Designing My Life
“Alpine Mouse-Ear” - Cerastium Alpinum
While home for the holidays in my sophomore year, the kitchen table became a mosaic of stick notes – I was brainstorming meaningful ways I might spend my spring quarter*. I included outrageous ideas, like "Switzerland," a place I’d wanted to visit since I was little. Another sticky said "Positive Psychology" - I’d been interested in positive psychology (“the psychology of human thriving”) for many years already (here’s the somewhat dramatic story of how I fell in love with it). With the help of some fantastic luck, supportive parents, and a couple of Dartmouth grants, those two little sticky notes became a reality: That March I found myself eagerly into the sun-bathed Zürich streets, ready to begin my adventure at in Switzerland and my research at UZH Psychology’s Personality & Assessment Lab.
*Dartmouth students take classes during sophomore year’s summer, and choose some other quarter to work or research full time.
View of Mt. Routispitz over lake Walensee.
Doing Psychology Research
On my first day, I was introduced to Alex, my advisor, who was soon to become my research partner. He told me that I could spend my time with the lab designing and conducting a study about any topic relevant to Personality Psychology – I was ecstatic.
The UZH Psychologys Personality & Assessment Lab is a prolific source of research on character strengths (e.g. honesty, bravery, perseverance), so I felt that I should involve these in my research to take advantage of my new colleagues' expertise. Alex and I also found that we shared an interest in environmental psychology. After reviewing relevant literature, we decided to investigate on self-efficacy as a potential link between the VIA character strengths and pro-environmental behavior. With Alex’s incredible support and the kind welcome of the entire lab, I set off designing a study. Over the course of the next ten weeks, I learned a lot: about positive psychology, research, and statistics, Swiss culture, and myself. By the end, Alex and I were co-authors of a new paper proudly presenting the fruits of our labor: the first broad-scope psychological assessment of environmental self-efficacy.