What subjects do you need to study psychology?

Answer 1

I am guessing this question is aimed at someone in high school seeking to study psychology at the college level. If so, it depends a little on your goals, but psychology is a fairly broad field, so most subjects will benefit you.

Obviously psychology, if available, will help. Biology is likely the next most helpful. A course in statistics as early as possible (and keep taking them) would be a benefit. SOME social studies courses can help (to the extent that they deal with motivations and approach their topics as a social science) BUT it might not help so this one is less recommended. English and Math can never hurt. If you want to go into counseling fields, I would suggest English more strongly. You will need good writing skills, but literature often deals with different ways of thinking, etc. It also helps to be a peer counselor or get some experience if you plan this route. Foreign languages would provide an added edge (especially Spanish for most places). For more experimental areas, you should take math at least through calculus (for counseling, just stats is fine). For biological areas, chemistry and even physics would help. For cognitive areas, a computer science course would be a good idea. Basic computers skills will be needed, but that is true for almost any field.

I suppose I would say: Bio, Stats, English, Other Math, Other Sciences, Social Studies, Computers in that order. But the good news is that almost every class will be of some help. I would claim that music or art will not but there are therapies desiged around each as well as disciplines of psychology that research musical perception (and others on musical expertise). And there is a branch called Sports Psychology too. So maybe the right approach is to take what you are interested in but be somewhat balanced in your courses rather than taking a ton from one area.