Page 28 - E-book 2012-13 final draft
P. 28
My Enlightenmenttenment
My Enligh
such as that in classroom and other community settings. This To me, the most challenging part of the programme was
being the case, some professors deliberately adopted an open and the design and execution of a research study to integrate and apply
interactive teaching style so as to allow us more room to engage in the psychological principles we’ve learnt to a final research project.
lively class discussions. In my view, these spirited discussions were We were given a high degree of autonomy in our choice of topics.
very effective in facilitating and consolidating our understanding of I consider myself extremely lucky to have a highly supportive and
the psychological theories and concepts that were taught in class. inspirational project supervisor who was always prepared to provide
me with her insightful feedback in a positive and motivating way.
Basically, psychology is the scientific study of how an
individual thinks, feels and behaves, but these elements may conflict As I mentioned at the outset, I was primarily interested in
with each other and that’s why the study of human behavior and parenting and, sure enough, my research topic was on parenting.
mental processes is complex but, at the same time, interesting. Since my research topic involved children’s perceptions of parent
Given that psychology is a scientific study, it means that like other behaviors, I had to liaise with the principals of several primary
science disciplines, it involves making initial observations, asking schools to invite their students (with the prior consent of parents)
research questions, formulating hypotheses, and empirically testing to participate in my project. This project was extremely meaningful
those hypotheses. During the process, we learnt how to critically and memorable to me in many ways. It was the first time I liaised
evaluate the different theoretical approaches, and how to apply with schools about conducting research on site; it was the first time
them in real-life situations. To make it clearer, let me illustrate this the theoretical framework that I used as my literature reference was
with one of our assignments in the Social Psychology course. done on Chinese children samples; and it was also the first time I did
poster presentations on research findings. Sure, it was a lot of hard
In social psychology, there are many theories related to how work, including designing, coordinating, communicating, analyzing,
and why people behave in certain ways in different social situations, reporting and presenting my findings in both written and verbal
such as that in a helping situation. In the Social Psychology course, forms. However, I think all the effort paid off because it gave me a
for example, we performed an experiment to investigate Hong Kong great sense of achievement in the end.
people’s helping behavior in a natural setting. To test this out, I
collaborated with three classmates to conduct a research study Learning psychology has made me become more open-
about helping behaviors in a real-life situation on the MTR. It was minded and appreciative of individual differences in the way people
so much fun! I would never forget how we acted as experimenters perceive the world around us. The PGPSCS programme has taught
and confederates with one classmate limping onto the trains with me to see things from other people’s perspective, including my son’s
an ‘injured’ foot, and how we directly asked strangers to give up (this is the hardest bit and I’m still learning), and to understand
their seats for her. Guess what? We found that Hong Kong people others better. Of course, understanding others better is not the
were quite willing to provide autonomous help to strangers as an same thing as being able to read other people’s minds. Rather,
everyday favor in nonemergency real-life settings. So next time if the programme has awakened me to be more self-reflective of my
you need help, don’t feel embarrassed to ask because the chances different roles as a student, daughter, wife and mother.
of success are much higher than you think!
14 15
My Enligh
such as that in classroom and other community settings. This To me, the most challenging part of the programme was
being the case, some professors deliberately adopted an open and the design and execution of a research study to integrate and apply
interactive teaching style so as to allow us more room to engage in the psychological principles we’ve learnt to a final research project.
lively class discussions. In my view, these spirited discussions were We were given a high degree of autonomy in our choice of topics.
very effective in facilitating and consolidating our understanding of I consider myself extremely lucky to have a highly supportive and
the psychological theories and concepts that were taught in class. inspirational project supervisor who was always prepared to provide
me with her insightful feedback in a positive and motivating way.
Basically, psychology is the scientific study of how an
individual thinks, feels and behaves, but these elements may conflict As I mentioned at the outset, I was primarily interested in
with each other and that’s why the study of human behavior and parenting and, sure enough, my research topic was on parenting.
mental processes is complex but, at the same time, interesting. Since my research topic involved children’s perceptions of parent
Given that psychology is a scientific study, it means that like other behaviors, I had to liaise with the principals of several primary
science disciplines, it involves making initial observations, asking schools to invite their students (with the prior consent of parents)
research questions, formulating hypotheses, and empirically testing to participate in my project. This project was extremely meaningful
those hypotheses. During the process, we learnt how to critically and memorable to me in many ways. It was the first time I liaised
evaluate the different theoretical approaches, and how to apply with schools about conducting research on site; it was the first time
them in real-life situations. To make it clearer, let me illustrate this the theoretical framework that I used as my literature reference was
with one of our assignments in the Social Psychology course. done on Chinese children samples; and it was also the first time I did
poster presentations on research findings. Sure, it was a lot of hard
In social psychology, there are many theories related to how work, including designing, coordinating, communicating, analyzing,
and why people behave in certain ways in different social situations, reporting and presenting my findings in both written and verbal
such as that in a helping situation. In the Social Psychology course, forms. However, I think all the effort paid off because it gave me a
for example, we performed an experiment to investigate Hong Kong great sense of achievement in the end.
people’s helping behavior in a natural setting. To test this out, I
collaborated with three classmates to conduct a research study Learning psychology has made me become more open-
about helping behaviors in a real-life situation on the MTR. It was minded and appreciative of individual differences in the way people
so much fun! I would never forget how we acted as experimenters perceive the world around us. The PGPSCS programme has taught
and confederates with one classmate limping onto the trains with me to see things from other people’s perspective, including my son’s
an ‘injured’ foot, and how we directly asked strangers to give up (this is the hardest bit and I’m still learning), and to understand
their seats for her. Guess what? We found that Hong Kong people others better. Of course, understanding others better is not the
were quite willing to provide autonomous help to strangers as an same thing as being able to read other people’s minds. Rather,
everyday favor in nonemergency real-life settings. So next time if the programme has awakened me to be more self-reflective of my
you need help, don’t feel embarrassed to ask because the chances different roles as a student, daughter, wife and mother.
of success are much higher than you think!
14 15
