Thinking In My Discipline
For this assignment I spoke to my PBSI 105 instructor, Jessica Lowe. She is a current graduate student here at A&M. I wanted to speak with her because she has had experiences in the field of psychology that directly relate to interests and fears I have about the field. We started with talking about her experience as a psychology major in undergraduate school. She mentioned that she had a unique experience due to her graduating in three years instead of four. This caught my attention because I am currently on track to graduate a year early as well if I continue to be a full time student each semester. According to Ms. Lowe, any other major would see benefits from graduating early, but in psychology it can actually do more harm than good. Most in-depth research experience graduate schools look for will come from a psychology student's senior year in undergrad, and graduating early means missing out on this. However, she did say that taking a gap year and seeking out research or field experience on my own is another viable option in the event I do graduate early. We also spoke about the differences between graduate school and undergrad. She mostly stressed the new level of freedom graduate students gain, and to be mindful of keeping up with responsibilities in the midst of a less structured system. Lastly, I asked about her personal experiences with clinical psychology. She had taken a gap year to gain some clinical experience, but ultimately decided it was too emotionally taxing to continue with. This was something I was especially interested in hearing about because I feel that I am in a similar situation. I am very interested in mental disorders and researching them, but do not think that I could handle being any sort of therapist.
I gained a lot of insight about the field of psychology. Especially in terms of how my undergraduate experience can look and differ from others’ experiences due to possibly graduating early. I also feel more reassured about choosing a specific subfield of psychology to study. I am interested in a wide range of psychological areas, so the idea of having to pick only one was causing me some stress. I now understand that many researchers and grad students actually study in a variety or mix of subfields, despite having to declare one main one.
There were other psychology graduate students in the office while we were speaking, and one of them did chime in a few times. It seems that these perspectives are shared among other individuals in psychology. I have noticed that most upperclassmen in psychology go through similar academic experiences. Especially those related to choosing a subfield or deciding to combine subfields, as well as the experience of trying to gain adequate research. I could confirm this by asking more psychology students similar questions and comparing their individual responses.
I might like to learn more about how psychology students decide what they will be writing their dissertation on. As a first year psych student, I cannot even begin to imagine what I will focus my dissertation on. Being able to hear how current graduate students picked their topics might help me in making my own decision.
One specific issue Ms. Lowe identified in the field of psychology is the mis-matching of advisors and graduate students. Because many students will come in expecting a similar academic experience to undergrad, sometimes getting matched with an advisor who lacks structure will cause issues for them. On the other hand, there is the possibility of a very Type A advisor getting matched with a grad student who wants a lot of space. This does create some tension in the graduate school experience. This relates to my own concerns about graduate school because I am generally good at monitoring my own responsibilities, however, I have had struggles with following heavily structured plans. On a personal level, I think that I am able to get along with various personalities well, but I would not want a mismatch to affect my academic performance.
I think the insights I gained from this conversation mostly reassured me about my chosen field. I feel more comfortable with the thought of graduating early and going to grad school. I also feel better about experimenting with each subfield in psychology until I find one or many that I want to focus on.
