Friends in Your Life

What is Psychology?

Psychology studies people: how they think, how they act, react and interact.

Psychology is concerned with all aspects of behaviour and the thoughts, feelings and motivations behind such behaviour.

In a sense (в некотором смысле), you are already a psychologist: we all are. We are all interested in what makes people nervous, and how this understanding can help us to solve major problems in society.

Studies in psychology give you knowledge how to go from being an “amateur psychologist (психолог-любитель)” to a professional one.

How can you learn the science about behavior? How can you use it to improve people’s quality of life? How can you put your knowledge to good use (применить) in a career?

If you tell your friends you are interested in psychology, common reactions might be “Well, can you tell what I’m thinking then?” or “Psychology? That’s all just logics, isn’t it?” Because we know our behavior and we all have theories about it.

To study psychology you have to learn scientific methods: observing, measuring, testing and using statistics to show that what you find is reliable evidence (достоверные данные). But psychologists do not simply collect evidence to explain people’s behavior; they use their understanding to help people with difficulties.

Foe example, psychologists are concerned with practical problems such as:

· How can we ease the effects of parental divorce on children?

· How can we minimize accidents on roads, rails, in the air?

· How can the courts ensure that eyewitness testimony (свидетельство очевидца) is reliable?

· How should people act on a date – what do others find attractive?

· How can we help people overcome depression, stress or phobias?

Friends in Your Life

Friends are important in your life because you spend a lot of time with them. You learn from them, and they learn from you. Friends can have a positive influence on each other. Maybe one of your friends teaches you how to play the guitar or helps you to enter the university. You might admire a friend who is good (успешен) at sports and try to become like (стать похожим) him or her. These are examples of how friends positively influence each other every day.

The pressure (желание) to imitate (подражать) your friends’ behavior and earn their approval may be quite strong. Sometimes friends influence each other in negative ways. Everyone knows what negative peer pressure is (негативное давление сверстников). It can often be impossible to resist.

In fact (фактически, более того), experiments have shown that most people will answer a question incorrectly, even though they know the correct answer, if everyone else (все остальные) is answering incorrectly. Now you know why your parents advise you to choose your friends wisely; because your friends influence your life and the decisions you make.

No friends are perfect, and some may pick up (перенимают) bad habits that, through peer pressure (через давление сверстников), spread throughout your social group. You may even find that you are the only one in your social group not taking part in a negative behavior.