Personal Statement For Psychology

My professional goal is to become licensed through the American Board of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. I want to start my own practice specializing in Child-Play Therapy. Additionally, I would also would like to help minorities, people of color, and disadvantaged populations. I know that there are not many African Americans in the field of psychology, moreover, there is a social stigma attached to African Americans when dealing with mental illness. As an African American

“It takes a village to raise a child.” I never quite understood that saying when I was growing up, but my experiences teaching and working in school settings have showed me how true it really is. Obtaining a degree in school psychology will allow me to give the support that students, families and educators need to ensure that every student will thrive.

Engaging with the study of the mind and its effect on human behaviour fascinates me. Why do we behave the way we do and how does our social surrounding affect us? My interest deepens into how the innate mind of a human builds up and exhibits certain types of behaviour. I am intrigued by how child behaviour differs from adult behaviour, and how children exhibit their behaviour in the environment aspiring me towards the role of a child psychologist. My vision is to work with children to understand their behaviour as well as improve it using the skills I aim to learn during my undergraduate course of psychology.

​When I declared a psychology major during the second year of my undergraduate career, my objective was to attend medical school and eventually become a psychiatrist. I enjoyed the psychology classes in which I was enrolled and found them to compliment the premed curriculum I also wanted to study. I reasoned that a major in psychology would provide insight that could later be useful in my planned studies of psychiatry. Although I decided against going to medical school, psychology remained the primary area of focus of my studies with the ultimate career goal of becoming a clinical psychologist. While my long term professional plans include achieving a PhD and becoming a clinical psychologist. Pursuing a masters degree in

Lawrence fiddled with a toy while listening to the radio. After the broadcast was over, he softly mumbled something, though he generally kept to himself. I listened closely since his autism typically prevented Lawrence from stringing even two words together. He had recited the entire radio program, virtually word for word, even mimicking the tone of the broadcaster's voice. My jaw dropped. At that moment I knew that I wanted to learn more about Lawrence’s autism condition so that I could help him grow, but I also hoped to dedicate myself to studying the brain both from a physiological and psychological standpoint.

My interest in the human brain really began my junior year of high school when I took AP Psychology. I could not get enough of learning about how and why we function on a day to day basis, which can be looked at from multiple perspectives including from a biological angle. It amazed me then, and still amazes me today, that a complex network of neurons which fire electrochemical signals is the basis of every action we do on a day to day basis. This idea sparked my passion for learning more about the nervous system and how it functions, and is an interest which remains with me to this day. This same year of high school I also fell in love with Chemistry and Anatomy/Physiology, both of which applied in some capacity to AP Psychology as well. Ultimately

I was born the fourth of December 1991 in Cranbrook British Columbia. I lived there for 18 years. Before joining the military I worked as a fry cook at a Burger King for three years and held part time jobs working for the College of the Rockies summer camp programs during the summer. My parents are currently living together in Cranbrook BC. My father works outside the province testing railway tracks for two months at a time, then returns home for two to three weeks. My mother acts as the main contact point of the family, she works as a financial clerk. I have a 22 year old sister who will be attending university in Calgary this September. I attended Mount Baker Secondary School in Cranbrook and graduated in 2009

At age thirteen my family left Scotland and moved to the United States. Througout this transition I noticed a big culture difference. It got me curious to why people are all the same but when you live in a different place people act differently. About to graduate my senior year for highschool I discovered tere were answers to people behavior in my AP Psychology class. That is when I discovered my passion for psychology and have presued it ever since.

It's fascinating that humankind has had an easier time entering outer space than trying to develop a complete understanding of the human brain; and this paucity of information is what drove me to pursue the field of psychology, the fact that resting in my head is one of the world's most ironic enigmas. How can we know so little about the thing that makes us who we are? On the first day of my AP psychology course, my teacher informed us that “In this class you may be left with more questions than answers, and if you can't handle that, this may not be the class for you.” And when he said that, it was clear to that I was in the right place. You see, a riddle is no fun if the solution is obvious.

To me psychology in itself is a beautiful mosaic piece hanging in museum and a Mozart’s symphony piece paying in the background. My interest in clinical psychology dates back to my years in high school, where I excelled in psychology. When I was a senior, I took a second-year course in psychology at my high school. This advanced-level AP psychology class was engaging and interesting, and earned an A. Since then all I can remember, I have been motivated to understand human thought, feeling, and behavior. It seemed only logical that I pursue a career in clinical psychology.

Sigmund Freud once said, “Most people do not really want freedom because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” (1929) For many years I did not find freedom in my life, which constituted from the fact that being young meant no responsibilities. As I grew older, however, I became no longer afraid of responsibility, and I began to find freedom in the responsibilities of being an ear for others, volunteering in my community, as well as being studious in my education. It was through this experience that I found a passion for Psychology, which grew my aspiration of pursuing a career in Counseling.

Psychology has been a passion of mine since I first took AP psychology in high school, and I knew then that psychology was the major for me. Beyond that, I had no idea what exactly I wanted to do in the field of psychology. The ideas of working in child psychology or clinical and even experimental have all run through my mind as I have tried to assess my potential career and life paths. This past semester, I received the opportunity to travel and study abroad in Ireland. There I immersed myself in Irish culture and I got to explore an entirely new path and new way of using what I have learned thus far in my academic career.

It is my strong desire to attend Fielding Graduate University APA (American Psychological Association) accredited doctoral program in clinical psychology. I have always been intrigued by the human mind for as long as I can remember, specifically the psychopathology of it. I truly enjoy conducting psychological research, learning about psychopathology and how to treat it. While conducting research and learning, it is important to remember that the purpose of psychology isn’t to predict a person’s thoughts, actions, and behaviors, but to understand them. There are dozens of events that occurred in my twenty-five years of life that led me to this meaningful choice of pursuing a doctorate. The two most significant events were when I was in the

Personal Statement I am interested in pursuing a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at Florida State University where I can develop my research in understanding substance use disorders (SUDs). According to Grant et al. (2016) , SUDs are common, highly comorbid, and disabling disorders that often go untreated in the United States. Although in the last several decades there has been an abundance of research conducted and significant progress has been made, there are still significant limitations in our knowledge in understanding and treating SUDs (Sutker & Adams, 2001).

I enjoyed taking this class and learning about the foundations of psychology. This class was interesting to me because it explained the reasons for many events in my life. Unlike a portion of other topics I study, I could relate to the information within psychology. I tend to find topics much more interesting when they apply to me and I can relate to them. Psychology explains the emotions, feelings, thought processes, and development I experience. The most interesting topics to me were human development, health psychology, psychological disorders, learning, and memory.