Career Goals Essay

My ultimate goal is to receive my Doctoral degree in social psychology from University of California Berkeley or Stanford University. After receiving my Doctoral degree, I would like to pursue a career in academia by teaching and participating in research. I have also considered a career in research separate from academia, where I would be free to focus on research and less on teaching. My main career goal is to continue to do research and further knowledge in social psychology. The social psychology program at San Francisco State University would help me achieve this goal because they have a strong emphasis on research. The program requires research under a faculty member in their lab, starting one’s first day in the program. The program also

While I loved creatively writing, I found that writing analytically came very naturally to me. I discovering the natural draw and talent I had for the subject pushed me to change my major. Once I changed my major to psychology, I began taking more in depth classes on psychology and its different specializations and noticed that I loved looking at the aspects of people socially that are effected by psychology. Taking a class focusing on social psychology allowed me to not only explore the specialization I was growing passionate about, but also gave me the chance to create a relationship with my advisor, Dr. John Ernst. From our class, I reached out to Dr. Ernst about research opportunities and I became a research assistance on a project he was currently working on with leadership behavior and objectification. As a research assistant, I worked with Dr. Ernst and another student, in conducting experiments with groups of students where I would give them directions, play them a recorded situation and gave them surveys to fill out. I also helped with data entry and data analysis. After the pilot round of participants, I