Reflective writing is a style of writing that requires authors to introspectively analyze their thoughts, actions, and feelings surrounding a particular event, experience, or learning opportunity. Engaging in reflective writing allows individuals to better understand themselves, develop greater self-awareness, identify areas for self-improvement, appreciate important lessons learned, and establish connections between past experiences and present knowledge or perspectives. As a core assignment in many college courses, the personal reflective essay provides students an opportunity for meaningful self-reflection that can help enhance learning.
In this reflective essay, I will explore my experiences in Psychology 101 during the Fall 2018 semester and analyze what I learned about myself as a student and critical thinker. This introductory psychology course introduced me to many fascinating topics within the field of psychology including neuroscience, cognitive processes, motivation, emotional intelligence, personality, psychopathology, treatment therapies, and social behaviors. Throughout the semester, I engaged with course materials through written assignments, classroom discussions, hands-on activities, and examinations. Each of these learning experiences contributed to my evolving understanding of psychology as an academic discipline while simultaneously providing insights into my own learning process, strengths, and areas for growth.
The psychology course syllabus outlined rigorous reading requirements that involved critically analyzing original research studies and excerpts from seminal psychology texts each week. As an English literature major, I was accustomed to analyzing prose fiction but found critically reading and comprehending academic research studies to be quite challenging initially. The psychological research articles often included complex discussions of statistical analyses and results that I struggled to fully grasp or connect back to the original research questions and hypotheses. In my attempt to meet these dense reading assignments, I often focused more on summarizing the surface-level details rather than fully interrogating how the findings related to the broader theoretical frameworks and implications discussed in class.
Our first major writing assignment asked students to identify a current social or personal issue and propose an original psychological study to help better understand that problem from multiple theoretical perspectives within psychology. For my topic, I chose to examine how different personality traits influenced college students’ ability to manage stress and succeed academically. While I outlined testable hypotheses and proposed both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, my literature review lacked depth and synthesis of relevant psychological theories and findings. The feedback from my professor highlighted areas where my understanding of course concepts could be strengthened, including better justifying study designs through existing scholarship. Her constructive criticism pushed me to consider how to think more like a psychologist and view my interests through an empirical, evidence-based lens.
To improve my skills at comprehending complex psychological scholarship, I began systematically annotating assigned readings ahead of class discussions. By underlining key passages, writing short summaries of important points, and recording questions in the margins, I could more actively engage with the material. This new approach allowed me to pick out overarching themes across studies, notice gaps in the existing research, and consider alternative methodologies or theoretical lenses. Coming to class discussions with annotated texts and prepared questions also positioned me to participate more meaningfully and apply what I learned from readings to real-world issues. By midterms, I was already expanding my repertoire of analytical skills like comparing and contrasting theoretical orientations, identifying examples of cognitive biases or logical fallacies in research design choices, and integrating multiple perspectives into my own original proposals.
One turning point experience came during a lecture on the cognitive processes involved in memory formation and retrieval. As our professor walked through the different stages of encoding, storage, and consolidation, I felt a lightbulb moment of suddenly comprehending why certain mnemonic devices or memory improvement strategies worked on a neurological level. This contextual understanding allowed me to better appreciate research studies discussed in previous weeks that experimentally tested theories of how memory functions. The connection between empirical findings and larger theoretical frameworks became more cohesive for me in that lecture. This experience fostered my growing confidence in applying course material to make sense of new psychological concepts introduced.
In addition to sharpening my analytical abilities through writing and class discussions, participating in hands-on experiential activities during our laboratory sessions expanded my learning in impactful ways. One memorable lab involved studying how social influences and group dynamics impacted eyewitness testimony reliability through a group activity and role-playing scenario. Actively taking part in a quasi-psychological experiment gave me a glimpse into the real-world relevance and complexities of properly designing and interpreting such research. I also gained personal insights about how easily eye witness accounts and memories can be fallible under certain social pressures. Another lab on classical conditioning and operant learning had us engage in a simulated rat study to train ourselves using food incentives and stimulus cues. This creative activity allowed me to physically experience behaviors analyzed at the neurological level in our readings and apply psychological principles of reinforcement and punishment. Embodying the role of study participant deepened my understanding beyond merely conceptual knowledge.
Overall, this introductory psychology course challenged me to continually strengthen my reflective and analytical thought processes across diverse learning platforms. The hands-on activities, writing assignments, lectures, and discussions all contributed to my growing self-efficacy in critically examining psychological findings, systematically applying key theories, and expressing evidence-based arguments both verbally and through academic papers. Moving forward, I intend to build upon the metacognitive awareness and psychologically-informed perspective fostered through this transformative learning experience. While the dense readings, complex methodological discussions, and significant time commitment posed obstacles at times throughout the semester, stepping outside my comfort zone as an English major pushed me towards realizing my potential as a more interdisciplinary thinker. My experiences in Psychology 101 demonstrated both the rigors and rewards of reflective learning in higher education.
Andrew Stroud