The last week has been an exciting series of firsts.
My first doctoral interview in my academic career.
My first trip to Orange County, California.
My first train ride.
My first trip to San Diego, California.
My first time presenting two poster presentations. <-- this is what this post will center on
My first time running a multiple mediation model (I ran many but only the dual model made it).
The doctoral interview was incredibly exciting and different than any interview. I have heard stories of insanely long and mentally exhausting days but my first experience was a mixed bag of being unsure about fit to meeting a surprise faculty member that shared a personal and research interest I had almost put out of my mind of being able to study. In California, a comedian joked about us having this concept of a passion project and what this faculty member spoke about integrated who I am (first-generation, eager to be mentored and become a mentor) with what I study (resilience).
I am very excited to hear back from this school and excited at the chance to hear back from the other school I applied to. Whether I am accepted, rejected or waitlisted this has been an incredible experience for the first round applying to doctoral programs. Many people in my cohort didn't even bother to apply as we are finishing up our Masters program. I am approach oriented and. thanks to one of my mentors wise advice, driven by the process rather than performance goals.
The train ride from my first ever doctoral interview to my second conference was great, hugging the coast line and business class had the perks of a dry muffin and beverages with ample leg room. The other graduate applicant and myself looked to be 10 years younger than anyone there and were the only two people enjoying the view--everyone else seemed either married to another person or their job working on the laptop or talking about business, business, numbers numbers.
San Diego is the baby of San Francisco and Hawaii but with a massive homeless population. Food was incredible (not just the Mexican) and the beaches are so clean but this trip was centered around a massive conference in my field known as SPSP.
I attended and presented two posters.
My first for the emotion pre-conference was titled "Resilience and Self-Talk: Pathways
towards Regulating Positive and Negative Emotions". It was such a wonderful experience to see familiar faces from previous and current labs. Here are some notes I scribbled during the incredible symposiums and data blitz.
Jennifer Silvers from UCLA spoke about how while emotion regulation improves with age, reactivity remains constant. I learned the amydgala is associated with close vers far
Nim Tottenham from Columbia spoke about the function of childhood and the parental block of cortisol response leading to reduction in amygdala reactivity--regardless of attachment style. She mentioned that while parents and children are not always in sync but elasticity helps tone the system and fear learning behavior. The takeaway message here was that parents regulate circuity while it's under construction (ages 4-9).
