You are not alone. In a curious twist of fate, I am also writing my first ever blog post. The plan is to write a calming collection of tips for how to approach writing your first blog post for THESIS. Yes, you guessed it, this is that blog post. Please read on. Am I the …
When I started my first-year at Royal Holloway as a Psychology student, I did not expect that, six months later, I would be confined to my bedroom as a pandemic roared outside. My interactions with fellow peers became digitised, my lectures buffered, and my daily commute into Egham was paused; it was tough. For instance, …
I completed a research assistant placement as part of the PS3000P: Psychology Work Placement module with Dr Thora Bjornsdottir in the summer between the second and third years of my psychology degree. This primarily involved assisting with studies on preferences for sexual dimorphism in faces (how traditionally masculine or feminine a face is). First, …
We are pleased to present the winners for the first RHUL Psychology Student Essay competition. The aim of this competition is to give students a chance to apply their skills to real world problems. Students were asked to answer the following question in no more than 1000 words ‘ What research finding from psychology should …
Drug abuse is characterized by a strong and recurring desire to consume a substance despite adverse social and health consequences (Zou, 2017). The road to recovery for addicts is complex because frequent use of the substance often leads to dependency, tolerance building and painful withdrawal. Problematic drug use is a global issue and places great …
The current political climate shows much resistance to change and perpetuation of inequality. For example, in the UK there is resistance from politicians to policy change which would help the most vulnerable in the cost of living crisis (e.g., BBC, 2022), perpetuating inequality. The extent to which political activity reflects public attitudes varies (e.g., Sturgis …
Over the summer of 2021, I completed a 3-month placement at iCope, an Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service for Camden and Islington NHS Trust. My role as an honorary assistant psychological practitioner (HAPP) was varied; I was responsible for allocating patients to therapists and psychological wellbeing practitioners (PWPs), as well as identifying and …
When entering the second year of my Psychology degree, I had little knowledge of careers that I wanted to pursue, or specific sectors that I was passionate about. For this reason, I set myself a goal: by the end of the academic year, I will have further developed my employability skills and be confident in …
Reflecting on My PS2090 Journey Reflecting on the past four PS2090 (‘Employability for Psychology’) workshops, I am amazed at my progress. I started by feeling very undecided, confused, and a little bit anxious, hence my enthusiasm to register for the course! But, after the first workshop, I already started to see a shift. I was …
During my second year of my psychology degree, I completed a placement as a research assistant with Dr. Anat Bardi. My main tasks were to assist in data collection and to contribute to lab meetings. The first study I collected data for was a paradigm investigating whether values can influence what we hear, specifically, whether …