Program Highlighted | Psychology
Intorduction by | Professor Bernard Schiff
Interview with | Carlos Roncero
Date | July 2001

Interview | Carlos Roncero

Carlos is an Innis College fourth year Psychology specialist Student.

Innis: Would you introduce yourself?
Carlos: My name is Carlos Roncero. I am a third-year student at the University of Toronto, Innis College. I am pursuing a Research Specialist Degree in Psychology. I am also on the executive of the Psychology Students Association and am the undergraduate department representative of the Canadian Psychology Association for the University of Toronto.

Innis: What attracted you to study psychology?
Carlos: Basically I also wanted to know what makes people tick. You know, when you see people out there doing the things they do, thinking the way they do and so forth. What is it about that person that's causing them to act that way. I also thought psychology might be a good first step in terms of understanding what is it that makes people do the things they do.

Innis: Given that there are so many programs offered by the Faculty of Arts and Science, how did you decide to pursue psychology? What role did advice/influence from peers, mentors, relatives, and others play in your decision?
Carlos: Well, the reason I chose psychology is that I took five courses in first year and one of them was psychology. I did well in it and that was the one I most enjoyed. So I decided to go through with it and stick with psychology because I seem to have a kind of knack for it. I really liked the material being offered. In terms of influence, I would say peers, mentors or relatives had an influence. I think the best influence I have had in all my years has been Donald Boere, the Registrar at Innis College. He's been an excellent advisor to me throughout the years and a lot of his advice has been very crucial in my progress.

Innis: How would you rate the facilities and opportunities offered by this program in the University of Toronto?
Carlos: Ok. The facilities are horrible and very bad. But it's not the Psychology program's fault. It's because U of T has stuck Psychology professors and all their labs and everything in the basement of Sidney Smith where it's very small and very crammed. We are all using these really old computers because U of T has decided that psychology just doesn't deserve any money. Let's give it all to genetics. Luckily, the professors do the best they can with the lab. There are lots of opportunities for a student to become involved. You can ask to volunteer with a professor in a lab to do research with them, or you can get involved with college student associations, and do projects. So in the program itself, the Psychology minor, major or specialist don't offer too many opportunities, however the department itself has many.

Innis: What aspect(s) of this program do you find fascinating or inspiring - curriculum, professors, practical experience, field courses, etc.?
Carlos: The most fascinating part about psychology and the most enjoyable part about studying is that it really covers such a wide field of information. You learn about child development, you learn about how people can hear, how they taste, how they can see, you learn about how people interact with one another, you learn about brain mechanisms, brain anatomy, you learn about common principles, how people learn, philosophy, biology, anthropology, sociology.

Innis: You are pursuing a Specialist in Research Psychology. What influenced your choice between the Psychology and Research Psychology?
Carlos: The difference between the Psychology Specialist and the Research Specialist program, is that the latter offers more opportunities for students. The requirement for completing the programs is a mini-thesis in one of the courses, and a thesis in a fourth year course. So instead of having to search for professors to work with this will ensure that you are working with professors. As well, we learn about research methodology, how to conduct an experiment and things to look for in experiments. I'm more interested in the research area rather than the clinical area, and since Psychology at U of T is mainly research-oriented anyway, it is a very good program for people who wish to pursue that type of studies in psychology.

Innis: How would Research Psychology versus Psychology influence graduate studies?
Carlos: The biggest way that it has an influence is by the simple fact that in the Research Specialist program you are guaranteed that you'll be doing a thesis course. If you are simply doing a Psychology Specialist program you can still do a thesis course but you'd have a whole other list of criteria to follow. You have to already be in a lab with professors, and you have to ballot to be enrolled in certain courses. Now, these might seem like strict guidelines but you should also be aware that getting into a research specialist program itself is extremely difficult and very competitive. They only accept up to twenty students per year and the program has been in place for two years now. The first year they accepted only fourteen students and this year they accepted eighteen. All that being said, you can do all the things that the Research Specialist program does even if you are not in it, but the difference is that you have to seek them out yourself. You would have to make a decision to attend a colloquium, decide to meet the professors, get involved with them.

Innis: Of all the courses in this program that you have taken so far, which one did you enjoy the most, and why?
Carlos: The one that I've enjoyed the most was Psychology of Language. It's basically psycho-linguistics. We often take language for granted - how people process and comprehend language, how people produce language - it all seems very simple and we all just do it. But there are a lot of processes that goes on in our mind. We understand how language works and how people can produce it. And on top of that, a lot of other fields in psychology, conduct their experiments using a lot of language principles. They use word recall, sentence completion, word fragment completion, and all these types of language-oriented research paradigms. I've found that when doing psycho linguistic research, you can start to see some flaws that have been made in other research areas because you know how to conduct research that is clean and efficient and well done.

The second course I really enjoyed, was a course in social psychology that I took last summer. For a long time I though I was going to pursue social psychology and the only reason why I don't want to now is simply because of the many paradigms involved language. I might do grounding in psycho linguists and then perhaps when I'm 40 or 50 I can start do some social cognition experiences. But I don't feel I should do that until I have understood well the language process. In the social psychology course you learn some very interesting things such as how people interact with one another, how the facts are interpreted or how people think about themselves. One of the things I found interesting is that sometimes people think "I do this but no one else does that", or "I think badly about this but no one would do that". Then you start seeing in general how people all behave the same way. It's all determined by the situation. It's even better than philosophy, where they are talking all day about why they think something happens. Social psychology would actually put people in a room, give them a stimulus and see what they do. So, it's kind of interesting that way.

Innis: Are there things that you might have done differently while completing this program?
Carlos: I am happy where I am now, so maybe I shouldn't look back and think on anything negatively. The only thing I would probably have changed is just focusing sooner. I wish that I had known two years ago what I know now about psycho linguists because I would have taken more linguistics courses to do psycho linguistics in the first place. I also think it's important to understand that the Psychology program at U of T is very difficult. It's very time-consuming and you should realize that when you start doing your courses. You should realize that taking five Psychology courses in one semester or even four will be very time-consuming and very difficult. And realize that it's not you, it's the program that's really difficult.

Innis: Would you have chosen another area to complement this one?
Carlos: Yes, I wish I had taken linguistics all this time, of course. In terms of which area you should choose to complement psychology in general, I think it all depends on what area of psychology you're in. As I've said before, the field is very broad. If you are interested in social psychology, probably anthropology is a good one to combine with it. If you are interested in personalities and abnormalities perhaps programs in philosophy or physiology might be good. If you interested in cognitive psychology or cognitive principles then the cognitive science program offered by a University College is really good. If you are interested in perception as well that's a good one for cognitive science. If you are interested in the neurology aspects, behavioural psychology, learning how the brain works then physiology might be a good place to complement psychology.

Innis: What are some things that you wish you had known before?
Carlos: I wish I had know that psychology was so difficult at U of T. I wish I had known it was so time consuming and so competitive. What happens in psychology is that your class in first year is about a thousand people. In second year it's about three hundred to five hundred people, then in third year you have classes with over thirty people so it's very difficult to get classes with less twenty people, which is ideal. The program in Psychology is very strict in terms of the required marking scheme. Normally a class of twenty or more must have a C+ average. They are very diligent and strict about this, and it seems that professors often write difficult final exams to bring down the average. So, unless you get going from day one, you are going to have problems.

Innis: What suggestions do you have on how this program might be improved for other students?
Carlos: They could make it easier, but then it would be like other universities and would be less prestigious. When you apply to graduate school they really do take note if you are coming from U of T. What I most want in this program is to change the amount of overlap that there is between the courses. For example PSY100Y and every second year course covers methodology and science. So there is a lot of repetition of concepts. It's mostly because psychology is a very young science so the same experiments are repeated over and over again. So there has to be a real reduction of the overlap between courses in the program.

Innis: What is one piece of advice that you would give to someone who is interested in pursuing this program?
Carlos: Know what you are getting into. Know that when you get into psychology it's going to be tough. It seems like it's a fun degree that lots of people take because it's interesting, and not too difficult. But that's not true here at U of T. I don't want to scare anyone away or make them think it's the most difficult thing possible to ever study. I am just saying you have to be on top of things. You have to know that going in.

Innis: What would you suggest for someone who doesn't know what area of psychology to pursue?
Carlos: You can do what I did. Take many second year courses in second year as there are seven of then not including statistics. I took all seven of them in second year. I took five of them in the winter term and two in the summer. Each second year course represents a different area of psychology so you can get a sense of what each field is looking at. Aside from that, you can also pick up journals for each area of psychology and look at what research is been done there and find out if those studies or theses they are looking at appeal to you. Also you can talk to professors who are in different areas of psychology about what the field is looking at. Lastly ask yourself what are you interested in because that drive and motivation will give you the ability to do well.

Innis: As a student in this field, I am sure you have researched the job market. What kinds of employment opportunities are there?
Carlos: Ah. You think I've researched that. I am in the process now of researching the job market. So, I don't really have much to say about what jobs are out there. I can quickly say that there are jobs helping university professors do research. There are also clinical positions out there. There are different areas in which a clinician can work, for example you can do speech pathology, or work with people with Alzheimer's, etc. and not just the simple "Frasier Krane" type of therapy that's seen on television. You can also work with a company as a researcher. In terms of where to find jobs, the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) is an excellent resource. When you join that you can get a newsletter each month and that newsletter talks about companies that are looking for students and various work programs out there for psychology students. There is also a listserv and a mailing list that is provided by the CPA for people who are looking for jobs. The thing to know about psychology jobs and any other high level jobs is that you have to be prepared to go where the jobs are. If you are looking for an academic position you will have to be prepare to move elsewhere. If you are doing more clinical work or therapy, perhaps you can stay in your own city especially if you start your own private practice.

Innis: What types of jobs are you interested in obtaining in the future?
Carlos: I want to become a research professor, I want to be like Professor Wall. He doesn't do research anymore, because he a chair of the department and is too busy. I also want to be like Ron Schmit and be a psycho linguist who teaches at university, handles research and so forth. Because two of my passions are to teach and to do research, and being a university professor combines both wonderfully.

Innis: What steps are you taking to assist you in achieving these goals?
Carlos: Joining the CPA because it has a lot of resources and a lot of information for students. People are more familiar with the APA, the American Psychological Association, but Canada has one too and it has lots of resources, lots of information, lots of tips for students to learn about jobs. Also joining labs, working with professors, getting research experience, that's great because you get reference letters from them and that's very important for graduate school. And also course selection, just choosing the course I feel are the best fit for the areas I am interested in.

Innis: On behalf of Innis College I would like to thank you for coming out and giving us your time.
Carlos: Thank you.

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