Personal Statement
个人陈述

My interest in psychology grew out of a deep inquiry into the inner self. Growing up, I often felt that my mind was not resilient enough, making me particularly eager to explore the inner world. By reading the works of masters of psychology such as Jung, Rogers, and Albert, I became fascinated by their efforts to probe the depths of human consciousness. In these works, the masters reveal the complexity and depth of human psychology. Just like Jung’s discussion of collective unconsciousness, Rogers’s belief that self-realization is the nature of life, and Albert’s analysis of personality traits, all these deeply attract me so much. These seminal works revealed that psychology is not only a tool for understanding others, but also a profound means of self-exploration.
我对心理学的兴趣源自对内心自我的深刻探索。在成长过程中，我常常感到自己的心智不够坚韧，这使我特别渴望探索内心世界。通过阅读荣格、罗杰斯和阿尔伯特等心理学大师的作品，我对他们深入探索人类意识深处的努力产生了浓厚的兴趣。在这些作品中，大师们揭示了人类心理学的复杂性和深度。就像荣格对集体潜意识的讨论，罗杰斯认为自我实现是生命的本质，以及阿尔伯特对个性特征的分析，所有这些都深深吸引了我。这些奠基性作品表明，心理学不仅是一种理解他人的工具，也是一种深刻的自我探索手段。

Psychology uniquely combines incisiveness with compassion. Like a scalpel, it accurately dissects human psychological diseases while assuming the responsibility of healing. It offers an inclusive and comprehensive lens of understanding human behavior, recognizing that even when we struggle with self-loathing, there are underlying reasons for our actions. For instance, in my Theories of Human Personality course, I learned that while narcissism is often criticized, Kohut points out that narcissism is a core element of human nature, contributing to valuable qualities such as maturity, humor, creativity and intelligence. In addition, through reading and studying, I have learned that many perceived negative behaviors, such as affection or impulsiveness, are actually reflections of internal psychological needs and past experiences. Such insights allowed me to realize that psychology not only helps people understand themselves, but also provides avenues for intervention and treatment.
心理学独特地结合了锐利与同情。如同手术刀，它精确地剖析人类的心理疾病，同时承担着治愈的责任。它提供了一个包容而全面的视角来理解人类行为，认识到即使我们挣扎于自我厌恶，我们的行为背后都有其原因。例如，在我的《人类个性理论》课程中，我了解到虽然自恋经常受到批评，但科胡特指出，自恋是人类本性的核心要素，它为成熟、幽默、创造力和智力等宝贵品质做出了贡献。此外，通过阅读和学习，我了解到许多被视为负面的行为，如亲昵或冲动，实际上是内心心理需求和过往经历的反映。这样的洞察让我意识到，心理学不仅帮助人们理解自己，还提供了干预和治疗的途径。

It is my desire to deeply explore human psychology, to understand and embrace human frailties, and to assist others in finding inner balance that motivates me to pursue your Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program. I anticipate furthering my studies and research to contribute to the field, as well as supporting more people to understand and accept themselves while achieving inner peace and strength. By pursuing this program, I hope to take more professional courses to improve my skills in intervention, assessment and psychological testing, and gain insights into ethics and multicultural issues. I also aspire to hone my data analysis, research and clinical skills by participating in the program’s research project and practicum. Upon graduation, my short-term goal is to pursue a Ph.D. in counseling psychology, and then become a licensed mental health counselor at a well-known mental health institution in China, such as Beijing Anding Hospital and Shanghai Mental Health Center, so as to help people suffering from psychological problems. In the long term, I aspire to become an expert in counseling, to be involved in psychotherapy research and to promote mental health.
我渴望深入探索人类心理学，理解并接纳人类的脆弱性，帮助他人找到内在平衡，这激发了我追求你们的咨询心理学硕士学位课程的决心。我期待进一步深造和研究，为该领域做出贡献，同时支持更多人理解并接受自己，实现内心的平静与力量。通过追求这个项目，我希望参加更多专业课程，提高干预、评估和心理测试技能，深入了解伦理和跨文化问题。我还希望通过参与项目的研究项目和实习，磨练数据分析、研究和临床技能。毕业后，我的短期目标是攻读咨询心理学博士学位，然后在中国知名的精神健康机构，如北京安定医院和上海精神卫生中心，成为一名注册心理咨询师，以帮助患有心理问题的人。长期目标是成为咨询领域的专家，参与心理治疗研究，促进心理健康。

During my undergraduate years, I have taken the initiative to seek opportunities to join an off-campus research institution, and have successfully secured research assistant positions in the Grief and Healing Lab at Shenzhen University and the Cognitive Science Lab at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications. At the Grief and Healing Lab, I collaborated with Shuhan Liu (a Master of Clinical and Counseling Psychology student at Shenzhen University) and Sini Li (a student of CUHK’s PhD in Clinical Psychology) in the project entitled Psychometric Evaluation and Cultural Adaptation of the Grief and Meaning Reconstruction Inventory (GMRI) for Chinese Bereaved Populations, which was supervised by Prof. Suqing Tang. This study involved a stratified sample of bereaved Chinese adults, selected for diversity in age, gender, and relationship to the deceased, to ensure the GMRI’s relevance in the Chinese context, and it was permitted by Neimeyer, who is the constructor of the original scale.
在本科期间，我主动寻求机会加入校外研究机构，成功获得了深圳大学哀伤与复原实验室和南京邮电大学认知科学实验室的研究助理职位。在深圳大学哀伤与复原实验室，我与深圳大学临床与咨询心理学硕士生刘舒瀚和香港中文大学临床心理学博士生李深妮合作，参与了名为《哀伤与意义重建量表（GMRI）》的心理测量评估与文化适应研究项目，该项目由唐素清教授指导。研究对象为具有多样性的中国成人哀伤群体，包括不同年龄、性别和与逝者关系的样本，以确保 GMRI 在中文语境下的适用性。这项研究获得了原始量表构建者 Neimeyer 的许可。

In this project, I gained expertise in key research skills, including psychometric and statistical analysis and cross-cultural adaptation. My training in Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, both in Amos and Mplus, allowed me to validate the factor structure of GMRI and ensure model robustness. In addition, I mastered the use of statistical software such as SPSS to examine the relationship with other tests for examining the convergent or discriminant validity. One of the theoretical frameworks of this work was the Meaning Reconstruction Theory, which assumes that bereaved people adapt through understanding the loss, seeking benefits, and experiencing personal growth. Primarily developed by Neimeyer (2019), this concept promotes positive bereavement adjustment and helps individuals engage in processes of meaning reconstruction in positively response to their loss through three distinct mechanisms, which are (a) making sense of the death, (b) finding benefit in the experience, and (c) undergoing identity change. While I did not lead the data analysis, our preliminary assumptions suggested that the GMRI would show strong reliability and validity, highlighting its potential as a culturally adapted tool for evaluating meaning-making in grief.
在这个项目中，我掌握了关键的研究技能，包括心理测量和统计分析以及跨文化适应。我在 Amos 和 Mplus 中的探索性因子分析和确认性因子分析的培训使我能够验证 GMRI 的因子结构并确保模型的稳健性。此外，我熟练掌握了 SPSS 等统计软件的使用，以研究与其他测试的关系，以检查收敛效度或区分效度。这项工作的理论框架之一是意义重构理论，它假设丧亲者通过理解损失、寻求利益和经历个人成长来适应。这一概念主要由 Neimeyer（2019）提出，它提倡积极的丧亲调整，并帮助个体通过三个不同的机制以积极的方式响应他们的损失而参与意义重构过程，这些机制是（a）理解死亡的意义，（b）从经验中找到益处，和（c）经历身份变化。 虽然我没有领导数据分析，但我们的初步假设表明，GMRI 将显示出强大的可靠性和有效性，强调其作为评估哀悼中意义构建的文化适应工具的潜力。

I am excited to find that your Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program focuses on developing students’ research ability to evaluate and conduct research in counseling. Among the program faculty members, I was most interested in working with Dr. Ada L. Sinacore, who, as director of the Social Justice and Diversity Research Lab, has extensive research experience in gender, sexuality, feminism, and social justice. Given that my intended research topic for my graduate studies is Gendered Disinformation in China: A Feminist and Cultural Perspective, I believe that Dr. Sinacore will be the most appropriate supervisor for me. Dr. Martin Drapeau is also a good choice for me. His work in psychotherapy is highly consistent with my clinical internship experience, where I saw the need for effective therapeutic practices. His focus on refining best practices would deepen my skills in applying research to influential, real-world interventions. Besides, Dr. Marie-Hélène Pennestri’s research on child mental health and sleep cycles resonates with my experience in behavior intervention for children with developmental challenges. Her expertise in clinical training would support my goal of understanding how physiological factors, like sleep patterns, interplay with emotional health in young clients as I explored the revenge bedtime procrastination among China’s Gen Z in my final year project.
我非常兴奋地发现，你们的咨询心理学硕士学位课程专注于培养学生的研究能力，以评估和进行咨询研究。在课程的教师中，我对与 Ada L. Sinacore 博士合作最感兴趣。作为社会正义与多样性研究实验室的主任，她在性别、性取向、女权主义和社会正义方面的研究经验非常丰富。鉴于我研究生研究的主题是“中国性别化信息误导：一种女权主义和文化视角”，我相信 Sinacore 博士将是最适合我的指导老师。Martin Drapeau 博士也是一个不错的选择。他的心理治疗工作与我在临床实习期间的体验高度一致，我看到了有效治疗实践的需要。他对优化最佳实践的关注将加深我将研究应用于有影响力的现实干预的技能。此外，Marie-Hélène Pennestri 博士在儿童心理健康和睡眠周期方面的研究与我对有发展障碍儿童行为干预经验的共鸣。 她对临床培训的专业知识将支持我理解生理因素，如睡眠模式，如何与年轻客户的情绪健康相互作用的目标，特别是在我最终项目中探索中国 Z 世代的报复性睡前拖延现象时。