Latest / NCSC College Connections / NCSC Podcast "College Connections" - Season 2, Episode 4 - " Liberal Arts-Psychology"

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NCSC Podcast "College Connections" - Season 2, Episode 4 - " Liberal Arts-Psychology" · NCSC College Connections

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to College Connections, sponsored by north Central State College.
• 0:03
  I'm Keith Stoner. This series was developed to help students
• 0:06
  and parents explore higher education and make the best informed
• 0:10
  choice for themselves and their families. Welcome in this morning
• 0:14
  to a podcast sponsored by north Central State College. I'm
• 0:16
  Keith Stoner, and my guest today is doctor Stephen Haynes.
• 0:19
  He's the Dean of Liberal Arts at north Central State
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  and we're going to just dive right in. We've been
• 0:25
  talking in this series about the evolution of education and
• 0:29
  how important Liberal Arts is not just to the education environment,
• 0:34
  but also in employment and workforce today in America. And
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  we're going to talk about some things that really are
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  becoming relevant to every job and workforce and profession that
• 0:48
  you'll have, and that is psychology. We've been talking about
• 0:51
  the term as an encapsulated inside Liberal Arts, but this
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  is specifically about psychology and how important it is in
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  careers today.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yes, thanks Keith. Yes, Psychology is a subject that
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  a lot of people are interested in. It's a fairly
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  popular class with a lot of people, but really the
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  most people don't see it as anything that's really relevant
• 1:15
  to their lives. They think of it as, hey, that's
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  something a major in if I'm going into therapy or
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  if I am going to be a teacher or professor.
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  But people don't see it as something that could help
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  me in the office, as something that could help me
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  reach that next level in my career. But think about
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  life in the office and what you're dealing with. How
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  much of it is dealing with people.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So it's not just a pathway towards becoming a
• 1:48
  therapist or a researcher or a perhaps even an education
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  and college professor. This is now skills that people can
• 1:56
  use every day.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, because yes, yes, you know those traditional psychology careers,
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  those are great and wonderful, but most people don't have
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  that desire to be let's just say a therapist. But yes,
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  that knowledge about how people think, why they think, why
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  they do what they do, think about all the ramifications
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  that has in the workplace, trying to figure out what
• 2:23
  motivates somebody, What is going to motivate them to buy
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  your product, What is going to motivate them to do
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  the best they can on this project that you assigned to.
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  What can you motivate them to you know, avoid these
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  pitfalls that are so common in your industry. All that
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  you can start to learn in these psychology classes about
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  why they think the way they think, what motivates, what
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  kind of pushes them away. It is just absolute golden
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  mount of knowledge.
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  Speaker 1: So it's not just you know, leaven from a customer standpoint,
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  it's not looking externally at the customers, it's so internally
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  as well with your coworkers. It's you know, why do
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  they think what they think, why do they feel what
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  they feel? Why do they behave how they do? And
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  there's ways then that you can use those skills to,
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  you know, maybe help diffuse you know, tense situations or
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  really just grasp the opportunity of some of the interpersonal
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  relationships that you're trying to build every day.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, I mean think about it. How many conflicts do
• 3:27
  you people see where the real issue is people think
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  that everybody thinks like they do. That's just not the case.
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  People are going to have different backgrounds, people are going
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  to have different ways they grew up, different education, different
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  experiences in their life, and so often we just assume
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  that everybody sees the world like we see it, and
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  psychology really teaches you that, hey, people have different motivations,
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  they have different backgrounds, different perspectives, and in order to
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  work with somebody, the best way you got to learn
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  what their motivations are, what is making them tick, and
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  really how many fights and problems can we avoid if
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  we just have a little understanding of the other individual
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  and employers.
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  Speaker 1: I'm guessing employers are really leaning into this, that they're
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  really starting to value these kinds of skill sets what
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  we call it emotional IQ or something like that. They're
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  really leaning into the opportunity to work with people who
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  understand how all of these relationships can impact productivity every
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  day and what we're getting accomplished as a company. So
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  I just think this is a really neat foundation of
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  skills to provide students.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and again, I know we talked about these in
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  the previous podcast, but that specter of AI is out
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  there right. Everybody's concerned it is going to take my job. Well,
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  the one thing the computer can't do is think like
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  a human being. It is great at a lot of things,
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  but if the person that is employed by you knows
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  how to deal with human beings, both the other employees,
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  the customers, the clients, the partners, the whoever else, think
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  about what advantage that person is going to have in
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  that employments area, right.
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  Speaker 1: Right, It's not just it's not just being an authority
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  figure as a manager. It's not just learning how to
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  do formula of mathematical equations or anything like that. It's
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  about I'm getting back to that, it's learning how to learn,
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  it's learning how to adapt, it's learning how to grow.
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  So your career continues to flourish.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Yes, absolutely, because you're going to have that perspective.
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  You're going to have that introspection of looking into what's motivating,
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  what's making people tick, and you can apply that to
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  how many things in your life, how many different aspects.
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  Speaker 1: Of the Does it align to different careers or I mean,
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  is it relevant more to business than say healthcare or industry?
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  Speaker 2: You name the business that deals with people, okay, and
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  it is going to be relevant for you there. And
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  I don't think there's too many businesses that don't deal
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  with people in one way or another. So, whether it
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  be healthcare, whether it be education, whether it be business,
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  whether it be sitting and talking to you today, we
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  all have to deal with people. And the more knowledge
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  we have about these things, the better suitor we are
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  to really strengthen our future.
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  Speaker 1: This has been really insightful and I appreciate your input
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  and your time. I mean, the workplace of the future,
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  it's not just needing people as workers, it needs people
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  who know how to work with other people. And I
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  want to thank you for talking about this today, even
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  listening to what we're talking the evolution of education and
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  the importance of liberal arts in the workforce of the future.
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  We are changing not just technology, we're changing the skills
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  of the humans who have to interact with that technology
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  in the future. And this podcast, as I said, is
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  sponsored by North Central State College. If you like more information,
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  go to Ncstatecollege dot edu. We'd be happy to talk
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  with you about your pathway and your personal desires and goals.
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  But I also want to thank doctor Stephen Haynes again
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  this morning for being our guest, and thank all of
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  you for listening. I'm Keith Stoner and we will talk
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  to you next time.