Master's degree in Psychology

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Has anybody gone through this? Will it be hard for someone who has a bachelor's degree in 'Business & Management' but who has a keen interest in all things brain-related and different, psychological phenomenom?

I'm enrolled to begin in October but it's a bit daunting. I'm going to approach it like a wild animal facing its nemesis. It's my life or the degree.

Cannot let it defeat me.

Guess it's a stupid idea for people on the spectrum. How good are you at reading people? Are you able to tell who likes whom around you and at which degree and what's up with them at all? Do you get them all emotional? Do people do like you and trust you from the beginning? Do you feel empathy? Did you notice yourself that most women are much better at this then avarage men are and that there are even hugh differences among women that even influences their self-esteem?
You can improve a lot at all of this without studying psychology. But I think it's mostly better to keep it a hobby instead of making it your profession if you are bad if it comes to reading other people.

Last edited by quite an extreme on 18 Apr 2020, 12:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm going to say, if you are not as locked away as some autistic people, go for it. Maybe you can actually help people, instead of, like "quite an extreme," allowing the cycle to continue of neurotypicals (who, I fear, may lack theory of mind) defining us.

Go for it. Unleash the angel and the beast.

Just for fun - what do you get if watching this picture:
viewtopic.php?t=377520

It depends if this is an MA or an MSc.

Do you have a science background? A Master's in Psych will involve lab work as well as statistics and biology.

It sounds fun though. Good luck!

Hi guys

Thank you for the replies.

Okay, so I’ll try to address each post with the name of each poster first of all since I can’t see a multi-quote function here.

Quite an extreme:

I’m an atypical case, so I’m better at reading people than the average Autistic person. I was retrospectively, officially diagnosed in 2017 with ‘ASD’, but I went to mainstream school and didn’t start getting bullied until I was maybe 13? So people didn’t necessarily notice I was 'weird' or 'different' until then. I’m 31 now and have learned a lot how to blend in with ‘neurotypical’ people.

I do recognise the social bonds between people and usually I recognise any given social hierarchy too, which is painful for me since I’m usually near to the bottom . My biggest Autistic weakness is that I’m super blunt sometimes when it comes to emotional considerations and I can upset people because of that. But I can reign that in – it’s just hard and unnatural for me.

I do have empathy but I can often delay empathy or suppress it rather than it being a gut reaction? Like, I’m good at communicating even under stress which is unusual I guess for an Autistic person.
I’m looking to get a job in ‘human resourcing’. Both Business skills and Psychology skills are valued there and so that’s what I want to do.

Borromeo: I’m not locked away. I work nearly full-time (although I’m on ‘furlough’ currently due to the Covid-19 crisis and have to stay at home until the end of May). I also study various things and like to gain knowledge in my spare time across a variety of different subject matter.

Thanks for the support/encouragement.

IsabellaLinton:

I’m based in the UK and we have ‘conversion’ courses here where you can pursue a Master’s degree in Psychology and it gives you all of the foundational skills that you need without having to have an undergraduate degree in that field.

You can do it (a master's in Psychology) in as little as one academic year, but I’m choosing to take two years so as to make it more manageable for me.

Also, I’m currently doing an Information Technology course that is teaching me Microsoft Excel, as well as other things, (online based), so that I won’t become stuck when it comes to statistics.

That's good. I don't really know and care any social hierarchy. I talked and drank with a beggar on the boardwalk as well as with some few of the multimillionaires around. I know how to become friend with guys and being trusted and how to claim the top of the 'hierarchy' of guys in good old stoneage style. Don't even know why but who cares? But I guess it's the reason why I don't get women emotionally at all.

Last edited by quite an extreme on 18 Apr 2020, 2:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Sounds good, blitzkrieg.

My bf has an M.Ed in Counselling Psychology for troubled teens.

He really enjoyed his career and his studies. It sounds like you will too!

You could easily work in the administration side of a psychology business with business undergraduate and psychology graduate degrees.

There are many autistic psychology graduates. I used to run into them all the time in school. I don’t know how hirable they were or what specific jobs they ended up with.

Also-delayed or controllable empathy would be profoundly useful if you worked with children or abuse survivors.

I just graduated with honors with a bachelors in business and management. I plan to get a masters in psychology. I had to take a decent amount of psych and behavior as part of the management degree. I also took a large amount of psych and behavior as part of my associates degree. Autism *can* make that kind of work harder, and it *can* take longer to learn, but it is entirely possible to learn it and get good at it. I got some of my best grades in psych and behavioral classes. I've also studied sociology and philosophy as well. They all kinda intertwine, and all of them helped me to understand both myself and other people. I've gotten rather good at it.

Have you taken any psychology related classes before? If so, that would be a good indicator as to how you might do in further studies of the same topic. If you haven't taken any psych classes, could you? Like on an undergrad level at the same school you just graduated from? That could be a way to test how you'd do before getting into the full expense of grad school.