Weekly Report 8
10/8/18-10/14/18
This past week was definitely exciting and had been spent preparing questions for and finally having my first interview with Dr. Mitchell Dunn at his private practice office in Dallas. The hour spent was a very beneficial experience as I discovered the path in which to approach future research by knowing where more concentration should lie. Dr. Dunn’s viewpoints on various topics such as culture’s influence on Forensic Psychiatry as well as the American Sniper case he had worked hours on was shared as well. He even gave insight to his split duties between private practice and the hospital he worked at. From his advice, one other thing learned from the interview was to be more open-minded towards the career field of Psychiatry. Looking back, it had dawned that most of the people I was looking to interview were specifically Forensic Psychiatrists. Therefore, goals for this week are to call a diverse range of professionals in the general career field of Psychiatry and Psychology, including Forensic Psychologists and Psychiatrists who are certified in different branches of psychiatry. Since a few professionals have already been called, I feel even more comfortable engaging in conversation with them over the phone. The plan is to conduct these calls during ISM and have a list of five to ten people in case there are situations in which the doctor is unable to conduct an interview. This way, the chances for landing an interview will increase.
Along with that, another goal is to continue with research on my topic. This way, I can further expand knowledge on the topic as well as coming up with more interview questions to ask. The plan for this is to take the other half of class time and work thirty minutes on it at home everyday. This way, I am continuing to “play in the sandbox” to discover the perfect idea for the original work.