The Beginning...

     So this is my first post.  If you're reading this, chances are you already know who I am.  If you don't, I'm a graduate student who is simply working to gain a Master of Science in Experimental Psychology degree.  Now you know.  When I was an undergraduate student, I conducted most of my research primarily on music and emotion regulation as it relates to music consumption in college students (by definition, "emerging adults").  Nowadays, I'm doing something totally different...clinical psychology research.

      The topic: Boderline personality disorder.  Specifically, I'm interested in whether or not this is considered to be a 'gendered' disorder (do we look at men vs. women different who are diagnosed with this disorder?), and how labels and social stigma play a role in this.  After reading countless articles and book chapters, and even getting my own shiny new copy of the DSM-IV-TR (the bible of almost all that is abnormal psychology/clinical), I'm still eager to jump into this thesis topic.  Some people have asked me what caused me to make this change in my interests.  The answer is simple: I knew someone with this disorder once, and I want to understand it more.  Before I met her, I never knew what Borderline personality disorder even was.  It wasn't until I took abnormal psychology in my undergraduate days that I began to understand it from an academic perspective.  All I knew is that I couldn't understand why one moment she could be laughing and happy, and the next she's depressed and saying that she wants to die.  I wanted to help her, but I had no idea where to even begin or what to do or say, and often found myself afraid of saying the wrong thing because it might make her upset.

     So far, I'm enjoying my reading and am looking forward to working on this new study.  Stick with me...things can only get more interesting from here. :)