The Effects of Discussing Race on Racial Bias and Health Attitudes

Reflective EssayEver since taking PSY 10A, I became deeply interested in the psychology research and writing process.Having plans to pursue graduate work in neuroscience, I hoped to merge my pre-existing interest in neuroscience with scientific writing.I have always wanted my research to represent and convey the narratives of marginalized people from a scientific perspective, and hoped to do so by writing a research paper on the implications of talking about race on increased supportive attitudes to healthcare equity.Starting out, I struggled in finding ways to compile research for my paper in such a way that spotlighted the struggles that people of color face in healthcare as well as finding peer-reviewed sources to support my thesis.As such, I reached out to my PSY 10A instructor, Sierra Feasel, for guidance as to navigating making my paper as strong as possible while also maximizing my usage of the UCSB Library's many resources.Sierra recommended APA PsycINFO, a database of studies and literature in the psychology field made available to UCSB students by the Library.In my research and writing process, APA PsycINFO was just one of a plethora of library resources I used.Through PsycINFO, I was able to further hone my research topic by reviewing psychological articles that dealt with racism, specifically racial disparities in pain perception as measured by functional MRI (fMRI), as well as psychological articles about the effect of learning about race through a critical perspective on decreasing racial biases.I used the "Advanced Search" feature to input keywords and the kinds of articles that were most relevant to my work, including keywords such as "racism," "fMRI," "healthcare bias," and "talking race.