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Admission to HSE Was a Key Event in My Life

Ekaterina Vasilevskaya is a second year student on the full-time advanced doctoral programme, and also a visiting lecturer at HSE. Since 2016, she has participated in the 'Health Literacy and Its Impact on Weight-Related Behaviors in College Students’ research project at Florida International University, USA. In her interview for the Doctoral School of Psychology, Ekaterina spoke about being admitted to the HSE doctoral programme, and her studies.

How to become a doctoral student

I have spent almost eight years at HSE already: four at the Faculty of Psychology undergraduate programme, two years doing an MA, and two more years on the doctoral programme in ‘General Psychology, Personality Psychology, History of Psychology’. Admission to HSE was a major event in my life. I have become the person I am today largely at HSE thanks to communicating and collaborating with my professors, colleagues and classmates.

About the full-time advanced doctoral programme

The full-time advanced doctoral programme offers a good stipend (by local standards), and the ability to devote yourself fully to research, as you have a unique opportunity to spend time at an international university.

The most important part of the doctoral programme is carrying out research and writing your thesis. Students can choose what they would like to focus on in the upcoming year and plan their activities in advance.

In my doctoral research, I look at people’s views of themselves in the future (their ‘future selves’) and how this correlates with their motivation. The most general question I am interested in is: what characteristics should future selves have in order to motivate people to make this future reality?

The topic of my research is being actively developed in the West, so I knew from the very beginning that I would take up a place at a US university. There is also evidence that what motivates people’s views of their future selves varies from culture to culture, so I was particularly interested in a cross cultural study, which would enable me to compare Russian and American respondents.

Time at Florida International University, USA

I have a lot of great memories of my time at Florida International University. First, it was thrilling to immerse myself in life at an American university and work on a huge campus. Second, I gained invaluable experience in communicating with my American colleagues, working in a laboratory, and attending lectures. Before taking this placement, I was concerned about my level of knowledge, but it turned out that the education I had received at HSE was on a par with that at the American university, and that our educational systems have a lot of similarities.

Doctoral students’ everyday life

When it comes to doctoral students’ everyday lives, HSE students have to attend a selection of obligatory and elective courses.  I found the courses in Academic Writing, which helps you write academic texts and give presentations in English, and statistics and data analysis in SPSS and R, to be the most useful. Thanks to the Academic Writing course I was able to prepare a poster presentation for the 31st International Congress of Psychology (ICP2016), which took place in Yokohama, Japan. The courses in statistics enriched my set of data processing methods, which I used when presenting data at that conference.

One of the conditions of doctoral studies is teaching practice, as part of which the doctoral students teach undergraduates. Over these two years, I had the chance to work with students of history, philosophy, and psychology. I’ve had excellent experiences interacting with student audiences.

After graduating from the doctoral programme, I am considering continuing in research and teaching. I am also very interested in psychological counseling and therapy. I am confident that the knowledge, experience and opportunities that I’ve received at HSE will be useful in any professional activity.

Deadline for applying to HSE Doctoral schools is September 15, 2017. Find out more here.

See also:

Zaruhi Hakobyan Shortlisted for HSE Alumni Awards

Zaruhi Hakobyan, master’s graduate of the HSE University Faculty of Economic Sciences and research scientist at the University of Luxembourg, is involved not only in research but also in organising academic events for young scientists and students. As a foreign graduate of HSE University, Zaruhi was nominated for the HSE Alumni Awards ‘for her tireless enthusiasm in popularising economic science, teaching, and research at the international level’ and made the shortlist.

Plurilingualism Compensates for Low Extraversion in Nurturing Creative Skills

Researchers at the HSE Laboratory for Linguistic, Intercultural, and Creative Competencies have examined the role of the Big Five personality traits in moderating the development of creativity among individuals who use multiple languages and have intercultural experiences. It has been found that acquiring multiple languages and engaging with diverse cultures can enhance an individual's creativity and compensate for some deficiencies in communicative abilities. That said, language practices are likely to foster creativity only in mentally stable individuals. The paper has been published in the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

‘Studying at HSE Was a Chance for Me to Get to Know Some Supportive Seniors, Knowledgeable Professors, and Wonderful Friends’

On August 4, 2023, a pre-defence of the thesis on ‘Refugee-Host Community Conflict over Assimilation, Integration, and State Legitimacy: The Case of Rohingyas in Bangladesh’ by Md. Reza Habib will be held at HSE University. The preliminary defence will take place at a joint meeting of the HSE School of Sociology and the International Laboratory for Social Integration Research. Md. Reza Habib shared his experience of studying and preparing his PhD with the HSE News Service.

‘At HSE University, We Receive Substantial Support for Our Research’

Wenrui Zhang, from China, is a recent graduate of theMaster’s in Economics and Economic Policy at the HSE UniversityFaculty of Economic Sciences. Having successfully defended his master’s thesis on the impact of COVID-19 on the incomes of vulnerable groups, Wenrui has set his sights on publishing his research and enrolling in adoctoral programme at the university. The HSE News Service interviewed Wenrui about his achievements so far and his goals for the future, and also spoke to Prof.Elena Kotyrlo, his academic supervisor.

Attainment of Happiness in Psychologically Mature Individuals Linked to Pursuit of Meaning

Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl believed that the quest for meaning constitutes a fundamental and intrinsic motivation for all human beings. Some other authors suggest that the need for meaning or purpose only emerges at higher levels of personality development. According to a team of psychologists from HSE and the University of Paris Nanterre, individuals who have achieved higher levels of ego development are inclined to relinquish hedonistic motives in favour of cultivating mindfulness and embarking on a quest for meaning. These findings have been published in Frontiers in Psychology.

Married Men Less Prone to Workplace Burnout

Greater marital satisfaction lowers the risk of professional burnout, with this correlation being more pronounced among men than women. This is a conclusion made by HSE psychologists after conducting a study on the effect of social interactions on workplace burnout on a sample of 203 employees from several Russian companies. According to the researchers, gaining a better understanding of the specific aspects of burnout experienced by individuals makes it possible to address this syndrome more effectively. The paper has been published in Organizational Psychology.

‘I Hope to Make Meaningful Contributions to the Academic Community’

Why do international students at HSE University decide to pursue a career in academia? What fields in economics are relevant to PhD students? Richard Asiamah from Ghana and Alesya Bukreeva from Uzbekistan are current master’s students at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, but have already received scholarships from the faculty to continue their studies as doctoral students at the university. Below, they share their experiences, while Denis Melnik, Academic Director of the Doctoral School of Economics, suggests some tips for the application process.

HSE Psychologists Propose New Approach to Building Soft Skills

Researchers at HSE's School of Psychology have used the findings of studies into creativity and multilingualism to develop 'Plurilingual Intercultural Creative Keys’ (PICK), a new programme which integrates both aspects into the teaching and learning process. The study results have been published in Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics.

Card File: Plurilingual Creativity

Fluency in foreign languages has multiple advantages in terms of cognitive abilities, communication skills, cultural awareness, and career advancement. But can bilingualism and plurilingualism (knowledge of multiple languages and related cultural contexts) contribute to creative thinking and one's ability to generate new ideas? Studies have shown that linguistic, intercultural and creative competencies are interrelated, and their synergy can give rise to plurilingual creativity. The following overview is based on several papers by Anatoly Kharkhurin, Director of the HSE Laboratory for Linguistic, Intercultural and Creative Competencies.

Readers Found to Rely on Word Spelling Rather Than Sound in Reading

Skilled readers are known to extract information not only from the word they are looking at but from the one directly following it. This phenomenon is called pre-processing. Researchers from the HSE Centre for Language and Brain analysed the eye movements of primary school children and adults during silent reading and found both groups to rely on orthographic, rather than phonological, information in pre-processing an upcoming word. The study has been published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.