.

[GeorgetheAug]

You won't turn into The Mentalist overnight if that's what you mean.
It has given me some good insight into how and why people behave in certain ways, but I'm not sure I'd say it helps me much in a social context.

[NB_ide]

(Original post by Dmon1Unlimited)
Possibly a very stupid question but meh... As the title says I.e with mental issues that may limit you from being very sociable, can reading up with gcse/a level/uni level psychology books offer any benefit even if it's minor? E.g understand how they react to how you interact with them

I don't know much about it and was curious about what kind of impact it may have when reading one. or am I misunderstanding what psychology really is?

It can make it worse, I reckon. People who are naturally very sociable and socially able don't know why or how they are - and if you try to talk about the details of it they won't have a clue what you're on about and will tell you to just stop overthinking it and "do it". Many are a bit thick as well, which makes it harder to probe.

Look at it like this - if mentally you are not like other people, and you find it hard to pretend (even though you may know exactly how things work in theory), learning more and more details doesn't add anything to your acting ability as such. Just like how the world's top expert on chimps couldn't get into a chimp costume and live unnoticed among them in the wild. He'd stick out like a sore thumb, even though he knows way more about chimp behaviour than chimps know themselves.

I can only suggest total immersion as far as possible, and this USUALLY involves drugs at first - alcohol is fine.

Do you behave normally on alcohol? I am a profoundly strange person and have qualified for various popular labels like "aspergic" and one or two others, but when I get drunk I have the confidence and ease of a normal sober person. Basically it stops me thinking about things - I notice way too much about people as it is - and I just get on with being a normal moron.

[Dmon1Unlimited]

(Original post by NB_ide)
It can make it worse, I reckon. People who are naturally very sociable and socially able don't know why or how they are - and if you try to talk about the details of it they won't have a clue what you're on about and will tell you to just stop overthinking it and "do it". Many are a bit thick as well, which makes it harder to probe.

Look at it like this - if mentally you are not like other people, and you find it hard to pretend (even though you may know exactly how things work in theory), learning more and more details doesn't add anything to your acting ability as such. Just like how the world's top expert on chimps couldn't get into a chimp costume and live unnoticed among them in the wild. He'd stick out like a sore thumb, even though he knows way more about chimp behaviour than chimps know themselves.

I can only suggest total immersion as far as possible, and this USUALLY involves drugs at first - alcohol is fine.

Do you behave normally on alcohol? I am a profoundly strange person and have qualified for various popular labels like "aspergic" and one or two others, but when I get drunk I have the confidence and ease of a normal sober person. Basically it stops me thinking about things - I notice way too much about people as it is - and I just get on with being a normal moron.

regarding the bold in the back of my mind i was worried it would come down to that

by immersion, are you implying, getting myself into groups of friends constantly, trying to push myself to gain experience by constantly being surrounded in a social environment? ive thought about this, but getting it to happen practically is a lot harder than ive imagined...

regarding alcohol, id say im decent, while it loosens me up, i think another reason why its effective is that it loosens up the others at the same time... so any obvious difference between us is a bit more clouded...ive not had any downsides to drinking other than what i get from over drinking lol

[Bhumbauze]

It'll help you understand other people better, but it probably won't help you to be any different. That's purely down to confidence. No amount of book learning can change it.

...tbh, if anything it'll just end up making you like other people less, as you'll much more easily be able to see through the masses of bull**** that most people pipe out constantly.

[Noodlzzz]

As a psychology undergrad and a mental health service user I am qualified to tell you that no, it won't help solve anything just help understanding why.