Goals & Learning

In the fall, my educational goal was to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology. With this PhD, I hoped to be a clinical psychologist that focuses on the consequences of adverse childhood experiences in adolescents. My interest in psychology and helping people is what drove this goal. Not only did I want to work with individuals, but I also wanted to expand my career to research. From my research experience, my career goal of becoming a clinical psychologist is more solidified in the spring.  By being apart of a research team in the early stages of research, I have learned a lot about  how tedious it can be. Despite this new information, I still am eager to pursue clinical psychology. I also feel more confident in deciding my future, specifically which career I would be best suited for.  I plan to continue learning about the research process by exploring other research opportunities and networking among mental health professionals. To further my knowledge of the field of psychology and mental health, I have accepted a summer internship opportunity to be apart of a behavioral health initiative team.  I have been making progress towards this goal by taking initiative of my college experience this semester. I have obtained my RBT certificate and began preparing a proposal for another research opportunity for my senior year.

Learning Goal #1: I would like to improve my research skills. 

Relevance: Research skills will prepare me for graduate school and a career in clinical psychology. Throughout both my educational and career path, high quality research skills will be needed.

Action Plan: 

1. Formulating research questions that can be addressed with the data we have

2. Individual meetings with my mentor, post-docs, research staff, and other team members. Take
   advantage of other research meetings and trainings offered through the school of medicine

3. Working on individual project

Progress: I have been able to gain insight on research through discussing with my mentor and other psychologists within the SPARC team of any question I have regarding research. I have also been apart of reviewing RedCap, a survey database, and participant recruitment through creating flyers. I have already taken steps to prepare for the next academic year by reaching out to another psychologist on the SPARC team to be my mentor for further research. 

Learning Goal #2: I hope to improve my interpersonal communication in a more professional way. 

Relevance: Knowing how to communicate in a more professional manner can improve my chances for things like interviews, presentations, and meetings. The more confident I become in this type of interpersonal communication, the better I will be at taking information and expressing my own ideas more calmly.

Action Plan:

1. LHSI Presentations

2. Meeting that occurs on a weekly basis

3. Written work projects

Progress: I have had difficulty with improving my communication skills. I often do not have a lot to contribute to the conversation so it has been difficult reaching this goal. With this said, I plan to rehearse my showcase presentation to the team before the showcase date to prepare and to get used to communicating in a scientific research aspect. 

Learning Goal #3: I plan to increase my knowledge about development and treatment of mental health concerns for adolescents. 

Relevance: This goal helps guide me to learn more about a topic I am passionate about. It also will narrow down the types of clinical work I would like to do as a graduate student or as a psychologist.

Action Plan: 

1. Coming prepared to meetings with questions

2. Guided readings and discussions

3. Attendance at webinars, project echo sessions, works in progress presentations, grand rounds, etc

Progress: I have not learned a lot about mental health concerns, as the research team I am apart of focuses on substance use. Despite this set back, I have learned a lot about why working with adolescents is important for both their substance use and mental health. To learn more about adolescent mental health concerns, I plan to focus on this variable for my research project next year. 

In the fall, I was more confident with my communication and problem solving skills. As I began this internship, answering questions and speaking up was very limited on my end. I, now, am able to respond to questions from my team with less self-doubt. I am also less conscious about being "wrong" in my responses. In addition to communication, I am using my problem solving skills when given tasks that I lack knowledge on. For example, a research team I am apart of wanted each member to create an acronym that would be appealing to the participants. Rather than not contributing, I utilized the project website to get a better understanding of the project and its main purpose. From my research experience, I have continued using my communication skills in various formats in the spring. I have used what I know about children's comprehension to make a flyer more appropriate for that age rage. I have also used what I have learned through LHSI to draft flyers appropriate for primary care providers and caregivers of the participants. 

The skill I planned to work on, during the fall semester, was confronting challenges and failure. I often found myself worried about failing with new tasks. This led me to asking questions before I tried on my own. To improve this skill, I planned to attempt challenges and tasks assigned to me first and ask questions afterwards. For example, if my supervisor asked me questions about my role, I hoped to respond to his question with an answer instead of another question. I tend to ask these questions out of nervousness, not because I need clarity. Though I have made a lot of improvements to the above skills as of the spring semester, I still have room to grow. I'd like to figure out if I actually enjoy working from home or if I just like it because it's comfortable. I think sometimes I miss out on socializing when I work remote for my internship. To better understand my preferred work environment, I plan to see if I enjoy my summer internship as it is remote and only has 2 weeks of in-person work.  

In the fall, this internship informed me on career paths that are different than clinical psychology. For example, a licensed clinical social worker can be apart of research if there's a need for them and if they have experience. This internship also helped me narrow down if psychology was still a major I was passionate about. Because I am able to see how psychological research is impacting adolescents and their families, I feel even more passionate about clinical psychology in the spring than in the fall semester. As I have continued my internship, I have learned a lot about clinical psychology programs and which would be best suited for me. Though PhD programs tend to be invovled with research, it is not limited to just that. This experience continues to make me feel confident in my career goal of becoming a clinical psychologist.