As a beginner, how to study psychology systematically from the beginning?

"Learning psychology" is a long way in itself. There are many books related to psychology. Even if you immerse yourself in them for more than ten years, you may only open the corner of the world. ?

Personally, I started with a magazine called Psychological Monthly. Now that the magazine is closed, the original creative team has made a "very psychological" official WeChat account. ?

Even if you want to study systematically, you need to know which branch you want to study first. For example, from the perspective of discipline classification, there are general psychology (studying various basic psychological phenomena of human body such as perception, attention and memory), physiological psychology (related to brain science and neuroscience), developmental psychology (studying how people develop at various stages of life), educational psychology (studying how human beings learn and how to apply psychological knowledge to front-line education), medical psychology (how to diagnose and treat mental diseases in psychiatric department) and social psychology (human beings). As a group of animals, they influence each other and make joint decisions), judicial and criminal psychology (how to use psychology to solve crimes), sports psychology (how athletes play the highest level at the competition site) and so on. ?

At the same time, from the perspective of psychological counseling, there are also a large number of schools of psychology. It is suggested to know four mainstream schools first: psychoanalysis (psychodynamics), existential-humanistic therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and family therapy. With these big schools as the foundation, and then choose according to your hobbies, as long as you enter this gate, people around nature will provide you with corresponding information. In addition to the above four schools, there are hypnosis therapy, sandplay therapy, painting therapy, music therapy, dance therapy, writing therapy, psychodrama, short-range focus solving, narrative therapy, gestalt therapy and so on. Look at the direction you are interested in and decide whether to study in depth.

By the way, "being interested in psychology" and "planning to take psychology as a career" are two completely different directions. If you want to know yourself just because you are interested, it may be a good choice to start with some introductory books and articles on psychology. However, if you plan to take this as a career, you may need to invest a lot of time and money, which needs to be considered at the level of career planning, just like "what university should you apply for and what major to choose voluntarily" at this stage. If you haven't started yet, it is suggested that you can join some local amateur groups besides reading books. Many psychological counseling institutions will have short-term salons open to the outside world, and it is also a good choice to spend half a day learning about a certain theory or school. ?

Please pay attention to the official account of WeChat, You Fei Psychology Class (ID: Phil-psy), and make an appointment for consultation.