Off campus, I have worked as a social worker offering psychological consulting for the “No Worry Teenagers” column for the authoritative journal XX, dealing with the problems concerning interpersonal relations and social cognition of adolescents and young adults. This experience allowed me to gain insight into many important aspects of the mental lives of this group of people beyond the mere statistical data. However, it is a regret that my knowledge is insufficient to offer adequate consulting service to my audience of such diverse backgrounds. This fact reveals to me the need to undertake more advanced studies to improve my professional competence.

I am strongly interested in the developmental psychology of adolescents because by helping adolescents build up a healthy psychology that may enable them to successfully integrate into the competitive world of adults, hence fewer social problems could be created. In my proposed program, I would like to concentrate on the following subjects: social cognitive and social-emotional development in childhood and adolescence; peer relations and family relations and their influence on development; resilience in high risk settings; development of self-esteem; gender differences and similarities, and research methods. The University of XX’s graduate education is very strong in those fields. Your faculty consists of distinguished professors who come from leading universities and have made important research achievements. Your program offers students a total of 14 labs, among which Multiple Identities and Interpersonal Interactions Lab is most relevant to my study. I expect that your Ph.D. program can give me instruction in the fundamental theories and knowledge of developmental psychology and also give me rigorous training in planning, conducting and evaluating research. I would like to identify Prof.XX as my potential advisor, whose research interests covers a wide spectrum, including most of the fields I am interested in.

To me, psychology means care, psychological research is to find out how to care and psychological service is to offer the care. My career objective is to develop into a research-oriented professor who can perform substantial research on adolescent psychology. I will study those features of psychology that Chinese adolescents share with their XX counterparts as China is under heavy influences of XX culture. But I would also examine the role of traditional Chinese culture in shaping the psychology of Chinese adolescents. Apart from my professional activities, I will continue to offer voluntary, non-profit consulting services to those who are in need. Adolescent psychological consulting is only of recent origin and much is to be improved. My prospective XX education will enable me to make important contributions in this regard.

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