Self Directed Study and Things/Blogs to Come

I really want to write meaningful articles on the various areas of study that I enjoy. Psychology is one of those area’s that I study on my own. I have various psychology books but mostly find my information online and from online courses, such as an intro psych course from Coursera, that is actually from the University of Toronto. I love that I have the ability to learn university level things for free on the web! Other subjects capture my interest as well, especially ancient civilizations and biology of all sorts.

I actually am doing this study of psychology to finish high school. At some point when I went to real, physical highschool I gave up. I was not very interested in highschool then and was pretty insecure, so I just stopped going.

I jumped right back in a few years ago though, and although I am a year or so behind, I am still getting stellar grades and learning how to learn again! The best part of this is that I do all of my school online and it is mostly
all self directed. Luckily, I am done a couple courses in a couple weeks, and then all is left for me to graduate is math, which is not self directed.

I really love this self directed learning style, and since I have no physical textbooks and must source all of my information on my own, I have gotten a knack for online research. In fact, it is one of my most favorite things to do!

Some subjects have very little credible information available at first google search glance, but with some internet digging valuable resources are abound! I figured explaining where I get my information from is important. So now you know! It is all self directed research, but I am pretty confident on my sources and information. I double check everything.

I really prefer to spend a good amount of time on a subject, so that I really know it. That way, I can personalize it, and I can speak about it passionately and be well informed. I really like to form a holistic understanding of a subject before I write about it or present it. Sadly, I still have some deadlines in my courses so I cannot at this point go as deep as I would like. With the course almost over, I have to regurgitate facts, which is super lame but at least may serve as a base for my understanding and further learning on the subjects!

On the other hand, I know my research will not stop just because I am no longer in school. Life is school! Steemit is also a great way for me to continue presenting my information, in a more personalized and open ended way. I am no psychologist or anything, but I am passionate and want to relay only credible information. I am pretty stoked to have a reason to continue my deep, deep research and having a way to share it with the world!

I gotta digress though and say that I really also want to add my own interpretations and ideas, because that is what it is all about right? I won’t be claiming that my ideas are right however. That is common sense! Of course my research will have biases and be flavored with my own ideas, so this is a disclaimer. Also, I may talk about pseudoscience and occult magic and stuff, which I know has not been scientifically proven, and I am totally okay with that. This is a whole nother rant though, which also may happen sometimes (lol). I say it all the time, just because it isn’t proven does not make something not real. If scientists thought that then what the heck would they be studying?

Anywho, into psychology we may go. Psychology textbooks usually start with memory and conditioning and stuff like that, which is interesting and all, but i’m pretty sure abnormal psychology is actually where most of the action is. That is because almost everyone deals with mental illness, or mental health all the time! It is an interesting subject, to say the very very least. I am getting the basics down so I can finish the course, and will be posting some meaningful articles on my findings when I think that I know the subject well enough! Specifically, the most exciting subject that I will probably do some serious research pappering on is schizophrenia, and its cross cultural manifestations and treatments. I want to understand what it is, how it expresses itself, and why people in the west are so distraught with it! I want to marry science and spirituality a bit, and look at its underlying spiritual and cultural implications.

Well, I guess you Steemians now know what to look forward to in my blog on the research area of things! It will be a grand adventure, let us discover things together!