My professional goal is to become a psychologist who uses social and evolutionary perspectives to understand interpersonal relationships and how stereotyping and prejudice affects them. My interest in these topics grew out of my life experiences as a person with cerebral palsy. As a child, it was difficult to form friendships because I was different. Furthermore, romantic rejection has also been commonplace as an adult. I have also had awkward encounters throughout my life with strangers who speak to me in ‘baby talk,’ suggesting that they perceive me to be a child. Although these experiences have adversely affected my self-esteem, they have inspired me to study why people hold negative beliefs of others and what behaviors/mental processes help or hinder the formation and maintenance of close relationships.
However, an academic career is far from what I would have once expected for myself. I …show more content…
I worked as a psychology Supplemental Instructor (SI) and tutor for 4 years (totaling 11 or 12 semesters) where I was responsible for multiple weekly study sessions where I would design materials and facilitate group discussions about course content. From this, I developed a love for teaching. My teaching philosophy is a simple one: to be approachable, patient, and make the course content relatable to students. I also worked as a research assistant for Dr. Duane Lundy for 4 years, studying people’s perception of music quality, and presented posters on two different occasions at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference. We recently published a paper based upon our work. When I began the master’s in social psychology program at Ball State University, the group dynamics course helped to lay the ground work for my thesis experiment, which tested whether prejudice and stereotype reduction strategies, such as perspective-taking, would increase romantic/sexual attraction to people with
However, an academic career is far from what I would have once expected for myself. I …show more content…
I worked as a psychology Supplemental Instructor (SI) and tutor for 4 years (totaling 11 or 12 semesters) where I was responsible for multiple weekly study sessions where I would design materials and facilitate group discussions about course content. From this, I developed a love for teaching. My teaching philosophy is a simple one: to be approachable, patient, and make the course content relatable to students. I also worked as a research assistant for Dr. Duane Lundy for 4 years, studying people’s perception of music quality, and presented posters on two different occasions at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference. We recently published a paper based upon our work. When I began the master’s in social psychology program at Ball State University, the group dynamics course helped to lay the ground work for my thesis experiment, which tested whether prejudice and stereotype reduction strategies, such as perspective-taking, would increase romantic/sexual attraction to people with