Clinical and Health Psychology MSc postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

A man who collects a blue reliever inhaler from our pharmacy most weeks once told me he only uses his brown preventer "when the asthma is bad". I work on the counter, so I passed his comment to the pharmacist rather than advising him myself. The exchange stayed with me because it was almost word for word what several participants had written in my undergraduate dissertation. I want to study clinical and health psychology because I am interested in the gap between what people are told about their health and what they actually do, and in how psychological methods can help close it.

My dissertation used an online questionnaire to explore how illness perceptions relate to self-reported preventer use in adults with asthma. I based it on Leventhal's Common-Sense Model, which suggests that people build their own representations of an illness, including its timeline, consequences and controllability, and that these shape how they cope with it. I used the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire alongside a self-report adherence measure and recruited 96 participants through asthma forums, after my ethics application was revised twice to tighten the wording of the debrief. The correlations were modest. The more useful part was the optional free-text box. Many respondents described asthma as something that comes and goes rather than a long-term condition, which fitted the man at the counter exactly. Writing up, I had to be honest that a cross-sectional, self-selected sample cannot show cause. I would like to develop the skills to design studies that can go further than that.

The pharmacy has taught me things a questionnaire could not. I handle prescriptions, answer queries within the limits of my role and know when to fetch the pharmacist. I have noticed how often embarrassment shapes a conversation. People ask about emergency contraception or incontinence products very quietly, or come in to buy something else first. I have learned to offer the consultation room early and to keep my tone ordinary. None of this is therapy, but it has made me attentive to how setting and wording affect whether someone feels able to ask for help.

On the clinical side, my abnormal psychology module introduced me to cognitive models of anxiety. I was especially interested in how avoidance and safety behaviours can maintain panic. I have since read about the COM-B model, which links behaviour to capability, opportunity and motivation. It helped me see that a missed preventer dose might come from forgetting, cost or a belief about the illness, and that each would need a different response. I am keen to learn how clinical and health psychology approaches meet. Long-term conditions and mental health problems so often occur together, and I would value understanding how assessment and intervention are adapted when they do.

At home, I help my younger brother, who is dyslexic, revise for his GCSEs. We have worked out that he remembers far more when he explains a topic aloud while I write his words on a whiteboard, and he now uses this method without me. It is a small example, but it reminded me that the most effective strategy is often the one a person can carry on alone. Outside work and study, I boulder twice a week at a local wall. I enjoy working on a problem over several sessions and watching other climbers try different routes up the same holds.

I am applying for postgraduate study to strengthen my research methods, particularly in longitudinal and qualitative designs. I also want a firmer grounding in evidence-based interventions, as preparation for work in health services and eventually for further clinical training. I am organised, careful with data and comfortable talking to people who are uneasy. I would bring those qualities to a demanding course and to the research projects within it.