THE PSYCHOLOGY TEAM

Science of Psychology on Campus

Some individuals know what Psychology is, but do they really know the deeper meaning beneath it? According to the Georgia State University website, when dealing with science, psychology uses systematic methods to observe human behavior and draw conclusions. The goals of psychological science are to describe, predict, and explain behavior.

A major factor of psychological thinking is nature versus nurture. Nature refers to how genetics influence a person’s personality, whereas nurture refers to how their relationships and childhood impacts their development.

“We have our nature which is what we were born with, but we also have our nurture. No matter what you're doing, no matter what type of job you're doing or anything, it's going to involve the psychology of learning because of how individuals respond to reinforcement and how people associate with connections,” said Brian Nuest, Hutchinson Community College Psychology Professor.

Individuals are raised and nurtured differently and this can majorly affect their nurture in life. For example, when an individual experiences a rough childhood and isn’t used to affectionate behavior, it can affect their future relationships and behavior towards others. Whereas their nature, they were born with it rather than learning and developing these traits over time.

Nature versus nurture is only the beginning of the importance of psychology. Studying the subject could help improve relationships, communication, build self-confidence and enrich a person’s career.

Jaden Harp | Photo

Psychology Professor Brian Nuest draws a demonstration while lecturing over a topic. Students listened while Nuest went over the new lesson of the day. The

PSYCHOLOGY

›Jaden Harp | Photo

Psychology Instructor Sydney Fountain watches over her students while they participate in an activity. The students were competing against other teams to have the best structure in the marshmallow tower challenge.

Interested in a Career in Psychology?

A psychology degree can start at HutchCC.

“You don’t have to decide for a while, so that’s just fine,” said Psychology Assistant Professor Taliatha Hudson-Palmer.

First consider exploring the variety of career paths one can pursue that can still partake in psychology.

“Take General Psychology because in General Psychology it covers so many different topics and then when you cover topics that you’re like, wow, this is really cool, then that can kind of give you some knowledge of what you’re interested in,” said Psychology Instructor Sydney Fountain. “For example, if you’re interested in the biology side of psychology then you can kind of be more focused when you get into some elective classes.”

Jaden Harp| Photo

Psychology Assistant Professor Taliatha HudsonPalmer summarizes the meaning of the activity the students just participated in. Groups of students were assigned to determine which emotion fits into the different categories on the chalk board.

PSYCHOLOGY Team

Meet the Team

Sydney Fountain- She has been teaching at HutchCC for two years. As a freshman in college, she had no clue what she wanted to do. She took General Psychology and absolutely loved it. Because she thought it was interesting she took another class and liked that one, which then led Fountain to earning her master’s degree in psychology.

Taliatha Hudson-Palmer- She has been teaching

school psychology full-time at HutchCC since 2019 but started teaching part-time from 2016-2019. It was a convenient degree for her considering the fact that she always wanted to teach at the college and there was an opening for a psychology professor. Hudson-Palmer talks very highly of the students attending HutchCC and said, “I really like the kind of students that are here at HCC, I really, really love the students.”

Brain Nuest- He has been teaching psychology for about 20 years, 17 of those years at HutchCC with a couple part-time years for the college before that. Starting as a graduate student teaching classes, Nuest was interested in psychology after he did the outreach and then applied for a full-time position and has stayed with it ever since.

Psychology Sub-Disciplines

The study of Psychology can vary throughout many different fields. According to the University of District of Columbia, some different sub-disciplines of psychology include: Sports - Sports psychology focuses on how psychological factors affect athletic performance. Music - Music psychology aims to explain musical behavior and experience and how it's processed, responding to and incorporated into everyday life. Forensic - Forensic psychology applies research and clinical specialities in other areas of psychology to the legal area. Health - Health psychology focuses on how Psychology, Biology, behavior, and social factors that influence health and illness.

Industrial - Industrial psychology, to which refers to the applied organizational psychology, is used to study, observe and analyze human behavior in the workplace.