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Learning and Applying Psychology Abroad, by Hannah Mailloux, Psychology Major '15

Studying abroad in Lithuania was an amazing but challenging experience. Studying in Eastern Europe as a psychology major? That was so enriching!

In Lithuania, I encountered psychology everywhere. I encountered it in my roommates, since most of them were psychology majors as well. I experienced psychology during every visit to a museum or cultural landmark, especially those that marked incredible suffering. I also took psychology classes while I was abroad, including Intro to Clinical Psychology and Psychology Practicum. Other classes I took may not have been in the psychology department, but they still enhanced my understanding of psychology and of the world around me.

Two very notable classes that influenced my understanding in this way are Intro to Conflict Studies and Intercultural Communications. Conflict Studies engaged me in dealing with not only global conflicts, but personal conflicts, and acceptance of the role of conflict in growth. Intercultural Communications brought me back to the world of words and studying how what I say impacts what I think, and how I behave. Words are powerful tools that influence a society and it was interesting for me to discover how people in different cultures use words in different ways. As a psychology major, learning about the power of words across cultures helped give me insight into how I should speak to those around me and to myself. In psychology, I have learned a lot about cognitive abilities and vulnerabilities, including negative thoughts and rumination. I took the significance of my cognitions and tried to reframe them, which first required an analysis of the words I tend to use daily. It is amazing how many connotations and implications can be expressed in just one word, like for instance, “failure”. I explored my own personally derived connotations and assumptions associated with the word “failure” and worked to reframe it.

While abroad, I visited the concentration camps in Poland and experienced just a glimpse of the true suffering during the Holocaust. I also visited a museum in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. The museum was an intense exhibition of Soviet Oppression and control in Eastern Europe, and although I found it very difficult to face what the people went through, it also taught me a lot about the people I was getting to know both in the public arena and on an international campus. I was given a chance to appreciate and acknowledge their collective history of suffering. I learn more and more every day that in order to work with people in a loving way, I must not be afraid of suffering or of entering into their pain.

I would more than suggest that college students seek out experience abroad, but especially I would encourage those who are about to assist broken people with sorting through the nitty gritty stuff of their lives. Psychology majors as well as other social science majors have a call to walk alongside people through their suffering, and to do that we must first take a good look, unafraid of the pain and yet shaken by it. Through my experience in Lithuania, I have learned to appreciate both joys and hardships in the realization that I am just one broken person among many, and that we are here to help each other.