Nazrin Baghirova: What made you decide you wanted to be a psychology major?
Melissa Focone: There’s nothing more fascinating than the human mind. I know everyone else says that, but it’s true.
Baghirova: What do you plan to do with your degree?
Focone: Not sure yet, but I think I would most like to be a sex therapist.
Baghirova: So I guess that means you will have to get a Ph.D.?
Focone: I would like to do that, yes.
Baghirova: Is there any other field of psychology that is of particular interest to you?
Focone: Relationships, because that is a significant part of everyone’s life.
Baghirova: What does that field entail?
Focone: Most people have dysfunction in areas of their lives that stem from either relationship or sexual dysfunctions.
Baghirova: Interesting. So have you conducted any research for professors on campus?
Focone: No, but I would like to, as soon as my grade-point average goes up.
Baghirova: Do you psychoanalyze your friends and family?
Focone: All the time. Not just people I know, but also characters in movies and TV shows. When I learn about different disorders in my classes, I can think of two or three people that I know that fit that category, but usually they’re not the extreme case of that particular disorder.
Baghirova: So how do they feel about having a shrink-in-the-making diagnosing them all the time?
Focone: They get annoyed, especially when I give them advice they don’t ask for. I mean well, though.
Baghirova: I thought of Dr. Huang from Law and Order SVU when you mentioned relating characters from movies and TV shows to what you learn in your classes. How do you feel about him?
Fonone: He is definitely one of my favorite characters among crime dramas on TV. He would be my idol if he didn’t work for the FBI.
Baghirova: What do you think about the treatment of mental illness on shows like Law and Order?
Focone: They definitely oversimplify mental illness on those shows, but on the other hand, they educate the average viewer about the general symptoms and severity of mental diseases.
Baghirova: The cases on that show can get pretty intense. How do you feel about treatment of mental disease with pharmaceuticals like they often do on Law and Order?
Focone: It’s a case-by-case situation, but sometimes doctors use drugs as an easy way out, which ends up being a trade-off when you consider the severity of their side effects.
