Psychology Honors Program Entry Essay

Although I enjoy every aspect of psychology, my interest in psychology first ignited through reading and learning more about brain disorders, deviancies in the brain structure, and how these different conditions can impact human behaviors. Therefore, my long-term research interests revolve around these subjects. However, I understand that studying brain disorders on an undergraduate level is a realistic scenario. Thence, my possible research interests for the Psychology Honors Program are studying the role of impulsivity in psychological disorders and/or addictive behaviors.
I was lucky enough to observe my strengths and weaknesses in the field through gaining experience in several places. My position as an intern in the Psychology Department
of Acibadem International Hospital, Istanbul/Turkey, as assistant of Ferahim Yesilyurt, PhD., allowed me study Internet Gaming Disorder, and some underlying biological reasons that potentially increases the likelihood of the disorder. Along with working with IGD, I was also trained to perform some neuropsychological tests, especially tests that critically aims to measure a patient’s attention span and memory, reasoning, planning, organizing skills, and ability to think abstractly.
Furthermore, during the same time period as my internship at the Acibadem International Hospital, I also interned at the IDA Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Center, Istanbul, Turkey, and mostly worked with children who demonstrated earlier symptoms of learning disabilities, more specifically speech difficulties. I was able to do so through performing play therapy, and creating a personal bound between children.
Moreover, since the beginning of the Fall 2016 Semester, I’ve been working in the GMU Social Robotics and Embodied Cognition Lab as the volunteered research assistant of Adbulaziz Abubshait, a graduate student under the supervision of Eva Wiese. Our research focuses primarily on temporoparietal junction and its possible relationship with mind attribution, gaze direction, and related attention sourced behaviors. My weekly responsibilities in the lab includes scheduling sona appointments, administering the task to participants, and monitoring them while they perform the task under two different conditions.
In addition, I also started working along with Stephen Lippi, another graduate student who works under the supervision of Dr.
Jane M. Flinn. My current responsibility in the lab is limited to handling mice regularly since mice are currently being supplemented by zinc prior to behavioral testing, but I’ll be more actively engaged in the lab once we start behavioral experiments in January.
Although, I appreciate my position as a research assistant in these labs, I would like to gain more research experience through having a control over and being engaged in every aspect of a research. In addition, from the very first moment that I’ve decided to major in psychology, I knew that I wanted to contribute to the field through playing an active role in research. Therefore, I am highly interested in participating in the Psychology Honors Program. I believe that participating in the program will allow me to improve my skills, as well as learning more from the extensive knowledge of GMU faculty members. The program will expose me to a wide variety of research that will prepare me to graduate school, which is my nearest future goal. I plan pursue my education further through going to a prestigious graduate program in either Clinical Psychology with a Neuropsychology track, or in Cognitive and Behavioral
Neuroscience.