The Last Post

Three more weeks and the school year is finally over. Junior year, arguably the most important year of high school, and definitely the hardest. Despite it's importance and difficulty, this year I would have to say has been the best so far. School-wise I have gotten really great grades, with the exception of Calculus. -_- I went through more than enough testing this year with STAR tests, SATs, and AP testing, all I've got left is finals week now. Thanks to AP Lang I am finally beginning to think about prospects for my future and what the hell I'm gonna do with my life. So far psychology and sociology are looking quite promising for majors in college but I haven't made anything final just yet. Other than academically, this year I had quite an enjoyable tennis season. Although we had a tough time in A League this year, I had a great experience being on varsity for my first time. For next year I'm going to train all throughout the summer and until the season starts so that I can make sure to end my senior year doing the best I can. Best part about this year I would have to say are the many people I befriended, and they range from freshmen all the way to seniors. Out of all the people I met this year there is one that stands out more than anyone else, a short little brown girl, and without her this past year wouldn't have been anywhere near how memorable and amazing it was.

Clinical Psychology

Psychology and Sociology are such wide ranging fields, there is just so much you can do with them and so many paths to go down. So the question is then, which is the best for me? A realization came to me, I like helping people. I don't mean doing their shit for them but rather helping them tackle their issues themselves. Clinical Psychology fits the build perfectly. This sub-field of psychology is by far one of the biggest there is and it is all about using your knowledge of the human mind to help people with mental disorders. This field includes assessing, diagnosing, and treating the mentally ill. So its basically like being a doctor, but a doctor of the mind. Unlike most other fields of psychology and sociology, clinical psychology requires interaction with the patient and not studying statistics and such. I truly do enjoy helping people and would enjoy exploring more of this path.

Criminal Profiling

Recently I have found an interesting career in psychology, Criminal Profiling. Criminal Profiling is a career in both psychology and criminal justice. It is a profilers job to help law enforcement in apprehending criminals. They create profiles on what the suspect will be like, and this can help determine age, race, gender, social status,  and other things like that. Profilers analyze crime scenes alongside law enforcement so that they can see the crime firsthand and see how it was committed. It is not uncommon to for a profiler to work as law enforcement as well. The biggest employer of criminal profilers is the FBI, they have a special unit for behavioral analysis. Despite it being it's own unit most employees move up from a detective position and have experience on the field. So basically criminal profilers are like cops and detectives but use psychological methods to apprehending criminals.

Psychology

Psychology is a scientific study concerned with the functions of the human mind, specific to the behavioral functions. It is literally defined as "study of the soul". In the early 16th century, Latinist and Croatian humanist, Marko Marulic's book Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae the Latin term psychologia was first used. Since Marulic's time psychology has expanded quite a bit. Wilhelm Wundt, a German physician, is widely known as the "father of experimental psychology" and was the very first to ever be called a Psychologist. From Marulic's and Wundt's revolutionary work the field of Psychology has grown. Modern day Psychology has many branches in it's extensive field.
Biological: The study of how behaviors and the human mind are affected biologically, this field is tied closely with Neuroscience.
Clinical: This is a highly applied psychology branch, in which diagnosis are made and patients are treated.
Cognitive: The study of how humans think as well as mental processes, research areas are perception, reasoning, memory, emotions, etc.
Comparative: Branch of psychology focusing on animal behavior.
Developmental: The study of how the progression of age affects the development of the human mind.
Educational: The psychology of teaching and how students learn in an educational environment.
Forensics: The use of psychology in criminal investigations and at crime scenes, tightly knitted with Criminal Justice.
Industrial-Organizational: A field in which psychology is used in the workplace to optimize the work done by the workers.
Personality: The area focused on figuring out the composition of an individual's personality.
Social: The study of how an individual can be psychologically influenced by the presence of other individuals.

Sociology

Sociology, the study of human social interactions and behaviors. It originates from the Latin word socius meaning "companion". This science was first labeled as such by French philosopher, Auguste Comte in 1838. Despite this, he is not known to be the first sociologist. That title goes to Ibn Khaldun, a North African Arab scholar in the 14 century. His work, Muqadimmah, is believed to be the first to advance social-scientific thoughts on social cohesion as well as social conflict. Ibn Khaldun's revolutionary writings became the roots to modern day sociology and all of its many branches.

-Social Organization: The study of various institutions, groups, bureaucracies, ethnic groups, and other similar groupings

-Social Psychology: The analysis of human nature influenced by social group life. It looks into how group life affects the individual's traits, behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs.

-Social Change and Disorganization: The study of cultural and social relations' changes as well as possible societal disruptions. Society's current problems such as juvenile delinquents, criminality, population problems and similar problems

-Human Ecology: The study of the nature and behavior of a specified population and comparing it with others

-Population or Demography: The study of population sizes, changes and how it effects the economic, political, and social systems

-Sociological Theory and Method: Is concerned with the applications and usefulness of the principles of social groups

-Applied Sociology: The use of the basic science forms of sociology and its research

Change In Direction

Although I have been talking a lot about fatherhood, something I truly look forward to in my future it is not a career possibility nor does it have any direct relations to any career paths that interest me. I haven't had much luck when it comes to possible thinking of possible careers I may pursue, I haven't been able to think of anything that has really attracted me. I thought it would be best to start with what major I would want to go into and from there look into careers. After doing my research I noticed that I find the human mind and human interactions quite fascinating, so I've come to the non-definitive decision that I want to study in the fields of psychology and/or sociology. Maybe I'll find new subjects of interests, maybe I won't, I don't know myself but any paths that do get my attention I will surely look into and most likely talk about on here.

So I just wanted to give a quick look at what psychology and sociology are today. Psychology is a science concerning the human mind and understanding mental functions and behaviors, and is used for understanding individuals as well as groups in order to benefit them with their struggles. Sociology is also a science which also concerns the human mind, but not as directly as psychology. This science is used to understand the growth, functioning, and organization of a society as a whole. I know this is very general but I do plan on supplying you with much more detailed information with my next post.

A lot of my close friends have told me that I would make a great father, all for various reasons. Some friends of mine say this because of the stories I tell them about my nieces of when I take care of them. Like how I've had to put my niece, who isn't even a year old yet, asleep countless times, and how I have had to give up my spare time in order to play with my other niece who will be turning 6 this December. Those days usually end up in me cramming in all of my homework into a few hours because of all the time I've had to spend with my niece. I've told I would make a great dad by another close friend of mine because  he saw how I always like to have fun, but when accidents happens I always try to be as understanding as possible, and sees that as an essential to parenthood. I don't know whether or not what my friends say is true, but I still know that I enjoy spending time with my nieces and love the idea of having a family of my own someday.