Psych!

now playing Wherever by Five Times August via last.fm

Psych... you know, like what you said after trying to trick someone in elementary school? Hm, perhaps I'm nostalgic tonight. Oh well...

So I have this one class, Organizational Behavior (OB in Babson's language), that contains a lot of psychology of business. Not consumer psychology but psychology of workers/employees/bosses/managers/leaders etc. We have a simulation in about 5 hours about influence and leadership. And this class, along with life in general, has gotten me thinking about my lifelong fascination with psychology. I don't know what this interest stems from. Perhaps it's because I'm crazy (which I am) or because I like people (which I kinda don't). I do like people in the sense that their thoughts and behaviors are interesting. Basically their psychology is interesting.

What motivates people? Why do they act how they do? What makes people think the way they do? I guess I think it becomes most interesting when people can't control things. Perhaps because I'm a control freak, I don't know. Things like chemical imbalances make me question psychology and what really motivates people. Do emotions control us or do we control emotions? I also think it's interesting how some emotions are easily controlled while others are purely instinctual. And what's more fascinating- it varies between person.

I've read a lot about how genetics governs a lot of this. The cause of behavior is a big debate between environmental (upbringing or how you were raised) and genetic (purely scientific). Without any knowledge I would think that upbringing would have more control but from everything I've read the consensus is that genetics determines more about a persons psychology and behavior. Weird. And interesting.

Overanalysis has always been something I've done. I do it with everything but I notice myself doing it more often with psych and other people. In 8th grade I won an academic award and one of my teachers said for one of the speeches about me that he was afraid that I "had them all figured out." Maybe I did and maybe I didn't. But it's true that I like trying to figure people out. And it's only been recently that I've discovered why.

I try to figure people out simply to know them better, be better friends with them, and be a a better friend to them. I like being able to understand people and know their (thought) processes so that I can interact better with them. I'm not sure if this has something to do control, but there's a good chance that it does.

Next thought on my mind is that if I'm awake at 3 am thinking about this have I chosen the wrong major. PSYCH! I have definitely not chosen the wrong major. I definitely don't want to make my life about this and business is a much more appropriate career for me. But I think that within business this is an interesting area of study.