I hope to be selected to earn the PHD Degree in Psychology at ____ University. The PHD at ____ is my first choice among doctoral programs based on my research interests which lie at the intersection of social identity, intergroup relations, and health behaviors.
Born in Anniston, Alabama to Korean parents, I was raised mostly in Houston, Texas, and now live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Visiting South Korea with my family this last time, right before the COVID pandemic, was an extraordinary joy for us all. I have also explored Japan, the Philippines, Shanghai, China, and Hong Kong. I like to think of myself as an Asia-centric, Asian-American, and Asian issues will always be on my mind and in my heart.
Most recently, I have been paying especially close attention to the literature on trauma, and the way that it tends to accompany the immigrant experience. In fact, these days, one can make a case that levels of migration are now taking place, or beginning to take place, which are unprecedented in human history. Increasing numbers of refugees are climate refugees, adding still further to the enormous numbers fleeing lack of economic opportunity, conflict, and/or political oppression. I look for numbers of refugees in South and Southeast Asia to increase in coming years. I hope to be paying close attention as a doctoral student at ____.
I long ago gave up trying to coax my immigrant Korean parents into speak to me more in English. Now, at 38 years old, I have found the serenity to accept that this is not going to happen. I look forward to a focus on Korean issues, but my focus is more general, on the immigrant, the minority, surviving the cultural adjustment, mental health, and immigration. While I shy away from referring to myself as a native speaker of the Korean language, thanks to my parents, I am close, and I look forward to using this special language as a Psychology professional, alongside my English.
Most precisely, I wish to center my attention on the neural mechanisms of semantic memory processes along with the perceptual schemas that underlie group stereotypes, discrimination, and power dynamics. In a complimentary fashion, I also seek a full immersion experience in the literature dealing with stress, decision-making, societal inequalities, and health outcomes. Nothing excites me more than my study of semantic memory and the perceptual schemas that underlie group stereotypes, prejudices, power dynamics, and inequality in health outcomes. I am also interested in research exploring the neural processing of multisensory perception - especially sound (music) – in dopaminergic neural pathways of reward, pleasure, and memory, with further exploration into consciousness and neuroplasticity, hierarchical neural coding, and the mechanisms that determine decision-making and schematic processing. Finally, the areas in which I would like to claim some level of expertise in the future, include the effects of risk and uncertainty as they relate to language processing, semantic memory, and social behavior.
Since earning my graduate degree in Social Work, I have worked in a variety of clinical and community-based settings. For years, I have read widely about marginalized groups, disadvantaged communities and people from low-income backgrounds, especially at-risk youth, the homeless, LGBTQIA+, the formerly incarcerated victims of domestic violence, and persons suffering from eating disorders, bereavement, and addiction. I have always worked with tremendously diverse populations spanning all ages of development. Years of working with diverse populations have revealed a palpable, common thread that has stood out: many of my clients from underserved backgrounds have at least witnessed if not experienced some form of trauma in their immediate environment.
As I studied the complexities of traumatic situations and how they are so impactful on the development of aversive symptoms, I delved further into researching integrative trauma-informed interventions specific to the field of human services. Hungry for information about the relationship between trauma and symptomology as it relates to neuroscience, I have been disappointed by what little information is available on how to effectively treat widespread trauma in marginalized population from a neurobiological frame of reference.
My hope is that advancements in neuroscience will help to foster levels of care that are increasingly sensitive to the neurocognitive impact of trauma, so that we can more effectively address the complex needs of marginalized and traumatized groups, particularly those individuals that are homelessness.
I hope to broadly expand my scientific research skills and develop new levels of sophistication in my thinking, particularly about statistics, to make the fullest contribution possible to shedding further light on cultural complexities intertwined with both multiple and social identities. and the neural underpinnings behind these social behaviors (risk/reward, fight/flight, etc.).
I look forward to designing culturally competent, evidenced-based interventions that are based upon solid research into the literature of social and cognitive psychology as well as affective neuroscience.
Thank you for considering my application to Psychology at ____.
PHD Psychology Statement of Purpose Asian Woman Sample
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