On the lintel of the gate of Apollo temple in Delphi in ancient Greece has ever carved such a sentence, “Man, please know yourself”. With the curiosity to understand human beings and the desire to explore human nature, I chose to study psychology. Beijing Normal University, the renowned university with best psychology department in China, provides me with a strong academic atmosphere and a solid psychology basis. During the four year undergraduate study, four books had great impacts on me.

　　Psychology and Life

　　As an introductory book, psychology and life leaded me into the world of psychology, and gave me a general idea of the wide-ranging terrain of psychology. With the interests in several branches of psychology aroused from the book, I participated in research projects in cognitive psychology, social psychology and human resource management since I was a sophomore, such as “a priming study of complex character: the fect of position information and semantic information of the radicals in Chinese”; “study of the impaired spoken and written language in brain-damaged patients”; “human resources research in Xinglong company”, etc. From these RA experiences, I had the opportunity to take part in the up-to-date explorations of psychology, get familiar with the methods in the study of psychology, and gain insights into the design concept of psychological research.

　　The way psychology and life often illustrates psychology principle with daily examples inspires me that simple phenomenon could be implications of great principles or rules, but common people just ignore them. In contrast, psychologists try to find out the commonness in various complicated phenomenon, abstract general psychology principles and use them to improve the quality of life. Therore, on one hand, I consciously apply psychology knowledge to explain people’s behaviors and social phenomenon; On the other hand, I utilize psychology research methods to study realistic issues. Cooperating with three collaborators, I implemented the research on “online advertising placement and its fects on web advertisement recognition”, which was funded by Beijing Normal University Undergraduate Research Foundation. Through the research process, I experienced the excitement of transforming our constructs into concrete operations, and the sense of achievement by substituting concise conclusions for complicated data.

　　Social Psychology

　　Impressing me by many interesting and artful researches, Social Psychology emphasizes the power of situation on human behaviors and the typical mistakes people tend to make, which expanded my understanding of human nature. Social psychology intrigued me into more readings and researches in social psychology, which made me determined to study social psychology in as my specialty. I am particularly interested in the area of self, persuasion and culture.

　　Learned Optimism

　　Facing the same situation, people with different explanatory styles vary in their behaviors and emotions. This is what Martin E.P. Seligman demonstrates in his famous book. After reading this book, I am particularly interested in the concept of Locus of Control. Meanwhile, always suffering from traffic jam, a question haunted me: who would be more anxious under time pressure circumstances, people in controllable situation or uncontrollable situation? Thus, how relative stable disposition interacts with situational factors became my major concern. As the final group project of social psychology course, I designed a field experiment to investigate the interaction of locus of control with the controllability of situation, the coping styles and their fect on people’s anxiety under time pressure. I was kissed by the passion and excitement I had never had bore through new ideas sparking in my mind and the transformation of my experience in life to the systematical scientific research.

　　I also benited from Learned Optimism in that I acquired a positive explanatory style, which help me immune from learned helpless and depression. Serving as a voluntary telephone counselor in “Edelweiss” mental health hotline, I endeavored to substitute clients’ negative explanatory styles for a positive way to perceive social environment and make new attributions for their success and failure. Sharing with the goal of Martin E.P. Seligman, I delivered telephone counseling with the hope of taking off clients grey glasses through which they saw a negative world. It was my gratification and contentment to improve the psychological health of others and help them enjoy the happiness of life. That is also an important reason that motivates me to pursuit psychology and confirms my dedication to psychology.

　　Influence: science and practice

　　Realizing for many times I have been fallen under the influence of salesmen unconsciously and willingly, I gained great insights from this book into the psychology of compliance and persuasion. Among many influence strategies introduced by the book, I concentrated on the “door in the face” (DITF) technique, consulted relevant papers, and independently designed a research on the explanations and applications of DITF. In this research, I employed a consecutive dependent variable to explored whether the magnitude of the concession affect compliance, so as to verify the validation of the reciprocal concession explanation. The research also examine whether DITF apply to both request for money and request for labor. This research program was also funded by the Beijing Normal University Undergraduate Research Foundation. I was the only student in our department to receive fund from Research Foundation twice, both as the program host.

　　Apart from my explorations in psychology, I have an intrinsic curiosity for the world and a thirst for knowledge. When I was in high school, I bought a through ticket, with which I visited nearly all the museums in Beijing. Even the gateman was very astonished at my visiting record on the ticket. College provides me with a wide stage for my broad interests. During my freshman year, I attended as many seminars as possible in a variety of areas, as long as time allowed. Although I cannot become an expert in all the fields appealing to me, my explorations in other fields allow me to view psychology from a broader perspective, and concentrate on my specialty with a flexible mind.

　　On the basis of my qualities and experiences in undergraduate study, I am passionate to devote myself in the pursuit of social psychology to become a knowledge creator and transmitter, not only accepter, to inspire others with my achievements and further our understanding of human nature. Undergraduate study is an important, but not entire step in achieving my goal, so I hope to advance my education in your esteem university.

　　As a Chinese student who has inherited thousands of years’ Chinese traditional culture, I believe that I can inject fresh energy into your university by combining the eastern and western cultures in the open academic atmosphere and make contribution to the development of social psychology in China and the diversity of social psychology.

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