Ouch by Molly

Ouch by Molly - September 2017 Scholarship Essay

"Ouch!" The pain of burning my hand quickly dulled as I triumphantly shouted "warm receptors!" My roommantes confused, glanced in my direction, raised their eyebrows, and clamly resumed their studies. I, however, felt victorious in spite of throbbing hand: burning my hand had given me an example to use for a paper due in what would become my favorite elective course, General Psychology. I had not walked into General Psychology with hish expectaitions-I needed to fill an elective for the semester, and the course looked interesting enough. But, to my suprise, I was quickly taken in by the course content and my professor's passionate approach to teaching. Within weeks, I was learning about fascinating cases that have intriqued doctors for years. For example, the cas of Phineas Gage, a railroad worker who shockingly survived after an iron rod was driven through his skull, has offered critical insight into theories about brain plasticity, personality, and behavior that have captivated psychologists, neuroscientists, and other medical professionals since the nineteenth century. My professor would walk into every class with enthusiasm and a desire to impart her knowledge to us. With my curiosity piqued, I began to think about the pros and cons of various psychological theries, small scale experiments and I that I could conduct, and I unwittingly began to incorporate psychology into my daily life. I found that my professor and the topics discussed in my textbook were rich sources of information, that helped me to change my life for the better: during a stressful week of testing, putting a pencil between my teeth to force a smile really didi improve my mood, and taking a nap after a killer study session did aid my memory. Morever, I found that I could use what I had learned to help others around me by being more cognizant of my actions: Was I quilty of bystander apathy when I was driving by an accident and thinking, "Someone else will call the police," or maybe I had participated in ingroup bias during elementary school when I snubbed a child different from me in favor of my "group." Whatever the case, I was hooked on psychology, and I wanted more for the sake of learning and for the sake of being a better person. I thought about changing my major from English Literature, but I decided that a person coul love something and not have tomajor in it.

Instead of changing my major, I started doing independent learning-listening to lectures from professional like Harvard's Dr. Amy Cuddy, or reading about psychological experiments that helped me to better undrstand human nature, such as the Stanford Prison experiment. After two years, I still have my General Psychology textbook, and incorporate it into my other studies when applicable. The course gave me a zeal to learn not only about psychology, but about science, literature, philosophy, and even the history of medicine. Perhaps that is why I fondly remember the course as my favorite elctive: it did what any good elective is supposed to do-it expanded my paradigm and sparked my intellectual appetite to learn and do more with my education.