#blame it on my anthropology minor which has been AMAZING and taught me far more than my actual major

[allonsymiddleearth]

So I’m taking this graduation survey from my school’s psychology program and god. I’m going to put the longer part of my rambling rant at my school under a cut, but I thought this one deserved to be above it.

So first there’s this:

[[image reads: “your Psychology courses at the University of Arizona have contributed to your ability to apply ethical standards to evaluate psychological sciences and practice.” with options “strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree.” Strongly disagree is highlighted.]]

actually laughed out loud. The U of A psych department knows SO MUCH about ethics, clearly, with professors leaving due to racism experienced while other, tenured, professors take money from a literal actual eugenics fund and no one official bats an eye because, hah, who cares? Being supported by eugenicists doesn’t make you one, obviously!! (It does here, sry.) Also I spent a whole fucking semester with Eugenics Scrooge, telling you all the bullshit she came up with, and she’s still teaching the same fucking class at this very moment and no one talked to her about it, so I’m gonna guess no. 

Also there’s this little quiz at the end testing whether they managed to teach us basic psychological concepts and THEY ABSOLUTELY DID NOT. 

My first semester here I actually took PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY and we spent absolutely no time whatsoever, at all, learning about idk, relevant topics to personality?? We learned that there WERE personality disorders, we did not learn what they were, and unfortunately we did not cover the Big Five even in title. 

Now, pre-University of Arizona, I was actually interested in the field of psychology research so I do know a bit, but only because I used to read studies on my own, plus I’ve read tons of medical journals out of necessity for my own survival with a semi-rare disease so I may not know everything about those fields, but I have a pretty good idea of the scientific method, of research standards, and of academic writing. And I have friends who are social workers, half my family has psych degrees, and a lot of people in both those groups including myself have actually been to therapy so I have some basic knowledge on topics like what cognitive behavioral therapy is and what the Big Five are (it’s the first option.) 

But DAMN nothing highlights how bad my education really has been like seeing what the actual people in charge of my education THINK they should have taught me, knowing they haven’t even a little.

There was a little spot on the survey in which I could tell them how to improve the program, and I was like, “I literally know almost nothing more about psychology than when I started this degree, with the exception of a few studies I’ve read now that I easily could have read for free in the public domain and not paid more money than I’ll ever make in my lifetime for professors to take the easy way out of actually teaching an online class. Hey also, I would have had a MUCH better time here if the U of A would decide that eugenics wasn’t okay and not have a professor literally teach the class that humanity would be better off if people like me were dead but hey, at least the academic advisors in the psych program are good, sure!” except slightly more professionally... slightly. 

Anyway, I go to school in The Bad Place honestly. 

#sometimes in math or french i'm like 'did i learn this? i really don't think i ever did' #and i could be wrong #because i easily could have missed it or forgotten because i didn't really get it #but i'm actually good at social science and I used to like it before this hellhole ruined it for me forever so I would definitely remember #if we had learned this #and i specifically remember asking why we didn't learn this #no answer #except that the prof wanted to make the class 'more unique' or whatever like wow thx that makes up for not having a real education in #the thing i'm studying #but you know what we DID learn?? #we had a whole unit in personality on buddhism and another on hinduism #which i'll totally give you that studying religions like those from a perspective of serving a purpose towards psychological health is #interesting #BUT IT IS DEFINITELY NOT PERSONALITY #my pointless rants have sources maybe I AM academic #but if i am #blame it on my anthropology minor which has been AMAZING and taught me far more than my actual major #sure a lot of it was reading articles on my own that i probably could have done for free if i'd googled the class title in google scholar #but they were actually curated to include ranges and then DISCUSSED you know #because i actually like the subject and professors teaching it did so ethically and well and usually really interestingly #like you're SUPPOSED TO DO IN HIGHER EDUCATION #(okay i don't hate all social science but i'm certainly never working in it and I don't think I'll ever touch psychology in any official #capacity with a 10 foot pole) #i miss music school