Behavioral Psychology Degree

 

I was horrified to read that an annual Easter egg hunt in Colorado Springs has been canceled this year.  Was it because the kiddies misbehaved?  Was there some egg-throwing that got out of hand?  Well, not exactly.  Apparently, it's the parents whose behavior was out of hand.  

"Too many parents determined to see their children get an egg jumped a rope marking the boundaries of the children-only hunt at Bancroft Park last year. The hunt was over in seconds, to the consternation of eggless tots and the rules-abiding parents.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/53794462-68/parents-hunt-egg-easter.html.csp

Recently, the news has been filled with stories of "helicopter parents" - those parents who hover above their children and are a tad, shall we say, "overinvolved" in their kids' lives.  Those are the parents who demand that teachers recognize how special their child is.  (Aren't all children special?)  They argue with teachers if their child doesn't get the high grade they'd hoped for and make such a habit of speaking for their children that their children may get tongue-tied when expected to speak for themselves.  

Actually, the children sometimes become so unable to do anything for themselves that Mommy or Daddy may end up doing the homework, the science project, and even write college papers! Happily,  I haven't seen that at Granite State College, but I know it happens.

What I do wish is that these clueless parents would take a course in Child Psychology.  (We have them at Granite State College - both in the classroom and online...that's my plug for our wonderful college.)  Often, at the end of that course, my students say they wish their parents had had a course like that, and they might have been raised differently!  Many of our students are adult learners and people who have returned to school for a college degree.  But we do have a philosophy that the ideal target audience is a "lifelong learner."  So that should include everyone!

It's easy to express dismay over how "different things are now."  One thing that does give some strength to that argument is that parents are having fewer children than ever before.  Might that make a difference in how involved parents are?  Parents may have more time to be involved in their childrens' lives.  But there's another factor to consider:  Both parents are likely to be working now, so that cuts down on how much time both parents have to devote to "helicoptering" their children's lives.

These are the interesting kinds of things you can learn in a course on Child Growth and Development or Human Development at Granite State College.

"If you want to go quickly, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together."  --African proverb.

I recently saw the above quote from my Granite State College Social Psychology textbook, "Social Psychology" by David G. Myers.  There is something about this quote that really seems to resonate with me.

For many years, I believed that working hard would alone get me to the goals and ambitions that I had hoped for in my life.  In many ways that is true, because without hard work, I probably wouldn't have gotten far.  My choices were very much "I" choices and what "I" would do by my own steam.  How much more fulfilling it has been to expand and be active in my community, being a volunteer in several organizations, and to continue my education.  I find that college life has expanded my knowledge in many areas, has helped me to "think outside of the box," and has that advantage of being surrounded by many like-minded people who enjoy their degree choices.  For me, that degree choice is a bachelor's in Behavioral Science.  Granite State College's online adult learning courses has been my primary method of "attending" classes and has really proven to be much more fulfilling than I could have imagined.  I'm on class discussion boards almost as much I'm on Facebook!  :)

I also find that being in a course at Granite State College doesn't mean that I "go it alone," since there are so many helpful people that I meet up with as I pursue my educational ambitions.  I will be continuing on to graduate studies after I complete my bachelor's in Behavioral Science in June.  I've put in a lot of individual work that will help me to go quickly, but the quality of the journey is from working with others at Granite State College that has made all of the difference as to how far I will go. 

Trying checking out some of the courses that are available at Granite State College and you'll see that together we'll go far!

Our Winter session has started.  I was really excited about the start of this new semester.  Part of the reason is that I only have five more courses (including this semester) before I graduate in June with my Bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science and I'm looking forward to my courses.

I'll have two online classes for college this semester and one in the classroom at the Manchester NH college campus.  I can't say that I'm very good at biology, but I am so looking forward to my class, "The Human Brain."  It will be interesting to learn more about different disorders and what parts of the brain are affected.  Cool stuff!

I'll also have my Introduction to Research Methods in the Behavioral Sciences and Social Psychology - Hi Beth!  (Beth was the instructor for my Human Development class too.)

The Intro class is so interesting even though we're only about half way through the first week.  Lots of great online discussions as responses to a posted question from our instructor.

I can't wait to see how these classes unfold.  I wish in some ways that I had started at Granite State College earlier because they have so many interesting classes being offered through the year.  But I'm not complaining!  It's because of Granite State College's flexible class schedules and different formats (classroom, online, and weekend intensive) that's allowing me to graduate in June!  

I'll let you know how things progress!

mary

Hi all.

Only a few more days until I finish these three courses of the fall semester.  I really enjoyed my Human Development class with Beth Benoit (Hi Beth!).  Beth is my instructor as well as a fellow Granite State College blogger. 

I'm finding my degree specific classes for the bachelor's in Behavioral Science to be so interesting.  I want more of it!  This may later prove to fall under the category of "be careful of what you wish for," but I don't think so.  Beth will also be teaching my online course for Social Psychology, one of the behavioral science classes, and I imagine I will enjoy that just as much as I've enjoyed this one.

It's so nice to get to this stage of my life and really know what I want to focus on and that is to help others.  Not that I regret the past, but now I feel more focused and ready to stretch myself to new experiences.  When I was in my 30s, going back to school wasn't even a blip on the screen for me, but now... I can't believe how many cool things I've gotten a chance to do in my 40s!  A few weeks ago, I received my GSC reminder to submit my "Intent to Graduate" form.  How exciting!  Two more semesters and I'll have my bachelor's from GSC, the center of adult education.  I can hardly believe it.

We're  capable of accomplishing so much and life can be so rewarding.  I have my ups and downs too, but, wow, life is good!

If I don't write again until after the holidays.  I hope your holidays are everything you hoped for and that you have a wonderful new year!

Hi.

I thought I would write a bit about the degree that I'm pursuing.  I'll be receiving my bachelor's in Behavioral Science in June of next year (2011).  What got me interested in Behavioral Science was the community service work I had started while at Nashua Community College.  Some of the community service was helping at the local soup kitchen or helping homeless vets with creating resumes and checking online jobs boards.  I am a volunteer advocate for victims of violence and have also helped with Habitat for Humanity.  I get such good feelings from volunteering in these groups, it's amazing. 

I wasn't sure if I wanted to focus on psychology, sociology, and social work, but the Behavioral Science degree offered at Granite State College was perfect to sample a bit of each of those areas.  What was interesting too was after taking a quick look at other local colleges, Granite State College appeared to be the only one that offered a Behavioral Science degree.  So far I've taken Counseling, Human Development, and Victim Rights and Advocacy.  Exactly the topics I'm interested in.  Next semester I'll be taking Intro. to Behavioral Science Methods, Social Psychology, and The Human Brain.  Cool courses!  I can't wait.  Which reminds me, don't forget to sign up for courses starting Nov. 22!

It's hard to believe that I'll have my bachelor's in Behavioral Science in less than a year.  Granite State College is helping me obtain my dream of having a bachelor's degree and maybe even move on to another University System of New Hampshire University's to pursue my Master's.  It is soooo exciting!

Having my first child at age 22, I learned really quickly that there is no manual for child rearing. No matter how great my intentions were, no matter how many books I read, nothing prepared me for the lifelong teaching I was going to be doing when my little man arrived.

A friend of mine helped me get my life back on track. She helped me set up goals, and one of them was to go back to school and get my degree. She even drove me to Granite State College so that I could get the ball rolling on my journey through on-line classes for college. I think the fact that I decided to go with behavioral science classes has helped me gain the knowledge to better my son's life.

People are correct when they tell you that their is no manual on how to raise kids. But, what I am learning through all of my courses is helping me piece together great concepts in how to raise my son he becomes a well-rounded individual. As an adolescent once myself, I know you cannot force your children into getting good grades and volunteering to help the community. I have, however, learned in my adolescent psychology course that there are ways to raise a child to want to do those things, to strive to be a upstanding student and citizen. There are ways you can protect your children from the temptations of sex and drugs without being by your child's side all the time.

The knowledge I am gaining from my classes is not only helping me earn my degree, but also helping me in specific areas of my life. You can sit and talk to me until you are blue in the face about how you raised your child and how it worked for you. Every person and every child is different. I think that studying this information has helped me better appreciate the knowledge that I have gained and helped me understand how I can put these concepts into practice and help my son to be a strong, intelligent, proud and independent individual.

During my behavioral science classes at Granite State College, I had the chance to take an assortment of different classes with a variety of instructors. Almost without exception, I enjoyed my classes and found the professors were knowledgable about their subject and seemed to enjoy teaching adult college classes a great deal.

Now that I'm done with my time at GSC, I wish I had had the time and opportunity to take  advantage of more classes. When talking with my fellow classmates, conversations would often turn to classes that were highly recommended or a professor that was held in high regard.

As challenging as it may seem to meet the requirements for your studies, unfortunately there will be many classes of interest that remain unexplored, or professors that you never got to experience as your instructor.


I would have loved to take more classes with Dr. David Lawson whom I had for "The Human Brain" or Craig Nevins who taught "Society and the Individual". Beth Roth was my instructor for two difficult reserch classes and she often believed in our abilities more than we did. I took an independent study with Kathie Minaert and I think I would have enjoyed having another class with her as well.

The classes that intrigued me but never had the opportunity to take are numerous. There are many art classes offered but only one was needed for my course requirements. There are also English, humanities, psychology, health care and behavioral science classes that I just didn't have room for. Social science classes and sociology classes covered a broad range of interests, and regrettably, I was able to sample just a handful of these.

I hope your journey towards your degree from Granite State College is as rewarding, enjoyable and interesting as mine was. Take that first step, even if your educational goals seem too distant. The process of "getting there" was half the fun!

I find Netflix' recommendations for movies you might like, based on your previous choices of movies you've rented, a very interesting - but also kind of scary - idea, especially from the standpoint of social psychology.  And other DVD businesses such as Blockbuster have similar techniques to recommend further movies based on your interests.

In social psychology (you can take a course in it online at Granite State College!), we examine what influences people to make the choices they make.  Just think of all the things involved in your feelings about whether Netflix might be making good recommendations for you:  
1.  You chose to enroll in Netflix.
2.  You're paying to use it.
3.  They make an effort to appeal to you with user-friendly statements like this:
I have more questions about watching instantly on my PC. Where can I get answers?

So you end up feeling as though they really want to help you and somehow "know" you.  And you know what?  You're right about them knowing you!  They do know you.

But they're not really your "friend," of course.  (That can be the subject of another blog...whether "friends" on Facebook really are, well, friends.)  They're basing their information on carefully calibrated software that tracks your choices.

Lots of people are getting leery about having software seem to know them.  Once you take a course in social psychology (and you can do it entirely online.  Here's a link to Granite State College's behavioral science courses:  http://www.granite.edu/academics/degrees/bachelor-degrees/behavioral-sciences.aspx), you may be surprised at how much more you feel YOU know about what people are thinking, what you can know about other people, and even what advertising uses to influence your choices, from selecting DVDs to buying cell phones!

There are plenty of "Psychology Courses You'll " at Granite State College.