Assistant Director

Last summer, my doctor prescribed Proctin for me, a drug that helps me relax and feel stable. She said I was emotionally achromatic and needed to take this to improve my concentration. She also explained that unlike other people, I have too many thoughts in my mind. If ordinary people have one or two televisions on in their minds, I have ten or twenty in my head. During my junior year, I kept wondering about myself: who I am and what I am supposed to do for my future. Ever since I came to America during high school, I had struggled to adapt to new surrounding and overcome the language barrier. One day I realized I was turning into someone different from the one I used to be in my home country. I had changed from a brave and confident teenager to someone who was blunt and complex. While reflecting on my life, I decided to seek psychological counseling during my summer break. When I heard from my doctor that I had an anxiety disorder, I was not surprised but enthusiastic about the topic of psychology. I wanted to learn more about the profession of psychological counseling. Soon after my diagnosis, I read a book called Opening Skinner's Box. Written by Lauren Slater, the book described ten psychological experiments. The most impressive one of all to me was B. F. Skinner's work. Skinner proved that people's actions are induced by external stimuli instead of autonomic responses. He also posed a question about free will and studied operant conditioning, a form of learning in which an individual's behavior is modified by its consequences. I was fascinated by this theory learning about the power of reward as a means of reinforcement rather than punishment. It was not long before I determined to apply operant conditioning to myself. While studying, I provided some rewards to myself like getting a snack or break whenever I solved math problems. I strictly followed the rules I set for myself. Both reinforcement and reward were solely under my control. Slowly I started to apply Skinner's experiment to my ordinary life such as exercising, organizing my room, and socializing. After two months of determination, I noticed that my attitude changed. These changes contributed to better time management, stability, and efficiency. Skinner commented that it is surprising how minor incidents can make an important difference in life. That book introduced me to Skinner's theory, which steadily changed the way I operated my life. In the previous school