On the general level: I was a psych major in college because it seemed to me that psychologists asked all the really interesting questions about the world.
Based on my college interests, if I'd gone directly from college to grad school, I would've concentrated on community psychology - probably interventions with high-risk kids or domestic violence/sexual assault issues. I applied to grad schools with that in mind, but didn't get in anywhere on the first go-round.
Late in my senior year, a classmate gave a presentation in class about a new subfield of psychology called "Behavioral Medicine," which focused on psychological aspects of medical illness. I was fascinated. It dovetailed neatly with my growing consciousness of the social identity aspects of disability, and of the ways that being disabled shaped my life. So the next year, I applied to graduate schools again - this time concentrating on schools with Behavioral Medicine programs.
On the specific level: I am an HIV specialist because when I entered the internship match system (clinical psych grad school requires a one-year predoctoral internship), I matched to the University of Maryland. Their behavioral medicine internship had a heavy concentration in HIV. Although HIV had always interested me - it's a great population for practicing behavioral medicine, because there are so many levels on which the principles apply - I was dubious about how much I'd like working with a hardcore inner-city population. It turned out that I loved it. So after internship, I stayed.
I've become more and more specialized as an HIV researcher and clinician over the past few years, and don't see myself as very likely to change.
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Date: 2006-04-26 05:58 pm (UTC)On the general level: I was a psych major in college because it seemed to me that psychologists asked all the really interesting questions about the world.
Based on my college interests, if I'd gone directly from college to grad school, I would've concentrated on community psychology - probably interventions with high-risk kids or domestic violence/sexual assault issues. I applied to grad schools with that in mind, but didn't get in anywhere on the first go-round.
Late in my senior year, a classmate gave a presentation in class about a new subfield of psychology called "Behavioral Medicine," which focused on psychological aspects of medical illness. I was fascinated. It dovetailed neatly with my growing consciousness of the social identity aspects of disability, and of the ways that being disabled shaped my life. So the next year, I applied to graduate schools again - this time concentrating on schools with Behavioral Medicine programs.
On the specific level: I am an HIV specialist because when I entered the internship match system (clinical psych grad school requires a one-year predoctoral internship), I matched to the University of Maryland. Their behavioral medicine internship had a heavy concentration in HIV. Although HIV had always interested me - it's a great population for practicing behavioral medicine, because there are so many levels on which the principles apply - I was dubious about how much I'd like working with a hardcore inner-city population. It turned out that I loved it. So after internship, I stayed.
I've become more and more specialized as an HIV researcher and clinician over the past few years, and don't see myself as very likely to change.