We spoke to Jakob Brown who studied BSc Psychology degree at Queen Mary to learn about his course, his experience at the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences and his fascinating dissertation topic. Jakob is currently studying for a Master's in Data Science.
Describe your experience at Queen Mary.
I didn’t live in halls in the first year, so I haven’t always been on campus, but in terms of provisions and what’s been available to me, it’s still been really great and very easy to get involved at the University. I’ve enjoyed the Psychology course and I’ve made lots of friends. The best thing I can say is that the University has helped me to get my degree very smoothly and supported me really well. If I’ve ever had a problem, it’s usually been sorted out on the day. For example, when I broke my wrist, meaning I was going to have to type my exams, which I was a bit worried about, the school made the whole process so easy for me. My dissertation adviser Dr Hadfield was instrumental in my positive experience here and my academic advisor Dr Mareschal has been great. The online platforms have also been laid out very well.
Why did you choose to study Psychology?
I had a really interesting Psychology teacher when I was doing my A Levels so she made me really like the subject. It’s always been a subject I’ve been interested in and also good at, so it was a natural choice for me. Queen Mary is ranked highly for Psychology and has Russell Group status so it seemed like a very good fit. I did a BSc so it’s more scientific in nature, which is what I wanted. I’ve loved having the elective modules at the end of the last two years, the lecturers have been great and the course has been broken down into quite manageable chunks.
Tell us about your dissertation.
The topic of my dissertation was about debunking the myth that men value physical attractiveness in a partner more than women do and that women are more interested in personality and earning resources than men are. I wrote about this sexual double standard having a feminist impact, in that this widely held belief creates a pressure on women, more so than men, to justify their attractions to people as being more than just physical. My study thus focused on women in order to back up recent studies into the topic, which seek to demonstrate the equal extent to which both men and women value physical attractiveness.
The experiment looked at whether the more information you know about someone affects your attraction to them and whether physical attractiveness supersedes that effect. The result was that it really did in women. The information was relevant up to a point, but when the guy presented was really hot, the information that was presented with him was no longer relevant.