Apr 2024

"I have a degree in psychology, I know my shit"

Self awareness is crucial when it comes to working with human behaviour.

Here's a funny story from January last year that was a huge revelation to me, where my lack of self awareness caused me to make some- well, pretty stupid suggestions.

I was on the user council of ripen labs where they were testing their beta app.

I started making quite a few suggestions which made complete sense to me, only to be blasted off by a fellow group member.

And man that hurt.

"I have a degree in psychology, I know my shit"

Only that, I didn't know my shit, I knew theory and what "works" for me.

I didn't know till then that I was neuro Divergent and my way of keeping myself accountable, and my definition of "productivity" was very, very different from the TG the app was built for, and while I could find academic validation for my suggestions - it took me a good 4 months of reflecting to understand why it wouldn't have worked.

Regardless, Heet was kind enough to get on a call with me and try to understand where I was coming from.

Honestly, I felt dumb in the beginning, but to think of it- it was just my lack of acceptance for subjectivity of experiences, of which I myself was a huge preacher. Such hypocrisy.

There's a reason why Master's students in clinical/counselling psychology undergo mandatory therapy sessions. Not because something is "off" with them- but because it takes extreme caution to work with a living breathing person with an entire life which you know you'd be influencing in one way or another.

Same is true for consulting, and businesses.

If you're solving a problem, and all insight is coming simply from your experiences - it makes you susceptible to confirmation bias , retrofitting all new data into your already existing schemata.

That isn't research, that is confirming what one thinks they already know.

Behavioral science isn't just about claiming one knows how people behave, it is also a tool to understand how you yourself behave and how that might influence the way you're approaching the problem.

Here's a little excercise I do whenever approaching a problem -

1. What are my conditionings in the context of a problem?

2. What is the language I grew up around in the context?

3. Had I found a solution to it?

4. How would 1, 2, 3 be different for the TG I'm trying to solve for?

5. How can, what I already know influence my data collection that can cause me to miss critical points/ lead my interviewee into giving an answer "I" want?

It can be really difficult trying to take apart your sense of self - but if you keep going through the process, you wouldn't just be a better researcher, but a better person.