Regarding John...

Greetings,

My name is John Westbrook. I am an incoming doctoral student that will be joining the Clinical Division of the Psychology Department here at UIUC. Nothing in the world fascinates me more than the process of uncovering the hidden truths of the human mind, and this fascination has led to my desire to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology. I am deeply curious about the personal factors that psychopathologies are contingent upon, and the manner in which psychopathologies are processed at an emotional level and how the interplay of cognition and emotion results in individual manifestations of psychopathologies are of particular interest to me.

My undergraduate research has been both clinical and cognitive in nature. At the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), my Capstone (Honors Thesis) research focused on the strengths and weaknesses of acquiring knowledge of difficult vocabulary through implicit learning (contextual inference) or explicit learning (memorization of rote definitions). This study also looked at the differences in the effects of these learning methods on individuals who were not native English speakers, as well as their effects on bilingual individuals. Engaging in this study granted me an understanding of various components of the typical research process, including seeking and obtaining grants, acquiring IRB approval, drafting a research paper, and presenting my results in an academic conference.

During the last semester of my undergraduate career, I participated in an internship in the Department of Psychiatry at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. There, I assisted in the development of a study that investigated deficits in working memory performance among individuals who suffered from schizophrenia. This experience further strengthened my familiarity with the research environment, and I was able to witness and contribute to a larger work which involved multiple studies and PIs.

In considering my prospects after graduate school, I immediately envision myself furthering my research on personality and/or anxiety disorders while possibly teaching or engaging in clinical work. Private practice is also an option that I am open to entertaining for the purposes of informing my research. Whatever my choice, I fully intend to maintain a commitment to clinical research and discovery, and to incorporate a research ethic into the path that I elect to follow. I recognize that the potential for a fulfilling career in clinical psychology is vast, and the breadth of options open to an advanced degree holder may be daunting; I anticipate that the time that I will spend in a graduate program will give me more than adequate insight and context to make a concrete, informed decision about where I would ultimately like to take my career. I look forward to growing and learning about the campus and its opportunities in SPI.

Best,

- John Westbrook