Joey C., Psychology and Counselling, Lifespan Cognition Lab, and Application of Knowledge
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/18
Joey C. is a colleague, who works with me in the Lifespan Cognition Lab. Here we talk about psychology, selection of degree, the Lifespan Cognition Lab, his main research question, and tips for becoming involved in psychology.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How did you come into an interest in psychology?
Joey C.: For myself, I was always interested in pursuing something that would have to do to help people. My family and I thought something in the medical field (i.e. a physician) would most likely be the best road to go down in the future, and as I was leaving high school and pursuing a university career, I decided that learning about human processes and behaviour would be the first stepping stone in my journey.
Jacobsen: What is your degree? Why select it? Why choose the Lifespan Cognition Lab?
Joey C.: I am in the Arts program with a major in psychology and a minor in counseling. As aforementioned, I was always interested in helping people and no matter how many research studies I read about different areas of psychology, my first question is “Why?”. I chose the Lifespan Cognition Lab as cognitive psychology is a field that I have been interested in for a few years, and I feel that I can contribute on a multitude of levels for the lab, and at the same time, learn new things every single day.
Jacobsen: What is your main research question?
Joey C.: I haven’t done any independent research for the lab yet, as I have started out recently in the Lifespan Cognition Lab. My dream and end goal would be to pursue clinical psychology in the criminal justice system. For that, I recently have written a paper on the logic and rationale behind classification and diagnosis of psychopathy in children and adolescents. In addition to the Cognition Lab, I am a part of the KPU IMAGe lab, in which I was interested in learning how social perceptions of advertisements can be changed and influenced. At some point, I would like to do research for head injuries. I am a soccer player (goalkeeper) and in my career, I have gotten a concussion before and noticed that I was having a hard time grasping topics and things normal people would have no problem doing in a shorter time. Though this was several years ago and I made a full recovery, I would like to see how a person who recently faced brain injury vs. a person who has not would perform an identical task.
Jacobsen: What are some good tips for those with an interest in psychology for becoming involved in a psychology lab? What should they not be afraid of? What should they be prepared for?
Joey C.: I would say to just start out with an open mind. I was extremely into social psychology when I started out at Kwantlen and it changed to clinical and now is a happy balance between clinical and cognitive. Since you get to do the experiments up close and hands on, you learn new things and might be attracted to different areas of psychology you might not have even known about. Additionally, asking questions is important because there are times where you might not know the answer. I have learned that sometimes, it’s totally OKAY to say that you don’t know an answer or something. The next step is to learn and work hard to remember and use that knowledge where it’s applicable. Psychology is all about hard work. It’s not easy to do research or become a lab assistant/researcher but you have to work hard for it and earn everything you get. Sometimes you won’t get the result you want or were expecting and that’s okay too. Nobody truly knows what they’re looking for in psychology, but that’s the fun part; finding out new things and expanding out own minds on different topics.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 