Can studying Psychology cause mental problems?

[Bill Hemphill]

I have decided that it does not. The more a person knows and understands, the more sanity is to be achieved in my opinion. That word "like" is a powerful one in the study of the personality. Bill

[VeggieTeen92]

I think that if you study psychology it could cause you to believe you have a mental illness because the more you know about it the more you can fake it. It can also lead you to believe that you have a mental illness because you will learn the symptoms and some people may see themselves and then lead themselves to believe that they do indeed have these symptoms.

[Bill Hemphill]

That's good thinking Veggieteen92, I do believe that a person could suspect they have problems wheb they don't because of their studying.

Also note the term "like" in understanding personality and psychology.

[S. Earl Martin]

There is another aspect to this. I have had friends that went to work in mental hospital's and other places with disturbed persons. I am certain their personalites and behaviors changed. If you hang around people you pick up their habits. Even subconsciously our accent or mannerisms change. Weather the people I was observing actually devoloped psychosis. Probably not, but they did start exhibiting behaviors associated with mental illness. If you lie down with dogs you get fleas. Peace.

[voodoo scientist]

All information without the right perspective can cause psychological disorders. Information without the right perspective is pretty much the definition of a psychological disorder, however, information does not in itself cause disorders.

[voodoo scientist]

As an example: Your 14 year old son may get really messed up by watching porn, but only if he's low-adaptive to begin with.

[Bill Hemphill]

All information without the right perspective can cause psychological disorders. Information without the right perspective is pretty much the definition of a psychological disorder, however, information does not in itself cause disorders.

I absolutely agree with that voodoo scientist. When some pieces of the puzzle are "hidden" or "out of sight" that can make a person suspect thoughts of delusion as other pieces of a puzzle are remembered. The facts  can then be doubted or just forgotten. This is why we have FOIA laws.

[Lemonkissesxo]

I agree with  veggieteen - I don't think that one is more likely to develop a psychological disorder from studying psych, however I do believe that it can make us more likely to diagnose ourselves with disorders if we know what sort of things are out there. It's not uncommon for a person to study something in psychology and see themselves in the information - particularly mood disorders. We all get the "blues" sometimes but a person who does not understand the nature of depression who really IS depressed might think that this feeling is "normal," whereas a person who is studying psych will recognize those symptoms and assimilate it into a diagnosis and be like "OH MY GOD, THAT IS MEEE!" just because they see those symptoms.

It is much like biological concerns. I have an older sister who has studied biology for years, and because of that she knows many physical disorders. Since then she has developed an over sensitivity to the symptoms she displays. She is young, and yet when she gets a headache she rushes to the hospital thinking that she is dying of a brain aneurysm because she knows headaches are a sign of this. Just the same, an individual with the knowledge of the symptoms might have the same issue.. but the studying in itself does not cause mental illness, just acute awareness. I think it's sort've like hypochondria!

From the diathesis-stress model

[Lemonkissesxo]

Whoops sorry! I didn't finish that last thought, haha. From that model, it suggests that psychological disorders are a result of stress/environment and genetics... so learning about something wouldn't make you develop a disorder if you didn't already have other factors contributing to it. (In other words, you would've developed it anyway.)