Studying Psychology at the UNED: 10 reasons that can motivate you
In recent years, an increase has been observed in the number of students enrolled in distance learning universities .
To illustrate the example, the UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia) has gone from 126,500 students enrolled in grades in the 2012/2013 academic year, to 150,000 in the 2016/2017 academic year, with the Degree in Psychology being the most widely taken. However, the dropout rate is very high: only 2 out of 10 enrolled will obtain the precious degree.
Among the many reasons that can lead to abandonment, two stand out:
- Impulsivity when choosing the number of subjects ignoring the time that should be devoted to them : The result is obvious: the failure rate is high and demotivation makes an appearance undermining the possibilities of continuing.
- Satisfying the desire to know : There is a percentage of students who enroll for the pleasure of studying certain subjects. However, they do not have the final objective of graduating.
Is it a good idea to study psychology at the UNED?
At this point, one might ask, what motivates the remaining 20% to finally win the scholarship and the university degree? In this article we have proposed to offer you ten keys that can help you decide to study Psychology online (…or not).
1. Passion for the field of Psychology
Feeling passionate about knowing about an area of knowledge is in itself a very powerful source of motivation . Psychology would classify that passion within the intrinsic motivation since the mere fact of studying that area produces an activation of our behavior that leads us to seek learning without the need for external stimuli. Simply: the pleasure of knowing.
2. Eagerness to improve
Whoever intends to obtain a long-distance race sets a clear goal, the achievement of which may confront us with challenges, difficulties and fears, and which will have its best and worst moments. But not only challenges are overcome, we also carry out a personal overcoming . On this path, skills, competences and attitudes that lead you to the objective set are developed and strengthened by the knowledge on motivation, learning, behaviour… that the study of psychology confers.
3. Personal satisfaction
We can define it as the well-being, the feeling of pleasure when getting something you want or need . Throughout the study of a career such as psychology or any other, we should not forget that not only does it produce a pleasant satisfaction to finish it completely, but that, by achieving short and medium-term goals, you get closer to that final objective.
Doing good work, passing the exams, seeing another academic year finished, or being able to apply and explain the contents of Psychology in your daily life, means overcoming small challenges that generate satisfaction in themselves.
4. Building resilience
Resilience is defined as the capacity of a human being to adapt positively to adverse situations , being able to overcome them. Studying at a distance has its advantages, but also some difficult moments such as not passing exams, having to adapt the usual form of study to that of a distance learning course or having miscalculated the study time of a subject that is more difficult than expected.
Living through these situations can cause some discomfort, but it also promotes reflection and the implementation of strategies to avoid or cope with them in the future. While studying Psychology, studying Albert Bandura’s “Theory of Self-Efficacy” helps you become much more aware of this.
5. Personal, social and professional assessment
Taking the step of studying this (or another) distance/online career, why not say so, is a challenge . You know it, your friends and family know it, and whoever hires you in the future will take it into account. Getting through the day to day, year after year, brings a sense of self-efficacy, which, in your environment, is also perceived.
On the other hand, on a professional level, the fact of achieving regulated training through this modality is valued, as it reflects constancy, tenacity and responsibility, among many other skills that are highly valued in the labour field. On the other hand, the study habit acquired by students in the distance modality is an essential tool for those who are considering taking competitive examinations.
6. Contact with colleagues and teachers
Contact is less than in a face-to-face university, however, as Psychology is one of the most widely studied degrees in the distance learning mode , there is a great deal of collaboration from other students through official and unofficial forums , blogs and social networks to share content, notes, ideas, study methods, opinions… and a very enriching climate of mutual help and understanding between colleagues and teachers is perceived.
On the other hand, in the case that some hours are taught in person or online in streaming, these are very motivating and allow you to meet other people with whom to share the experience and support each other during the study.
7. Development of critical sense
Working individually on the contents encourages reflection on them and, why not, debate with colleagues in forums and autonomous research, leading us to draw conclusions that may not appear in the content to be studied.
On the other hand, by means of the so-called Continuous Assessment (modality of the UNED Degree in Psychology), the students carry out works, which promote reflection, allow the application of tests and/or knowledge and the verification of results in real or fictitious situations, promoting practice and experience in first person of what has been studied.
8. Organizational capacity building and time management
Let’s use an assumption: “September. You have enrolled in four subjects for the first term, which are each composed of between 10 and 16 topics. For each subject you can submit a practical work proposed by the teachers (in different ways depending on the subject, such as the analysis of a book or a small research with 20 participants) whose delivery dates are different (usually for Christmas) and the exams are set for the last week of January and the second week of February”.
In the first year it is common not to be aware that anyone but oneself can structure such a plan , but, finally, with the calendar in hand, the distance student learns to organize his time taking into account factors such as the difficulty of the subject or the time dedicated to work.
9. Commitment and constancy
Like any long-term project, commitment and constancy are essential values to maintain over time the action that leads us to hold the title. Thus, they influence the motivation to study daily, to attend classes, to maintain attention to the deliveries and to finally arrive at the final evaluations with the homework done.
The Degree in Psychology is structured in four academic years, a time that can be extended depending on personal needs. In this case, and specifically at the UNED, no time limit is imposed to finish the degree, which is an advantage to highlight.
10. Increased curiosity
Psychology is a science that studies and analyzes the behavior and mental processes of individuals and groups in different situations, and while it provides explanations for a great variety of facts, there are also many others that have not yet been explained, such as intuition or deja vu.
This fact, linked to the passion for the field of study, autonomous work, critical sense and the possibility of discussing with colleagues and teachers, highlights the tenth of the motivations for studying a degree in Psychology: the development of a mind hungry for knowledge, eager to explain the many phenomena that surround us.
And you, would you encourage yourself to study Psychology at a distance or online?