Inside PsychSoc at Surrey
Joining a society is a fantastic way of making new friends, expanding your network and enriching your Surrey experience. We asked PsychSoc president Natalie to share her insider info on what the society gets up to and why it’s a great idea to join.
Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I am Natalie, a Psychology undergraduate here at Surrey and currently on placement. I wanted to study psychology, with the hopes of understanding what makes people people! Evaluating social influences and genetic influences, listening to and engaging in various debates, and I guess developing my own critical thinking. I wanted to join the society to get to know more people like me, and have more people to relate to.
What is the Psychology Society all about?
Although people believe that our society exists so we can admire and discuss Freudian theories and concepts, that is not at all true! Yes of course, we have our weekly study sessions to help motivate students to balance their schedules, and stay on top of notes, however, we always have plenty of social events, sometimes involving alcohol, such as bar crawls, and alcohol-free events such as movie and free pizza night. One of our main objectives is to also promote positive wellbeing at university, and we achieve this with the help of our wellbeing champions taking over our Instagram account weekly to discuss all things wellbeing.
Joining PsychSoc is a great way to meet students similar to you and talk through different experiences – and it’s open to anyone, not just those who study Psychology.
What does your role as president involve? What’s the best thing about it?
My role as president is to ensure that the society runs smoothly, both for members and committee members. The best thing about being president is that I have had the opportunity to gather people from all years of the degree, from freshers to postgrads, and we are now a group of 15 committee members, which feels like a family. I have had the opportunity to provide training, guidance, leadership and support to wonderful people, and this will always be one of my favourite experiences from Surrey.
Why should students join PsychSoc?
PsychSoc aims to keep you up to date with all helpful Student Union events, inform you on all wellbeing services and help you manage your workload through weekly study sessions, all while planning and organising various engaging events! Joining PsychSoc is a great way to meet students similar to you and talk through different experiences – and it’s open to anyone, not just those who study Psychology. One of the great things we often see are conversations that alleviate anxiety regarding one’s future at Surrey, such as seeing younger years talking to older years about their experiences.
What’s the most interesting or exciting event that PsychSoc has been involved in recently?
One of our most recent collaborations was with Surrey Angels (the University’s Cheerleading Club), where we organised an exciting self-defence workshop from Mavericks Martial Arts and Surrey MMA alongside a talk from Surrey Police to raise awareness of spiking, sexual assault, stalking and more.
To see what PsychSoc is up to visit @surreypsychologysociety on Instagram.