"Soft and fluffy" - what medical students think of their psychology lectures

From helping with patients' stress levels, to their adherence to treatment, psychology is now recognised as vital not only to mental health care but to physical health care too. In fact, it's impossible to draw a clear line between the two. As such, psychology has become a core component of curricula for medical students around the world. But though the importance of psychology is recognised officially by teaching bodies, it's not clear that jobbing medical lecturers have the same opinion. In turn, their scepticism may be influencing medical students. Based on interviews with 19 medical students in Ireland (10 women and 9 men who receive lectures from a health psychologist), a team led by Stephen Gallagher has identified a range of negative attitudes towards psychology held by the students. Although some recognised the importance of the subject, others said it was "supplementary"; "soft and fluffy; "airy fairy" and "waffly".  There was a common feeling that psychology isn't scientific and not as important as biomedical subjects on the medical course. "There is not a lot of hard and fast evidence," said one student. Officially the students recognised that they were supposed to "think about the bigger picture, not just about pills ..." but at the same time, there was a sense that the medical teaching faculty "played down" the importance of psychology. This belief was reinforced by the informal way that psychology is assessed, via problem-based learning in class, rather ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs