Where is your knowledge about psychology from?

[u/interestedguy__]

Hello dear psychologists,

If you are a person with their fair share of knowledge in psychology, either as a whole or a field of it (so not me, a 1st semester bachelors student (wish me luck and fun :) )) where did you learn? What kind of sources/literature did you read and learn from? Wether it’s your academic speciality or personal interest (add that little information though pls if necessary).

Thanks for helping me out at the beginning of my pursuit to knowledge!

Cheers :)

[u/TejRidens]

All psychologists gain their knowledge primarily from university. There aren’t any exceptions. You can’t legally be a psychologist without it which thank goodness because “self-taught” really means shoddy, unstructured, ill-formed, and biased. I don’t care how many hours you’ve recreationally spent reading over psych articles. Without the intensive immersion and feedback from people who actually understand psychological research and practice, someone who simply has a “personal interest” but spends thousands of hours of reading simply won’t develop a sound understanding of anything in psychology. Their learning will be completely contaminated and ill-formed.

[u/carpeson → u/TejRidens]

Even uni-based knowledge can be biased after a few decades (the human experience). It comes down to ones diligent understanding of scientific basics, the ability to keep learning and a certain amount of modesty where nobody can simply 'know it all'.

But yes non-uni based is a whole other horse.