1. Pre-PhD (1) - About Me, The Journey So Far (03/07/20)

Hi there! I hope you are all keeping well in this difficult time! This is my first blog entry (ever!) and so I wanted to give some background to what I have done before I started my PhD. I will probably provide some updates throughout the final months of my MSc at Bangor University, before beginning to provide updates every week on my PhD journey! Hopefully it will be interesting and informative, as well as help people considering postgrad and doctoral study, and might even give off some advice (intentional or not)! If you get bored, or just want some general tips I have learnt from the events of this entry, some takeaway messages are at the bottom! So, who am I? My name is Harry and I am 22 years old. I am in a long-term loving relationship with my amazing high-school sweetheart, Chloe, who I was supposed to be marrying next week (July 11th) which has sadly been postponed because of coronavirus. Hopefully we will still be able to get legally married this year and have the celebration next year! I have a passion for martial arts, especially Karate which I have been doing at various clubs since I was six years old! I finally settled on the best club out there, the Buntingford Karate Club, run by husband and wife, Bill and Sue Hooper. At this club, I made lifelong friends, and even asked Bill to be my best man, and Sue to be my witness for the wedding. One of my favourite aspects of Karate is Kata (a series of pre-set movements), particularly Unsu (meaning cloud hands). This also developed a love for Japan, where I travelled to for a short trip a few years ago. I have attached a beautiful photo from the trip to this blog entry! Outside of work, I spend my time, exploring Anglesey (pre-COVID), reading (especially sci-fi / crime mysteries), playing video games, exercising (sometimes…), and generally geeking out with Chloe! How did I get here? I completed my GCSE and A-levels at Freman College (Buntingford, Hertfordshire) and achieved good grades. Having finished school, both Chloe and I moved to Aberystwyth for our undergraduate degrees, where I studied psychology, and she studied marine biology. Over the course of my degree, I developed a passion for health psychology using both quantitative and qualitative methods. This passion led me to complete several assignments at both undergraduate and postgraduate level exploring blood donation behaviours as well as empathy in medical students. When it finally came to deciding on a topic for my undergraduate dissertation, I wanted to select a topic that would be interesting (nobody wants to be bored on a topic you have to focus on for the whole year), as well as something novel that I had thought of. Thus, a dissertation on relationships and health was born. (If this is something that interests you, you can check it out here; Relationships & Health BSc Aber , or under the projects tab). During the Christmas holidays of my final year at Aberystwyth (2018) I began exploring postgraduate opportunities, specifically looking for PhD supervisors. During this time, I spoke to my current supervisor (who is awesome!), Dr. Paloma Marí-Beffa, the PI of the Executive Function Lab (more information can be found here; Paloma Marí-Beffa Information and here; EFL), about a potential topic. As you can imagine, this was a very exciting (and scary!) time, as I didn’t know what to expect or what would happen next! With the support of Paloma and the lecturers at Aberystwyth (especially my undergraduate thesis supervisor, Dr. Rachel Rahman) I applied to Bangor University for several programmes, including a PhD in Psychology and the MSc in Psychological Research. Although I had thought I was prepared, I was relatively late in approaching and preparing a proposal for funding for the PhD, and it was a combination of things that meant I was unsuccessful for this line of study. While this was disappointing at the time, I have thoroughly enjoyed my MSc study at Bangor University and have learnt so much, both personally and professionally. If in doubt, I would definitely recommend completing a Master’s degree before applying for a PhD so that you can develop your skills and have more experience to prepare you! When the summer of my final year arrived, I had achieved a first-class degree from Aberystwyth, the Welsh Branch BPS prize for best undergraduate dissertation (2019) and started a new academic journey. This involved connecting as well as professional development, something that was facilitated by presenting my thesis as a presentation at the BPS Welsh Branch Annual Student Conference. I graduated Aberystwyth and prepared to say goodbye to the department staff. With this, I moved North to Anglesey so that I could attend Bangor University. Over the course of the year, Paloma and I continued discussing the topic and eventually shaped it into the project I am working on at the moment, interpersonal threat detection (again, if this is of interest to you, more information can be found here; Interpersonal Threat Detection MSc , or under the projects tab). When September arrived, I started my MSc and continued developing the project with Paloma. Additionally, I began working with North Wales Police (information on North Wales Police can be found here; NWP). Over the course of my MSc (psychological research) the project continued to change as well as developing additional avenues for investigation. Around November (2019), I began discussing the potential to reapply for PhD funding with continued supervision under Paloma. At this point, I felt much more prepared for applications, having finished my undergraduate degree, and started my MSc, including participating in a lab rotation as part of my course (I did two of these, one in each semester, the first was under Dr. Patricia Bestelmeyer and the second was under Dr. Kami Koldewyn (Kami is the PI of the Developmental Social Vision Lab, more information can be found here; DSV). I was terrified of failure, knowing I could not afford to self-fund and needed a PhD to eventually become a lecturer in Psychology and continue my research. Despite this, I felt that I had much more experience, was more mature, and was ready to take the next step in my academic journey. I had set my heart on the topic, I had set out and developed an entire year previously with Paloma, and so after many revisions, the only PhD proposal and application for funding I had created were finally submitted. After what seemed an eternity of waiting, I was invited to interview. This was completed just before the COVID lockdown began, and so I started preparing, something that (once again) took a significant portion of time. At the same time, I asked for advice from other PhD students, as well as some lecturers. On more than one occasion, those giving advice said one of the main qualities sought after for prospective students is engagement, and that the importance of the student’s attitude could not be overstated. And so, I dressed up (suit, tie, and daffodil as it was relatively close to St. David’s Day), revising, amending and mind mapping even more ideas for the research. I attended the interview, and after leaving, was convinced I would not be enrolling on the PhD course, and would instead be looking for a job (I didn’t know what sort of jobs I would apply to, I had set out to do the PhD and become a lecturer in Psychology, something that requires the PhD)! Immediately after the interview I went to Paloma’s office and told her how I thought it had gone. Paloma is a great person and is very calm and collected. This was exactly the sort of person I needed and left feeling better (but not more confident) about how the interview had gone. After a period of time, I received an e-mail stating that the interview had gone well (whew!) and requesting that I make some amendments to the proposal in order to strengthen the submission for funding, but that the final decision regarding which application would be sent would follow another review of proposals (but not another interview). Once again, I sat down and made changes to the proposal. I e-mailed the proposal for submission the day before the deadline and asked to be informed whether my proposal was to be selected for final submission. At this point, I had spent a considerable amount of time on my one and only PhD proposal, knowing that if it were unsuccessful, I would have fallen behind on coursework for my other modules for nothing. Fortunately, after what was surely a second eternity passing, I was informed through e-mail that my application to the Economic and Social Research Council Doctoral Training Centre (ESRC DTC) was successful! (More information on ESRC here; Funding ESRC.) For a variety of reasons (including COVID), I then received and accepted the official letter several weeks later. I am excited to continue my work with North Wales Police, and am extremely grateful to Paloma, and Dr. Lara Maister (more information here; Lara Maister) for their support and agreement to supervise me across the course of my PhD. Now, I have finished all work for the modules for the Master’s, except for the research project which I am writing at the moment. It has been a truly extraordinary year, especially with the complexities that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought upon us all! I am currently writing up my thesis and attending conferences (see Events to view upcoming and past events) through the last few months of my Master’s degree, as well as considering ways in which studies can be conducted in line with COVID regulations when I start the PhD in October. If you made it through the first blog entry, thank you! I hope it didn’t bore you too much. Like I said this was my first blog entry ever, so hopefully it will improve over time, or maybe I will always be talking to myself…. Either way, below are some take away messages across this entry. Take Away Messages: 1. Be patient, everything takes time. 2. Don’t forget the importance of hard work. Your attitude to your work counts for more than you think! 3. Find a supervisor you can connect and get along with. 4. Always try to overestimate how much time something will take you so that you can manage your workload. Don’t forget you can comment on this blog, or alternatively you can use the Contact Page to find ways to connect with me! Thank you again, wishing you all well!

Take care, Harry