Psychology for beginners?

Question

I really like the idea of psychology. However i dont know where to start. i dont want a career from it i just want to learn more for my own knowledge. whats the best thing to do? ive seen the psychology for dummies book, would this be a good start? Any suggestions please?

Answer 1

Listen !

Really listen and observe people . Try not to judge them or even to analyze .

Start out by just observing  cause and affect.

As you mature your thoughts will mature also, some of understanding psychology just comes with growing 'up' , growing older and going through a little self examination.

Read , read, read, and  observe is my unprofessional advice.

Answer 2

Here is a link to information about each field of psychological study: http://www.socialpsychology.org/psylinks...

American Psychological Association (APA) website: http://www.apa.org/

Other sites:  

http://allpsych.com/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/

Answer 3

The first step is not to observe other people, its to observe your own thought process.  Why don’t you start with what you are and not with what you should be?  Without understanding what you are, merely to try to change it into what you think you should be has no meaning.

If you do not understand the self whatever you think may be wrong or misguided.

To find yourself, think for yourself.  Understanding of the self is a surer road to truth than a profound seeking after knowledge or an ideology.

If you look at what you are actually are and understand it, then in that very understanding there is transformation.  

Would we have any problems if the self (thinking about yourself) were absent?  Beauty is where you are not; the essence of beauty is the absence of the self.  What happens when you are ambitious?

You are thinking about yourself, are you not?  Where the self is, love is not.

If you don’t understand your own thinking, which is self-knowledge, whatever you think has very little meaning.

Without first knowing yourself, how can you know what is true?  Illusion is inevitable without self-knowledge.

The  greater the outward show, the greater the inward poverty.

The myth, the ideal, is unreal, it is a self-projected escape, it has no actuality.  The actual is what you are.  What you are is much more important than what you should be.

You can understand what is, but you cannot understand what should be.

You do not want to see or know what is happening within yourself.  You disregard the inner and hope to build the outer, yet the inner is always overcoming the outer.  The outer cannot last without the fullness of the inner, but the fullness of the inner is not the repetitious sensation of organized religion nor the accumulation of facts called knowledge.

You must know yourself as you are, not as you wish to be which is merely an ideal and therefore fictitious, unreal, it is only that which is that can be transformed, not that which you wish to be.

If you don’t compare yourself with another, you will be what you are.

Without understanding, sorrow will continue.  Sorrow ends only through self knowledge, the awareness of every thought and feeling, every movement of the conscious and that which is hidden.

If you care so much about what others say about you, you will continue to fool yourself and lie to them.

If you listen to that flattery with complete attention, neither liking nor disliking, listen to it completely, wholly, then an image is not formed, you do not call him your friend, and alternatively, the person who insults you, you do not call him your enemy.

Even as a great rock is not shaken by the wind, the wise person is not shaken by praise or blame.

The very conception that self-knowledge is difficult to aquire is a hinderence to self-knowledge.

If there is no experiencer is there an experience.

To bring about order outside, there must first be order within.

We react to physical dangers but not to psychological dangers, which are much more devastating.

Because we are inwardly empty, dull, mediocre, we use our relationships and our social reforms as a means of escaping from ourselves.

Self knowledge is not an end in itself.  Is there a source to the stream?

Obviously, if I do not understand myself, the whole of relationship is one of confusion in ever-widening circles.

Without self-knowledge what you think is not true.

Without understanding yourself you cannot understand reality.

The ending of sorrow comes with self-knowledge, out of that self knowledge there is passion.

When we say “I must get rid of desire” who is the entity that is trying to get rid of something?  Is it not that entity also the outcome of desire.  

Without understanding yourself, whatever you do will inevitably bring about confusion and sorrow.

One can be a light to oneself only when there is no self.

Attatchment is the me, if there is no attatchment there is no me.

Its only when we see something totally that we understand it, we cannot see it totally if there is self-centered activity that guides, shapes our actions and thoughts.

Studying psychology from a book will block your understanding of the self.

Answer 4

I am also interested in this field (how weird) I'm actually going to college next year to study it and hopefully get a career out of it. I know I'm not exactly answering your question but i just wanted to share with you that i'm also interested in psychology as well :)

Answer 5

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