Psychology

A life changing experience as a Psychology student | Bethany Parkinson

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Imagine stepping into a correctional facility for the first time—what do you anticipate? Most people imagine a tough, intimidating place. For Bethany Parkinson, this experience was life-changing, but not in the way you might expect.

Originally from Northern BC, Bethany’s interest in psychology started in high school when personal circumstances led to her passion for mental health issues. “I’ve always wanted to join the mental health field,” she says. As she works towards completing her degree, her career goal is clear: to counsel and assess inmates in Canadian correctional facilities.

For Bethany, the unique practicum designed for Liberal Arts students at the Correctional Service of Canada was transformative.

“This experience was life-changing,” she shares. “Not in a way that changed my career path, but in a way that confirmed my plans and goals were possible.”

In addition to confirming her career goals, Bethany also shared how this experience allowed her to reshape her perspectives about inmates and helped her gain the necessary skills to pursue this career:

Working in the correctional system is not for the faint of heart, and entering a prison is a great way to see where one stands on the faint-of-heart scale. This practicum gave me that chance; that is why I chose it. The experience taught me many new skills, my favourite being the ability to engage in nonjudgmental and supportive talk with the inmates. When talking to an inmate, I had to keep in mind that they are there for a reason, however, they are still a person and deserve to be respected as such.

Bethany faced several challenges during her practicum, such as overcoming her preconceived notions about prison life and managing her emotional reactions to inmates’ crimes. With the support of her mentors, she found a safe space to express her feelings and ask questions.

The biggest challenges I faced were overcoming my expectations and my emotional responses. My expectations were a challenge in that I was prepared for the rough, loud, and scary place that the media portrays prisons to be – this portrayal could not be more wrong. As for my emotional reactions, those became an issue when I heard about certain crimes that people had committed to get into prison – some affected me more than others. I do feel as though my mentors helped me with both issues as I felt comfortable asking questions and expressing my feelings in the psychologically safe environment they created.

Looking ahead, Bethany plans to complete her BA in Psychology with Honours, pursue a master’s in clinical psychology with a forensic focus, and ultimately complete a PhD while working within Canadian correctional services.

To future students, Bethany offers some powerful advice:

Focus on the person, not their situation. When placed in positions of authority, people tend to forget that those who are under them are just as human as they are, and when people are in a situation where the other person is a prisoner, they tend to immediately assume they are superior because they are free, and the other person is not. In this area, that kind of thinking could be detrimental to the healing and rehabilitation of the person they are trying to help.

It’s safe to say that this 21-year-old is well on her way toward realizing her future aspirations!

Bridging Psychology & Criminal Justice: Logan York’s Practicum with Correctional Service of Canada

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Logan York is a recent BA graduate in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice. Originally from Red Deer, Alberta, Logan found his way to British Columbia, where he has lived most of his life and began shaping his career aspirations.

Logan’s fascination with psychology grew from a lifelong curiosity about human behaviour, particularly in understanding criminal behaviour.

“I’ve always had a fascination for psychology. More than that, I’ve always been interested in why people behave or act in certain ways. (…) I have always wanted to know why criminals commit serious crimes. Crimes that ordinary people would find unfathomable. These curiosities are the foundation of why I chose a BA in Psychology and a minor in Criminal Justice.”

Envisioning a career working with individuals who end up in the judicial system, Logan’s academic journey took an exciting turn when he secured a practicum placement with the Correctional Service of Canada. During his semester-long placement, Logan had the opportunity to visit various correctional facilities throughout the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, spanning from minimum to maximum security. Immersed in diverse environments, he gained a deeper understanding of each facility’s dynamics and worked closely with a wide range of working professionals. Stepping into the high-security environment of a prison was an impactful moment for him as it offered firsthand insight into the complexities of the correctional system.

Nonetheless, the journey presented its own set of obstacles. Logan found himself navigating the delicate balance of establishing boundaries within the confines of the prison walls. “Ensuring that I set appropriate boundaries between myself, and the inmates was a significant challenge,” he admits. Yet, through perseverance and determination, he learned the importance of maintaining both spatial and personal boundaries, a valuable lesson that shaped his experience.

Reflecting on his practicum experience within the correctional system, Logan remains inspired by the multitude of career opportunities it offers. “My practicum opened my eyes to the plethora of positions within Correctional Service Canada that I did not know existed,” he shares. As he thinks about his next steps, Logan’s career path remains open-ended, with a keen interest in working with offenders either within the Correctional Service of Canada or in the broader community.

For future students embarking on a similar journey, Logan offers some wise advice:

“If you have interests, explore them. You do not need to wait until you have chosen a career before exploring these interests. I would also recommend completing a practicum during your undergraduate degree as this was a defining moment for me during my time at UFV.”

You May Be Wrong, But You May Be Right: Exploring Biases with Sven Van de Wetering

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“People who think they’re always right are almost always wrong. People who are always willing to consider the possibility they’re wrong tend to be right much more often,” says associate psychology professor Sven Van de Wetering.

It is this basic conundrum that Van de Wetering wanted to explore in a course he’s designing — one that looks at ideological biases from a psychological perspective. Heuristics, Biases and Critical Thinking, will be available in Winter 2019 and Van de Wetering sat down with the College of Arts blog to talk about his inspiration for this new offering.

“We know a huge amount about how we, as human beings, fool ourselves,” says Van de Wetering. In fact, he says, there is no shortage of psychological literature on the topic and he recently found a book that listed 99 different biases, which he says isn’t even complete.

What isn’t discussed as much is how to recognize these biases in your own thinking and how to account for this not only in research, but in day-to-day discussions.

One of the things that led him to the topic is a recent crisis in his field of social psychology, where liberal thinkers have been accused of shutting out their more conservative-minded colleagues. Van de Wetering was at first determined to do some research into this question, but eventually he and his research assistant, Flora Oswald realized that what social psychologists really need is more help identifying their biases from the outset. He considered developing a workshop for his peers, but decided that those who chose to attend such a program were probably already aware of the need to take other perspectives into account.

“Maybe, what I need to do instead, is catch them young,” he told himself.

Fortunately, Van de Wetering, who has been teaching psychology at UFV for 20 years and has access to a new crop of students every semester, is in a good position to do this. Encouraged by Oswald, he came up with a 13-week course in about 20 minutes. Still he wasn’t sure how interested students would be in the idea of studying their own prejudices and biases, so he offered a prototype in winter 2018. The response, he said, was overwhelming.

Moving away from the typical lecture format, Van de Wetering asked students to do a great deal of reading ahead of time and then to spend class time discussing real-world issues through the lens of various biases. Issues like: should there be a ban on pit-bulls? (an interesting topic, but one Van de Wetering says he’ll probably never use again, as it was too inconclusive.)

Van de Wetering also made it clear from the outset that the students would have input into the way the class ran.

“Just about my first line . . . was ‘I am not the only smart person in the room. I’m counting on you guys to help me figure out what it is we’re actually doing to think critically in this course,’” he said.

Students, he says, loved being so involved. “I think I’ve touched a nerve – I think I’m offering something that they really, really want: relevance and an active role in the overall design of the course.”

With algorithms constantly directing content on our social media channels to things we’ve shown interest in before, Van de Wetering thinks a class about biases is particularly relevant today.

“If you are actually seeking the truth, having people echoing your prejudices back to you is not a good thing,” he says. “You want people to challenge you even if it turns out that they’re ultimately wrong.”

A Few Examples of Cognitive Biases

  • Confirmation Bias: Favoring information that conforms to your existing beliefs and discounting evidence that does not conform.
  • Halo Effect: Your overall impression of a person influences how you feel and think about his or her character. This especially applies to physical attractiveness influencing how you rate their other qualities.
  • Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to blame external forces when bad things happen and give yourself credit when good things happen. When you win a poker hand it is due to your skill at reading the other players and knowing the odds, while when you lose it is due to getting dealt a poor hand.
  • Narrative bias (from Van de Wetering): The tendency, when one has embraced a narrative that can be used to explain a certain group of facts, to ignore facts and possibilities that do not cohere with that narrative.