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Asked by anon-340947 to Liz on 8 Nov 2022. This question was also asked by anon-340940.
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Liz Halstead answered on 8 Nov 2022: last edited 8 Nov 2022 1:18 pm
Hi, thanks for your question. There were a few things that got me interested in Psychology so I hope my answer is ok. I first watched a presentation when I was in year 7 by my classmate who had an autistic sibling. I remember being interested and wanting to learn more about individual differences and autism in particular. Then coincidentally, one of my close friends also had a sibling with autism and her mum always used to tell me how good I was with him which made me think I might be able to work in this area. I worked as a young Brownie leader when I was 14-18 years old, during that time there was a case of two girls, and I became suspicious about the treatment of one of the girls by a parent. I followed it up and realised it was very important to me to speak up in these situations, I became interesting in safeguarding at that point. When I was doing my A levels, I was never that interested in some of the A level topics in psychology (e.g., memory, but great if you are!). My A level psychology teacher went on maternity leave and we had a university lecturer come in to cover. He saw I had an interest in ethics and particularly research so helped me set up a student ethics board, this made me decide to apply to do Psychology. When I went to university, I really enjoyed learning about the different areas of psychology, but when I did my undergraduate research project, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in research and get my PhD.
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Comments
Mhairi commented on :
I was interested in human biology when I left school but I worked for a few years and delayed university. When my daughter was born I became fascinated by developmental psychology and went to uni with a view to study that but ended up being really inspired by social psychology and the way it can help us understand large scale human behavioural phenomena. I got into research and decided to study for an MSc in Psychological Research Methods after my undergraduate degree in psychology. That led to a PhD and a career in research and teaching.
Jamie commented on :
I was really lucky in that my high school was one of the first schools in Scotland to offer psychology as a subject in the early 2000’s. I was always interested in philosophy and thought psychology would be fun. When I got to know more about psychology, I found that I was interested in social psychology and the strange ways that people behave when they are in big groups. It wasn’t until I was in my third year at University that I was invited to work in a neuroimaging laboratory over the summer and became really interested in human memory and how the brain supports higher level cognition. This work experience allowed me to get a PhD studentship so that I could continue my research in the same lab working with my supervisor. Top tip: when you get to University, never refuse an opportunity to gain valuable work experience. You never know where it will lead.