Randy Taylor Interview Essay

The interview with Mr. Randy Taylor, a Ph. D student in the Social, Cognitive, and Neuroscience area as well as Intro to Psychology professor, was interesting because he is a relatively newer professor and somewhat closer to his students as compared to other professors. His interview involved questions about his interest in psychology, as well as the path he intends to take as a professor, as well as the struggles that he will face. Equally importantly, I asked him regarding the struggles with working in a research environment, which is an environment that I hope to some day work in.

When/Why did you become interested in studying Psychology?
He began by explaining that his interest began around senior year when he took a psychology class, he was really interested in the material, but he was more interested in what the teacher had to say. He recalled that in the …show more content…
He also retold his experience of struggling to manage research as well as teaching and other responsibilities, and he recalled that it took him some semesters to adapt to the new environment. Secondly, he explained the obstacles he faced as an instructor; he began by retelling the experience he had when he was assigned the class he is currently teaching, and how the administrators only told him “basically you have this class at these days and these times” and everything else was left up to the instructor. He reflected on the amount of trial and error and testing that is involved with using different teaching methods and activities. He also reflected on the amount of people you must rely on especially if it’s your first teaching