Personal Statement:Psychology MA 1

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

How is it that science, claiming the right to excellence, examines something as imperfect as a human being? Or maybe that is why it does it? The Science (something aiming at perfection) is taking up something deficient by nature. It's a disharmony and because of that, both of them influence each other. The psychology affects the human being by trying to improve it by the cognition and The human influences psychology - making one of its faces used to give people a piece of advice. According to that, there are two psychologies. The interior and the exterior one. The exterior is the ideal one. Scientific. The interior is the human one. Both of them are surely in close contact with each other. But where am I supposed to be?

I want to enter between both of them. On one hand, to help science improve a human, but on the other hand to remember that it is science which should serve the people, not the other way round. Idealism? Of course it is. I want to be a science's servant and simultaneously to hold sway over it. Idealism again? Sort of. Will studies verify that? Probably. And it may be why I want to study. As Huxley once said: There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.." Or maybe I will keep this naivety and share some of the values with this science? We will both leave our stamps on each other. I can even say that we have already started to do that.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

One of the things it has already given me is the one I have mentioned above. It creates the willingness to improve oneself. I think that the same was with Fromm. His concept of a human is an idealistic one. It encourages individuals to act, to read his (and other psychologists') books, to familiarize with "Charaktery" the Polish equivalent of the British "The Psychologist". But not only. For where are the roots of psychology? In philosophy of course. And as psychology came out of philosophy, I want to do the same. And because of that I am studying for the Philosophical Olympiad. I am going into the works of different authors: Tatarkiewicz, Mackie, Kolakowski, Voltaire, Russell. However, philosophers are too smart for me. As one of the above mentioned said: The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt." I would like to be sure of something, and psychology gives me a kind of confidence. I am not ashamed of such stupidity I am a bit ashamed of my articles published on my Internet blog and in the columns of our school newspaper. They were naive and immature. But they have given me an impression of my imperfection. And that was the next motivating factor. It is strange, but by reading ones' old columns, one can widen his horizons too, which is self-improvement!

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

The other way to develop oneself is by helping others to do so. Thanks to that, I became a co-author of two Polish high school textbooks.

Additionally, I trained dancing for 4 years. Hence that, sport psychology is familiar to me. Success, failure, rivalry, cooperation, motivation. I know what these words mean. Apart from that, sport is another way of self-improvement, isn't it?

I am from Poland. I have been studying English for 12 years. Due to that, I passed FCE for B and CAE for C grade. I want to study in Great Britain because not only does studying in a foreign language seems to be something ambitious but also I just love that mentality and culture. I should also admit that, having in mind the history of philosophy, the philosophers I like the most came from Britain. It is said that demand for psychology studies is so huge because applicants either do not know what they want to do in their lives or they have complexes and live with the illusory belief that by studying psychology, they will get rid of them. I think that, with full responsibility, I can say I do not belong to any of these groups.

Universities applied to:

• St. Andrews
• Glasgow
• Aberdeen
• Bradford
• Hull

Grades achieved:

• 65% from each subject on Matura exam
• 6th stanine overall
• 55% from 2 extended subjects
• 75% overall

How personal statements have changed?

The current personal statement format, with three 'scaffolding' questions, was introduced by Ucas in September 2025. This personal statement was submitted before then, using the old essay-style format. It has been carefully edited into the three-question format, with all of the original wording kept.

Need help with your personal statement? You can ask a question or get feedback from The Student Room community (and our trained personal statement experts) on the personal statement advice forum.