by John Hudson

For us here at NTU, it seems like only yesterday that we were proudly celebrating our students’ graduations, yet here we are ready to begin the academic new year. So it’s our pleasure to welcome both new and returning students, who we look forward to celebrating graduations with in years to come. Whether you’re about to begin or continue your undergraduate (or postgraduate) journey with us, there may be understandable anxieties amongst the excitement, so this week we’ll look at a couple of the most common – meeting new people, and getting to grips with scientific journal articles – and hopefully provide a little reassurance.

Meeting new people: you probably make a better first impression than you realise

The opportunity to meet lots of people can be one of the most exciting things about starting university, something to really look forward to. But for many students, that prospect may not be quite so thrilling – or at least, there may be some nerves mixed in with it. Even those who usually enjoy socialising and making friends can feel anxiety about meeting new people: “will I fit in?”, “everyone else looks so confident“, “will they like me?”, and all the other niggling concerns that can crop up when we experience these kinds of situations. Like the proverbial swan that looks so graceful on the water but is frantically paddling beneath the surface, we may feel others look like they have everything sorted; so confident compared to us, while we have to work so hard just to avoid messing up. Thankfully, there are at least two pieces of good news for that majority of people who care about the impression they make on others. Firstly, pretty much everyone is in the same situation; we just don’t see others’ anxieties about how – just like us – they also worry how they are being perceived or how everyone else seems to be fitting in so well! Secondly, there’s more reassuring research from Psychology, which suggests that other people actually tend to like us more than we realise.

The research, by Erica Boothby and colleagues, showed that we generally underestimate the first impression we make on other people and how much our new conversation partners enjoyed chatting with us. In other words, it’s not just you that worries about this sort of thing – it’s the vast majority of us – and we are all probably making a much better impression on others than we think. You can read a summary of this research here, at the British Psychological Society Research Digest (which really is well worth checking each week as it provides some nice, easy-to-follow summaries of the latest research from the world of Psychology).

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And if you’re interested in looking at this research in even more depth, you can access the original research article in the journal of Psychological Science (you will need to select ‘Institutional login’ and then follow the prompts to log in using your university credentials, which you’ll receive when you’ve enrolled). However, perhaps the thought of reading one of those ‘impossibly difficult’ and complex scientific journal articles fills you with a similar kind of dread to meeting new people? Keep reading and we can hopefully reassure you a little about that too…

Studying at university: don’t worry if you don’t understand everything at first

You’ll be doing a lot of different things to develop your skills during your degree. One of the most common, and vital, skills is based on the research evidence and theory you’ll learn. As you progress, you’ll be moving from introductory Psychology textbooks onto exploring the research and theory in journal articles. These are probably not at the top of most peoples’ list of ways to relax and enjoy their free time (yes, even many academics), but they are important because they’ll help you gain a deeper understanding of the subject and how it relates to the questions you want to answer.

I’ll be honest, the prospect of picking out and reading a random journal article doesn’t automatically fill me with excitement, but I’m much keener to read an article on a topic that I’m interested in or that can help me understand things I’m working on. Interest and relevance makes a huge difference. If we’re curious about the topic, then we’re all going to be more interested in what the research paper says: what did the researchers do, how (and why) did they do it, what did they find? And what does that all mean to me and my life, or to my own research? There are things we need to read as part of our studies and they may not be our preferred choice of topics, but this practice helps you improve and there’s always things we can learn from it. But aside from your assigned reading and the research you’ll be finding for your assessments, why not look for articles on topics or questions you’re actually curious about?

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Do dogs and their owners have similar personalities (maybe)? Does everybody else except us really have their lives sorted (probably not)? Can you actually learn to be more charismatic (apparently so)? And can you spot a narcissist just by looking at their eyebrows (I won’t spoil that one, you can find out here)? You name it, if you’ve got an important (or funny) psychological question, there’s probably some research on it (and if there isn’t, maybe you can put that right in your final-year research project!).

But journal articles are so hard to understand – maybe I’m just not clever enough?

Do you find the writing in journal articles a bit hard to follow? Congratulations, you are perfectly normal. On the one hand, there will be technical terms or some of the advanced research design or statistical analysis that you’ve never heard of before. They can certainly make understanding a challenge – but you aren’t expected to understand what multiple regression or Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis are when you first begin your studies. That will come as you gain knowledge and experience. However, finding it difficult because you are wrestling with so many new concepts and trying to get to grips with academic writing is not evidence that you aren’t clever enough for it. Reading and understanding academic research is an advanced level skill, so if you are struggling, it is only evidence that what you are trying to do is challenging. It’s not unusual to feel frustrated – I know I did as a student, and I wasn’t the only one – so don’t be too tough on yourself. Please be reassured that your understanding will develop and it will become easier, as long as you keep working at it.

The second thing about scientific journal articles is maybe less important, but I think it is still relevant if we’re trying to encourage people to read scientific research. When it comes to the way many scientific journal articles are written, you may be forgiven for thinking that we get bonus points for making even the most fascinating topic sound boring! It’s not because we’re actually boring (hopefully), much of it is due to expectations about how articles should be written and so we’ve all been trained to write in that way. I won’t go into a discussion of why that is (and there are important reasons for at least some of it), but the reason I highlight this here is to say that no, it is not you, it really can feel like hard work wading through the writing at times, even for an experienced academic. It can feel like a slow process, but as you get used to it it does become easier and you’ll learn what to look for, what’s important, and what it means. And if you are asked to read an article as part of your classes, note down any terms or concepts you don’t understand and ask your lecturer. That’s what we’re here for, so we’ll be very happy to explain.

Unsure about something? Ask us, it’s what your tutors are here for

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Related to this, we may assume everyone else in class – except us – understands, and the fears we develop as children can lead us to worry that we’ll look like an idiot if we ask a question or need something going over again. You may even be concerned that lecturers will be annoyed if you ask questions in class, or if you didn’t understand something the very first time you heard it. However, as a lecturer, please let me tell you how untrue that is. You’ve made a big commitment by coming to university and we want to help you make the most of it. Asking questions supports that and actually helps us to identify areas that we can clarify for the next time we teach that subject. It’s also generally a fairly safe bet that if you don’t quite understand something that there will be other students feeling exactly the same, so you’ll be doing your peers a favour too.

Another reason your questions are important is that we are human and we enjoy it when it looks like people are interested enough in what we’re saying to ask questions or engage with what we are teaching. As a student, I remember feeling that I didn’t want to bother my lecturers or let them down by showing I hadn’t followed what they’d said. Now I’m on the other side of things as a lecturer myself, I realise how wrong I was; my colleagues and I often comment when we’ve really enjoyed a class, and they are usually sessions where students have been asking questions and joining in with discussions. It’s so much more interesting and useful for everyone. So if you don’t understand anything, please ask – it makes us feel useful, so you’ll be doing us a favour as much as yourself!

There’s so much to take in as you begin your time at university, we hope it’s an exciting and inspiring experience that you’ll look back on with pride as you graduate. And don’t forget there is always support and advice available. You’ll have lots of information as part of your induction, and we’ve highlighted just a few below that may help you get settled and feeling part of the NTU community.

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