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Undergrad Psychology Prep?

Just wondering what people would recommend reading/watching/doing if you're planning to study psychology at university. I'm on a gap year essentially so I have the time now to explore this stuff.
Reply 1
Hi
YouTube is great for gleaning lots of relevant information /knowledge in a relatively short amountof time.
There are free lectures by Harvard professors etc on there.
You could follow up with their recommendations for reading or watching.
Anyway I think it's a good place to start.
Plus I love the behavior panel on YouTube if you are interested in body Language and forensic psychology. Emma Kenny is also excellent!
Hope this helps
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by SupposedlyIronic
Just wondering what people would recommend reading/watching/doing if you're planning to study psychology at university. I'm on a gap year essentially so I have the time now to explore this stuff.

Hi! I study Psychology at Heriot-Watt and before I started I found a couple of resources incredibly helpful. I found that even just brushing up on the basics improved my understanding in my first year.

There are lots of resources available on YouTube - my personal favourite being the 'CrashCourse' channel. They offer basics on different psychological topics (and many other topics also). There are lots of different videos on psychology, and so I picked the ones I was really interested in and watched the more general psychology ones to begin with. (https://www.youtube.com/c/crashcourse/videos)
Additionally, if you look at the social media/academic sites of the university you are interested in (and other universities), you can read about and look into the current and published research of professors/lecturers/students. I found this really helpful as I could explore topics and studies I really enjoyed and found interesting.

I hope this helps!

Claire
Some books you might find helpful:
Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow" - he won a Nobel Prize for his work and this is an interesting account that ties to Cognitive Psychology
The Psychopath Whisperer - Kent Kiehl - a specialist subject rather than a general book but very interesting look at a current topic and written accessibly
Getting your head around the brain - Amanda Ellison - fantastic book that explains Biological Psychology in a fun way although it is quite "heavy" so you may prefer to wait until you get to Uni to read alongside your Bio Psych lectures etc.

These are ones that I found helpful that aren't massive thick textbooks and can introduce you to various areas of Psychology
Original post by SupposedlyIronic
Just wondering what people would recommend reading/watching/doing if you're planning to study psychology at university. I'm on a gap year essentially so I have the time now to explore this stuff.

Hi there,

I would suggest having a look at Jordan Peterson's work. To do that, type Jordan Peterson on YouTube and become familiar with his work, which has massively helped me do my psychology degree.

Hope that helps!

Ivaylo,
BSc Psychology, MSc Health Psychology student
I'm so sorry I haven't been on TSR regularly! Thank you so much for everyone's replies <3
Original post by HWU StudentRep 1
Hi! I study Psychology at Heriot-Watt and before I started I found a couple of resources incredibly helpful. I found that even just brushing up on the basics improved my understanding in my first year.

There are lots of resources available on YouTube - my personal favourite being the 'CrashCourse' channel. They offer basics on different psychological topics (and many other topics also). There are lots of different videos on psychology, and so I picked the ones I was really interested in and watched the more general psychology ones to begin with. (https://www.youtube.com/c/crashcourse/videos)
Additionally, if you look at the social media/academic sites of the university you are interested in (and other universities), you can read about and look into the current and published research of professors/lecturers/students. I found this really helpful as I could explore topics and studies I really enjoyed and found interesting.

I hope this helps!

Claire

Ahh I love CrashCourse! Not looked at their psychology folder but used them a lot for philosophy.

This is great thank you :smile:
(edited 1 year ago)
Honestly you don't need to do any prep, but I watched the CrashCourse videos and they are good background but not necessarily direclty related to what you might study, depending on the modules your uni does

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