Interview with Malina Sakhrani '09

Did you know when you came to Clark that you wanted to major in psychology?

Malini: Yes. I've always been interested in it. Before I got to Clark I was always reading psychology related books since I've always been interested in the personalities of the people around me, and how different people react to situations in different ways. You could say I was interested in turning a hobby into a passion.

Was that one of the reasons you were looking specifically at Clark, because of the psychology program?

Malini: Yes.

The psychology major includes a research requirement. What have you done so far in that respect?

Malini: There's a required course called Research Methods in Psychology. In that class I was part of a group that studied the effect of music on people's short-term memory for details in pictorial images. That was very interesting. This summer I've been working with Professor Michael Addis on his Men's Coping Project and with a graduate student, Mathew Syzdek, who's doing a related project regarding the stresses and difficulties that newly unemployed men may experience. I'm trying to get some hands on research experience so that I can develop my own independent project.

Can you talk more about Matthew's project?

Malini: He's trying to understand the stresses that men experience when they become unemployed. The Workforce Central Agency in downtown Worcester offers seminars for unemployed men where we recruit study participants. Each participant receives $10 for completing an initial survey, and then another $15 for completing a follow up survey about three months later. The surveys are composed of both multiple choice and open-ended questions. I've also created a web-based version of those surveys. Later on we'll be analyzing the data that we've collected. We have about 62 participants.

Clark offers a nationally-known Ph.D. program in psychology. Do you think the experience of working with a graduate student in that program is helpful?

Malini: Yes. It's helpful because you gain insight into what graduate school here at Clark is like, how much work you're supposed to put in and what the program would demand of you.

How did you come to work with Professor Addis?

Malini: I took Introduction to Abnormal Psychology in fall 2006 and found it very interesting. After getting a good theoretical background, I wanted to learn the practical view. I had an idea that working with the professors who were directly involved in it on a day-to-day basis would be the best experience. So I just approached Professor Addis and asked if he would give me the opportunity to assist him in his project.

What do you think a prospective applicant to Clark should know about majoring in psychology?

Malini: People have a misconception that psychology, as compared to other sciences, is very easy. But you have to put in as much hard work as you would for any other science. So coming to Clark for psychology can be quite challenging because the research opportunities that undergrads have here, unlike at other schools, are quite commendable. Research experience opens up various options for careers later on, whether you go into academic teaching or clinical practice or any other field where you can use psychology. The research opportunities here are very well placed, I would say.

What do you think the department's strengths are?

Malini: I would say the faculty is the greatest asset of the department. The professors will help you chalk out a good path and find the right courses that you need. They go out of their way to help individual students with their specific requirements, and their excellent lectures help distinguish between the different fields of psychology so that each of us can find our respective areas of interest.

Psychology is the most popular major at Clark. Have you had any problem accessing your professors or developing working relationships with them?

Malini: A very good way to get in touch with them is by email, which is quite prompt, and all of them reply to you as soon as possible. It has never been a problem to get in touch with them. In the classroom you can always ask the professor anything that you like at any point in the lecture. It's good one-on-one interaction with the professor.

Do you have any idea yet what you might do when you graduate?

Malini: I'm deciding between going to grad school in clinical psychology or doing Clark's 5th year M.B.A. program. I want to couple psychology and management, and perhaps enter the industrial sector to focus on something like organizational behavior.