Psychology Research

Yes I know I'm a commerce student, why am I doing a psychology research right?

It's because I'm not conducting the research, I'm being researched.

So it all started when I was in the Redmond Barry building, on an unsuccessful attempt to go in for "Get the most out of lectures" talk as it was overfull. There I was looking at the notice board, and regarded a research conducted buy the psychology department, in need of research participants.

It got me all enthusiastic and I thought, Why not? So Jia Yen and I tore down the contact details and off we went to contact Ms Clare Cameron.

First, we were sent an electronic questionnaire about our personalities, which was Part 1 of the research. Heck I didn't know by "personalities", it actually meant..


Are the sounds you hear in your daydreams really clear and distinct?

Do you at times have an urge to do something harmful or shocking?
Do you often worry about things you should not have done or said?
Are your thoughts sometimes so strong that you can almost hear them?

Can some people make you aware of them just by thinking about you?
Does a passing thought ever seem so real it frightens you?
Do you always practise what you preach?

Are you usually in an average sort of mood, not too high and not too low?
Do you often take on more activities than you have time for?
Would you take drugs which may have strange or dangerous effects?
Do you think you could learn to read other's minds if you wanted to?

When in a crowded room, do you often have difficulty in following a conversation?
No matter how hard you try to concentrate do unrelated thoughts always creep into your mind?
Are you easily hurt when people find fault with you or the work you do?
Do you stop to think things over before doing anything?
Have you ever felt that you have special, almost magical powers? (=.=)


(159 questions in total)
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So are they in search of Harry Potter or the Heroes?

Knowingly, participants in Part 1 whom the researchers are interested in would be called for a tw0-and-a-half hour face-to-face Part 2 session.

I related the questionnaire to my brother and he reckoned if I was selected for Part 2, he's living with a queer being.

And ya. He is.

The next morning, Clare called me, and apparently, "your data was highlighted and it would be great if you could spare us some time".

DANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't fly, why me?

So anyway, on that day itself, feeling all paranoid and resentful of myself, I dragged myself to the ninth floor of the old and dim-light Psychology building and waited outside the Experimental Psychopathology Lab, Room 934.

So, it was true, I was an experiment?

Creepy thoughts attacked me and convinced that I'm another being, and thinking that she would ask me to read minds, I began to listen to my heart. And the sudden sounds coming from the lift made me jumped out my skin.

Oh no, so it was true I can hear things?

Well, clearly, as usual, I was thinking way too much.

The session turned out to be fairly neutral. Just that throughout, whatever I said was recorded. First, I was given some weird, unknown words to pronounce, or maybe because I suck at vocab. Then, I was given 6 reasoning tasks, in which I was told to "feel" and predict the outcome.

Next were some word associations and detection of false words. Soon after, it was putting 30 envelopes of pictures in orders I felt was logical. And lastly, it was 3 questionnaires and tests on my thoughts, feelings, emotions and my control over them. And of course one question was..

Do you feel that you may know telepathy?


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Clare was generally friendly and helpful towards my questions : why was I selected? Apparently,
in her words in the consent form she've given me,


"You are invited to participate in Part 2 of this research project because your responses given in Part 1 of this study indicate that you have a particular personality style characterised by thoughts and experiences which are not encountered by the majority of people. It is this personality style that we are interested in studying...."


"The fact that you have indicated such thoughts and experiences is no cause for alarm or concern. Please be assured that this does not mean that you have or will develop a mental or psychotic disorder..."



SO, I was measured particularly high in this continuum and a personality trait called "schizotypy" which has subtypes "cognitive disorganisation" (bro: no wonder ur so blurr la, this explains it), and Clare's thesis was to find out if this would be "delusion proneness".


(I hope not)


She reassured me a gazillionth times that "this trait is owned by everybody, not just you, just that some people measured higher and some lower in this continuum, and it's perfectly normal", of course la, I'm quite sure I'm healthy, physically and mentally! Right?



So don't desert me ok?


Anyway, I made friends with Clare and we ended up chatting about our courses, and I told her about my previous qualms on whether to choose medical or commerce, and she related that her boyfriend, a surgeon, leads a really busy life, let alone the lengthy course.


And she told me how she has already completed her Bach in Commerce, worked, didn't like it and decided to now, work towards being a clinical psychologist, trained to handle mentally unhealthy patients.


As a result of this session, I was reimbursed $25! And the second session would be a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan in the Royal Melbourne Hospital, taking down "a series of pictures or recordings taken of your head", using "radio waves and a large magnet to acquire the datas" in which I would be reimbursed another $25.


But since it's optional as Im "free to withdraw your consent at any stage during the scanning", I guess I shall just leave that out.


I wouldn't want to be convinced that..















I'm psychotic.