Studying Psychology at UNED: 10 compelling reasons

In recent years, an increase in the number of students enrolled in distance study universities has been observed.

To illustrate the example, the UNED (National Distance Education University) has gone from 126,500 students enrolled in degrees in the 2012/2013 academic year, to 150,000 in the 2016/2017 academic year, being the Degree in Psychology the most attended race. However, the dropout rate is very high: only 2 out of 10 enrolled will obtain the precious title.

Among the many reasons that can lead to giving up, two stand out:

• Impulsiveness when choosing the number of subjects, ignoring the time that must be devoted to them: The result is obvious: the failure rate is high and the demotivation makes an appearance undermining the possibilities of continuing.
• Satisfy the desire to know: There is a percentage of students who enroll for the pleasure of studying certain subjects. However, their ultimate goal is not to graduate.

Is it a good idea to study Psychology at UNED?

At this point it is worth asking, 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 passion to know about an area of ​​knowledge is in itself a very powerful source of motivation. Psychology would classify that passion within 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 stimuli external. Simply: the pleasure of knowing.

2. Eagerness to excel

Whoever intends to obtain a distance career establishes a clear goal, the achievement of which can face challenges, difficulties and fears, and which will have its best and worst moments. But not only are challenges overcome, but we also carry out an improvement on a personal level. In this way, skills, competencies and attitudes flourish and develop that lead you to the goal that, in addition, they are strengthened by the knowledge about motivation, learning, behavior... that the study of Psychology confers.

3. Personal satisfaction

We can define it as well-being, a feeling of pleasure when achieving something that is wanted or needed. Throughout the study of a career such as Psychology or any other, we must not forget that it not only produces a pleasant satisfaction to finish it completely, but by achieving short and medium-term goals, you get closer to that final goal.

Doing good work, passing exams, seeing another academic year finished, or being able to apply and explain Contents typical of Psychology in your day-to-day life, involve overcoming small challenges that generate satisfaction in themselves themselves.

4. Building resilience

Resilience is defined as the ability of the human being to adapt positively to adverse situations, being able to overcome them. Studying at a distance presents benefits, but also some difficult moments such as not passing exams, being forced to adapt the way of regular study to that of a non-classroom teaching or having miscalculated the study time of a subject that is more difficult than expected.

Living in these situations can cause some discomfort, but, at the same time, it promotes reflection and putting into action strategies to avoid or cope with them in the future. While you are studying Psychology, study the “Theory of Self-efficacy”By Albert Bandura helps you to become much more aware of it.

5. Personal, social and professional assessment

Taking the step of studying this (or another) distance / online career, why not say it, is a challenge. You know it, your friends and family know it, and whoever will hire you in the future will take it into account. Overcoming the day to day, year after academic year, reports a feeling of self-efficacy, which, in your environment, is also perceived.

On the other hand, at a professional level, the fact of obtaining regulated training through this modality by reflecting perseverance, tenacity and responsibility among many others, highly valued aptitudes in the labor sphere. On the other hand, the study habit acquired by distance students is an essential tool for those who are considering taking public examinations.

6. Contact with classmates and teachers

The contact is less than in a face-to-face university, however, as Psychology is one of the most studied careers in the distance modality, there is a great collaboration of other students through official and unofficial forums, blogs and social media to share content, notes, ideas, study methods, opinions... perceiving a very enriching climate of mutual help and understanding between classmates and teachers.

On the other hand, in the event that some face-to-face hours or online streaming are taught, these are very motivational 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, the debate with fellow forums and autonomous research, leading us to draw conclusions that, perhaps, do not appear in the content to be studied.

On the other hand, through what is known as Continuous Assessment (modality of the Degree in Psychology of the UNED), students carry out work that promotes reflection, allows the application of tests and / or knowledge and the verification of results in real or fictitious situations, promoting practice and first-person experience of what studied.

8. Organizational capacity development and time management

Let's use an assumption: “September. You have enrolled in four subjects for the first semester, which are each composed of between 10 and 16 subjects. For each subject you can submit a practical work proposed by the teachers (of different modalities 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".

The first year it is common not to have that awareness that no one except yourself can structure such planningBut, finally, 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 devoted to work.

9. Commitment and perseverance

Like any long-term project, commitment and perseverance are essential values ​​to maintain the action that leads us to win the title over time. They thus influence the motivation to study daily, attend classes, maintain attention to deliveries and finally reach final evaluations. with 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, there is no time limit to finish the degree, which is an advantage to be highlighted.

10. Increased curiosity

Psychology is a science that studies and analyzes the behavior and mental processes of individuals and groups in different situations, and at the same time that it gives an explanation of 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 debating 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 multiple phenomena that surround.

And you, Would you dare to study Psychology at a distance or online?