Probing My Tender Mind

I have just experienced one of the most traumatic activities in my life. Now before I just go willy-nilly (whatever that means) into the events of tonight, let me set up the situation. As you could have figured out from my last post, I’m taking Developmental Psychology. Now one of the requirements when taking an introductory level course in psychology is that you have to undergo 7 hours of psychological experiments and testing. Yes, it’s weird. But I thought it would actually be fun to answer some questions about my personality (again the egocentricity).

I signed up on Monday for a group testing session on Wednesday at 7:30, thinking I’d be in and out relatively fast. So, I decided not to eat dinner before my session. Big mistake. When I arrived at 7:25 the lecture room was already filled with about 60 other kids, mostly freshman. Suddenly, the session turned into the SATs all over again. There were 5 proctors that handed out pre-sharpened #2 pencils and booklets (not a couple of pages…BOOKLETS!). The main proctor told us that if we were under 18 then we had leave the room immediately and if we did not answer every question we would not receive credit for the session. At 7:30 we began:

The initial questions were relatively simple. How important is your family? How well do you remember experiences from your toddler years? Do you exercise often? Not so bad. There was even a section about Duke basketball and fandom. Then the questions started to probe deeper. How often do you act against your morals? Would you mind if no one respected you? How would you feel if your family abandoned you?

I answered quickly and impulsively, but was taken aback by a set of questions about arousal. Are you aroused when you receive gifts? How aroused are you when you fail a test? And finally, what is your arousal level when attending a funeral? What?! A Funeral?! I answered 3 out of 10…I learned many new things about myself tonight.

The questions went on and on for 30 pages. I wrote about my facial features, my self-esteem, my most stressful moments and death. The last page of the booklet was about medicine. One part asked us to list all the prescription medications we could think of. All I could think of was Cialis, Viagra and Claratin. (Maybe I was still thinking about that arousal section.) Then it asked us to list different side effects of those drugs. All I could come up with were “erections that last longer than 4-hours.” (Seriously, that’s what I wrote.)

The questionnaire lasted 1½ hours and by the end I was exhausted, had low self-esteem and was very, very hungry. I walked back to the dining hall just as it was closing. I felt like crap, but at least I don’t go to UNC. So, I guess things could have been worse.