Hyper Diary: Understanding People & Psychology
I was really excited when I heard about the module “Understanding People”. Since I have a background in psychology, I thought this would be the module I would flourish in. Thinking I would be the expert on how to tackle problems by understanding how people behave. So far, however, this module has been different from what I had learned and therefore made me a novice again.
In the field of psychology a lot of research that is conducted is done with questionnaires or objective interviews and observations. When psychologists research human behavior with surveys, they tend to look for patterns and trends. This is also the way I have learned to do research.
Instead of using surveys, psychological research and a professional distance between me and the person being observed, we are conducting research by actually being interested in the person we want to know more about. By interviewing our subjects and having an informal and organic conversation about their views, goals and dreams. This ‘new’ approach is actually really uncomfortable and at the same time refreshing to me. The last research I conducted, I interacted as little as possible after I gave people a questionnaire, just so I would not interrupt them and influence the outcome.
I have a master’s degree in (Economic & Consumer) Psychology and I thought I would ace the Hyper Island Understanding People module but so far I feel as if my first psychology classes started all over again. Even though it scares me a little that my knowledge does not seem as a secret weapon during this course, I do see the opportunity to further complete my knowledge on human behavior by embedding more empathy in my research.
You could say that economic & consumer psychology was a more dark side of psychology, trying to find out what makes people tick and how to take advantage of that. We have been taught how to persuade people and how to nudge people into doing things they do not necessarily want to do. This module at Hyper Island teaches you to reach people via the other side of the psychological spectrum, by trying to get to know your audience by finding out what they like and tending to their actual wants and needs. I think that is the main difference between what I have learned and what I am learning and by doing this course I have a more broad understanding of understanding human behavior.
Patrick Oberstadt
