The study of world history has always fascinated me, and was the primary reason for my interest in Psychology. I was particularly interested in the events of World War II. The texts provided me the chronology of events, but reading Victor Frankl’s perspective in ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ completely transformed my outlook towards Psychology. His views on human nature and thought process influenced me to further investigate the area of understanding human behaviour. This in turn, led to interest in understanding the role of social factors in overall development of personality and interpersonal relationship. My interest and curiosity to understand how people acquire skills essential to perform or learn behaviour directed me first to a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, then eventually to the field of Educational Psychology. I wish to p to help individuals in their growth and development by not merely understanding how people learn but also by engaging in assessment and research of understanding both learning and teaching behaviour. After completing my bachelor’s degree, I enrolled in a Master’s program in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. During my bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, I studied several sub-fields like Social Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Human Developmental Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, and found that the essence of every field in Psychology is in relation to the understanding of human behaviour I have also worked on several projects both individually as well as in a group as part of my curriculum that has improved my ability to present my ideas in a lucid manner and to take criticisms positively. It has also made me realize the need to be precise yet flexible in my thought process, and at times, approach a given problem from a different perspective.
Apart from my coursework, I also wanted to learn other techniques to understand individual personality and behaviour which lead me to pursue courses on Psychoanalysis, Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy, and Dynamics of Counseling. In order to understand individual personality and behaviour in a non-verbal model, I learnt Graphology. During these courses, my interactions with other students and my facilitator, led me to the realization that I have an insatiable need to investigate problems empirically, and that my curiosity regarding the outcome, motivates me to analyse the situation thoroughly.
During my internship at Tata chemicals Limited in Mumbai India, I conducted research, studying the relationship between locus of control and job satisfaction of employees in the company. The results stated that the level of job satisfaction is independent of locus of control. The research experience helped me to improve my analytical skills by repeatedly analysing the data to find the reasons for the acquired results. My work in the ‘On-field Market Research’ project was focused on mapping the essential personality traits required by sales officers to perform their work efficiently. This helped me to develop my observational skills and learn to classify and define abstract components into concrete variables.
My internship experience gave me a glimpse of real world cases and situations that a Psychologist might encounter. It also highlighted my abilities to lead as well as efficiently work as a team player, while at the same time taught me the value of being assertive. Although, this hands-on experience was in a business setting, the ability to interact with different people, understand their perspective, and critically analyse the given situation, will be useful in a wide variety of work settings including graduate school.
I was born and raised in Mumbai India; a city that is steeped in cultural and ethnic diversity. I was fortunate to be exposed to multiple languages, customs, and cultures from a very young age. As part of my Master’s degree in Educational Psychology, I am interested in conducting research to understand how emotions and self-regulation influence an individual’s learning abilities and performance. My goal is to apply psychology to the educational sector in India, helping children learn effectively and bringing desired change that would lead to overall growth and development. While my primary interest lies in practice, experience that I have gained during my internship and graduate research work has reinforced the importance of research. Thus along with practice and application of theories in actual filed, I wish to conduct research in the areas of my interest and positively contribute to the field of Psychology.
