ABSTRACT
I have always been fascinated by what makes people who they are. In undergraduate school, I found psychology much more interesting than other subjects and was especially interested in issues to do with the development of social and political functioning and attitudes. Thus, when it was time to apply to graduate school, I applied to programs that included faculty studying social development and elected to work with Paul Mussen at the University of California, Berkeley. Paul was interested in, and was studying, individual differences in political orientations in early adulthood, as well as prosocial behavior (voluntary behavior intended to benefit another) in childhood and adolescence. Thus, our interests were a good match.
