Psychology in China?

[IsabelScott]

I wonder if anyone can help. I'm a psychology PhD student at Bristol university (in the UK) and as part of my degree I have to do some fieldwork abroad. For a number of reasons I'd love to do it in China, so I'm in the process of researching where I should go.

Does anyone know which universities are good for psychology (particularly social psychology) in China? There seem to be so many universities in China that it's hard to know where to start. Lots of them don't seem to do much in the way of psychology though

In addition, if I can, I'd like to find somewhere in an area that's beautiful, friendly and temperate - i.e. easy for a soft westerner to survive in! My University is affiliated with Nanjing and Zhejiang Universities through the World University Network, but I don't know if either of these would be suitable places for me to go.

One final thing - few of the university websites that I've seen seem to provide staff email addresses. Does anybody know what is the standard way of making contact with someone for the first time??

Hope someone can help me with all this - I know it's a long shot!

Many thanks, Isabel

[xianu]

You might want to check with your psychology faculty or the CHinese faculty at Bristol to see if they have contacts in China in psychology. My experience is that although the information about departments and faculty is usually listed on the websites (or so they claim. I have a monster of a time finding any useful information other than a list of names), the best way to meet university faculty, or anyone for that matter, is through connections. Even if they do not know specifically faculty in psychology in China, your teachers might know someone who knows someone, who can do the introduction for you.

[zarathustra]

I'd be curious about this. I may eventually try a school of psychoanalysis. I doubt this exists in China. As for the quality of studying western human or social sciences at the top Chinese universities, I'd be curious what other people say. I've already heard and experienced grad classes where people don't even read books and even many students say the teacher really doesn't understand the subject.

[onebir]

My University is affiliated with Nanjing and Zhejiang Universities

Nanjing & Hangzhou are both reputedly pretty nice, fairly prosperous Chinese cities. But they're hardly temperate (hot humid summers & coldish winters, made colder by lack of central heating)

[monicamars]

Generally speaking, normal schools are good for philosophy. Such as Beijing normal university and East china normal university, etc.

Their official website:

http://www.bnu.edu.cn/eng/

http://www.ecnu.edu.cn/2005english/English.htm

[IsabelScott]

Many thanks for the replies everyone. All advice gratefully recieved!!

[simonlaing]

Hi Isabel,

As a resident of Nanjing I think this place is pretty cool. They call pyschology brain medicine and seem to use medication more than counseling here. There is a big Brain Hospital here in Nanjing. You can try an look it up, as well as some other some hospitals.

I had a friend who had the misfortune to have a mother who became schizophrenic later in life. He told me about frequent use of medication and hospitalization to deal with many mental conditions.

One thing about it is that mental health is usually hidden from view and if you wanted to do research it would have to be connected with a hospital as normal chinese people don't publicize these kinds of illness.

Hangzhou is also a beautiful city though it can be flooded with tourists at certain times of the year. Nanjing has many univeristies and thus young people and foreigners in the downton. I like it.

Good luck,

Simon:)

P.S. My Girlfriend works in a Mental Health hospital in the suburbs if you want me to ask about an internship...

[gato]

Here are two books on Chinese social psychology that should be useful for researchers.

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=9250191

世道人心：对中国人心理的探索

作者：何友晖，彭泗清，赵志裕　著

出版社：北京大学出版社

何友晖 was a professor at Hong Kong University.

彭泗清 is at Beijing University.

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=9019529

解读中国人的人格

作者：王登峰，崔红 著

王登峰 is at Beijing University

崔红 is at Tianjin Normal University

[simonlaing]

Oh, I missed the social pyschology part.

In China sociology (similar to social pyscology) is broken into two areas, the one is the quantitative purely statistical analysis of social behavior. A lot of city planners take this major.

And the second area is theoretical sociology - In this type of department theory and theorists are the most important, espicially marx, and conflict type analysis of human behavior. This is also often linked with politics and is not the best department to go into. So when you apply make sure you find what kind of sociology department it is.

have fun,

Simon:)

[fsutalltree]

Hey! My name is Payton and my Chinese name is 高木. I have taken classes in Chinese and spent last summer there and I am very thankful that we have forums like these. I really appreciate the people who contribute to this resource!

Anyway, I wanted to ask everyone what their experiences have been like with Psychology in China.

Is Psychology ever studied in colleges there? What are people's general perception of the study of Psychology?

And if there's anything anyone knows that interesting on the subject, please post too!

[simonlaing]

My wife works as a nurse in a mental hospital.

The reputation for psychology is not so good here, it is still a bit of a shameful thing to be in therapy. Also it sounds like most of the treatment given here is isolation and medication of patients.

Part of the issue can from the history in the 60s and 70s when psychiatry was used a weapon against political opponents and would be sent to insane asylums. In Shanghai I heard there has been more of a popularization of psychiatry and people can afford to go to them.

There are studies done in China about societal views and psychology but generally from the face issues people don't like to tell others much about their internal family issues.

There is a significant amount of concern about preventative suicide psychology. In Nanjing we have a famous bridge where people often commit suicide. The government has uniformed and plain clothes policemen patrolling it as well as volunteers ready to talk someone down if they start to try to climb the railing.

Many of the suicides come from students that have failed the college entrance exam and have a dim future life or have broken up with their first boyfriend or girlfriend in college and don't know how to cope. (Flip side of little emperor syndrome)

Some mental health hospitals are called brain hospitals and have both psychology and medical doctors who treat patients. If you're doing a study, you may want to contact them instead of a university to get qualified patients.

Good luck,

Simon:)