Then and Now

As this is my first post, I feel an introduction is in order. My name is Evan and I am now senior at Swarthmore College, in Philadelphia. There I major in Psychology with a minor in Statistics. I also play on the men’s soccer team; participate in the college’s environmental group: Earthlust; and serve as a psychology tutor. My goal is to attend graduate school and become a professor of psychology. Lastly, I really enjoy puns. And though I feel I have heard a great deal, I am always apun to hearing new ones.

Then and Now
For centuries authors have been investigating human behavior, attempting to uncover those human truths which seem to guide us all. This summer, I will be in sunny California, uncovering those human truths in the cognitive psychology department of Stanford University. In addition to my role as a research assistant to the lab, I will be specifically working with Paul Thibodeau, a graduate student at Stanford. We will be performing experiments that examine perception and language, as well as investigating how metaphors shape an individuals understanding of how a government should work. We will use the current political election as an arena through which to examine the impact of metaphors on an individual’s beliefs about government. (For further reading on this issue, see George Lakoff’s Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, and Metaphors We Live By; http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/people/lakoff)

My previous experience includes research in both the social cognitive neuroscience disciplines. At Swarthmore College I worked with Andrew Ward on thought suppression. This past term I spent at the Royal Holloway, University of London. There I had my first taste of neuorimaging research. I even climbed in the fMRI and now have a picture of my brain! I look forward to the working in the cognitive psychology lab, because it provides a new angle to study and understand human behavior.

Now that you have a taste of where I am, I thought you might like to know how it all started. It is often difficult, if not impossible to understand how certain events have shaped our lives. However, an event early in my education symbolizes how my experience has led me into psychology.

It was Mr. Early’s sixth grade pre-algebra class and I was sitting in the back left corner, with my friend Matt sitting directly in front of me. Matt had an itch on his back; one of those unreachable itches that you cannot scratch no matter how hard you twist and bend. He decided to use his pencil in a last ditch attempt and dropped it down his shirt. Twisting and squirming, nearly falling out of his chair, he frantically maneuvered to regain his pencil. Mr. Early sprinted over and began to admonish me for pestering Matt! As I protested my innocence, he continued to scold and berate me. After I received quite a lecture, our actual lecture resumed, and I left bewildered trying to make sense of the situation.

I returned home from school and recounted the story to my mother. Her words left a lasting impression. She simply wondered whether Mr. Early may have had an issue outside of school that may have affected his reaction to the situation. A short while later I learned that Mr. Early’s wife had recently been diagnosed with cancer. From that day on I always seemed to search for the reason underlying a person’s behavior. The experience taught me that to understand behavior is not simply to know an individual’s disposition; rather it is the complex interplay of a multitude of factors. Though as a sixth grader this definitely passed over my head, I believe that the lesson to always walk in another’s shoes shaped my thoughts and actions in the years to come, so that it was almost inevitable that I entered psychology.

Over the summer months, I look forward to sharing my experience as a research assistant in the cognition lab. Be on the lookout for information about working in academia, results of cutting edge research, and generally cool things about psychology. Finally, never hesitate to respond to a post with questions or comments; I would love to hear your thoughts.