Introduction to Psychology: Make It Compulsory

Introduction to Psychology: make it compulsory
The “Introduction to Psychology” (ITP in the following cases) course has already been included in the selective courses for students not majoring in psychology in Fudan University. It is better to make ITP a compulsory course as it meets with the needs of undergraduates in the sense of their individual lives as well as their academic advancement, and if carried out, it will make students more attentive and lead to better pedagogical results.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “psychology” is a scientific discipline that studies mental processes and behavior in humans and other animals. Not only students majoring in psychology need its introductory courses, but students from other majors should also have access to it. As most undergraduates in Fudan are not fully equipped with scientific approaches to mental health of individuals, the ITP course is helpful for them in providing them with adequate information and guidance when it comes to dealing with their mental problems.
In Fudan, the pressure from intense academic competition and strained social relationships has made more and more students suffer from mental problems such as depression. Tom Burns has put it in his Psychiatry, a Very Short Introduction that “Depression is the commonest psychiatric disorder and affects about 15 per cent of us in our lifetime. The World Health Organization ranks it second to heart disease as a cause of lifelong disability worldwide.” The negative effect of depression is usually destructive both to the students’ physical state of health and to their academic advancement. In extreme cases, students who lack proper approaches to soothe themselves out of depression will have the tendency to resort to suicide or homicide which is definitely pitiful. In his work, Burns describes the symptoms of depression as follows:
…Tensions and anxiety are very common, sleep is disturbed, and patients lose weight and find themselves unable to...