Marashi 1

Cameron Marashi
Ms. Hamby
ENGL 1101 Section 19
8 October 2014
How to Understand the Understanding
In the year of 2006-2007, over one and a half million people graduated in college with a bachelor
in Psychology. Understandably, psychology majors still make up a sizable group on UNCCs campus.
Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting

behavior in a given context. But why do Psychology majors harbor such an intense yearning to
understand psychology? Even more compelling, Psychology is a course of study most of us are familiar
with. AP Psychology is one of the most commonly taken college class offered by high schools; so many
people have had an experience with psychology, yet only a handful of these people want to devote their
lives to the research. So who are psychology majors? If you look at hem skin deep, they are majority
critical women, mostly all from middle class families, all with the goal of analyzing the human psyche to
look into what makes a man behave as a man.
Methodology
I began my research on the twenty-fourth of September. It was a cold and rainy day and I was in
my room interviewing Natalie Schopen. Natalie is a friend of mine who is already very comfortable with
me. I offered her to sit in an extra chair I brought, but she chose to sit on my bed. She had a very relaxed
demeanor, until we began the actual interview. She sat up in her chair and crossed her legs while talking
about psychology. Her whole behavior became more professional. I may have noted these details but the
information I primarily focused on was her record account of psychology. I tried to play an active role in
our conversations to make sure the interview would avoid being awkward. Although I did all I could to
not put words in her mouth, the major limitation I faced while interviewing Natalie was that she has been
a good friend for a long time, so there is a chance she spiced what she responded with up so I had
something to write about.

Marashi 2

I also read some text from a popular psychology magazine, Psychology Today, where I
conducted my analysis on the article, New Insights into the Genetics of Schizophrenia. I made
many of my observations for this part of my research based off of the website on the home page,
while my analysis will come from the text. But from what I can observe from the home page is
that psychologists discuss many aspects of life and give them their own categories. The majority
of the titles that showed this were more informal sites, but looking further, there were some
advanced psychology topics. I may be limited to what I can decipher from these texts because I
am not as well versed as other people might on this topic.
Analysis
Natalie is a first year psychology major who is an avid member of the Psychology
Student Coalition. She was very comfortable during the interview, which was conducted in my
room in a very informal setting. It was also a place she was comfortable in, which allowed her to
feel free to speak her mind. My initial observation was that Natalie spent much of her time
trying to compose the perfect sentences to answer my questions. There was never a moment in
my conversation with her where I received a one word answer, when asking her about what the
ideal psychology student was. She seemed that she always needed to clarify herself. She had
responded to my question with, The ideal psychology student is a critically thinking student
who, although not open to believe any information at face value, is still open to new ideas and
philosophies, focusing on others behaviors and understanding mental processes more than their
own. Once Natalie began talking, her body language also began to change. Her posture
straightened and she even crossed her legs. Natalies transition from informal to sudden
professional shows that this is a very academic and professional field of learning, that is only for
those who are serious in the field of psychology. This was later affirmed in the interview Natalie

Marashi 3

stated, Its really important to know the terms in psychology, most of psychology is learning the
vocabulary and how to apply them, learning them is important but applying the words into what
you research is probably considerably the most important.
I also analyzed Psychology Todays, New Insights Into the Genetics of Schizophrenia,
And one of the most interesting things that I noticed was that this article wasnt a public service
announcement and it wasnt about learning. This article was not meant to explain the symptoms
of schizophrenia and how it affects those who have it, but rather, this article more so to just say
what researchers found about the genetics of schizophrenia. The picture that was posted with the
article wasnt even meant to cause the reader to evoke an emotional reaction; it was just a picture
of DNA that highlighted the genes that are attributed with schizophrenia. This is shown when the
article starts with Lets dive in, followed by a blunt description of what schizophrenia is. This
was clearly written for an audience who has had prior experience with schizophrenia jumping
right into the cold hard facts. While some articles on the website are for those who are less
serious about psychology, there is very serious scientific material that this magazine contains
such as How the brain processes and keeps up with joneses and A strange Place: Dissecting
the Neuroscience Nobel prize. That psychology student are not as interested in curing or
alleviating mental problems, There real interest lies in understanding these problems. They may
have found ways that may help people but they had created these ways by better understanding
the brain.
Psychology is a very academic field of study where the students main priority is to
understand the brain and mental illness, and if possible treat these problems. This discourse
community is not one on par with Browncoats or Whovians they are a community of

Marashi 4

professionals who goals are to get a degree in psychology and pursue research to continue there
studies on the human mind.

"New Insights Into the Genetics of Schizophrenia." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness +
Find a Therapist. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2014.