It was the winter of ’23 when I first discovered that daydreaming can accelerate the process of ageing.
During the Christmas holiday, I entered Northeastern University of London’s essay competition under the Psychology subject category. The university had provided an essay prompt for a vast multitude of subjects within the humanities, ranging from Economics to English Literature. Having piqued my keen inquisition almost immediately, the topic I was required to discuss concerned “The extent to which mental factors impact ageing”.
Prior to conducting research for my essay, I was extremely sceptical of the notion that mental factors impacted ageing at all. Once I dove headfirst into investigating this link, my stress levels skyrocketed (another mental factor which has the potential to accelerate ageing by shortening the length of telomeres at the end of chromosomes) as I realised just how bereft the internet was of the relevant information I was searching for.
Exploring mental factors in relation to ageing is undoubtedly quite the niche area of Psychology, yet this did not detract from the astonishment which swamped me whilst scouring my sources at all. Mental disorders, daydreaming, and even pessimism all play a mental role in contributing to ageing, to name a few. To quote from my own essay, “The explanations offered by biology and physiology hardly scratch the surface.” Nonetheless, I did reach the conclusion whilst writing my essay that the influence posed by mental factors on ageing is often indirect and nests within a more predominant cause (a usually cellular one).
Perhaps the most rewarding aspect (apart from being the winning essay participant of the Psychology category) of assembling this piece of work had to be the sheer challenge of compiling appropriate empirical studies to support and permeate my argument due to the severely limited findings on this topic available.
Ultimately, writing this essay was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me and the topic in particular really spurred me to take quite the fulfilling step out of my comfort zone to tackle.
On Yiu (SFC1)
We are immensely proud of On Yiu's achievement in this prestigious competition, and we are sure she will put the £500 prize money to good use!
On Yiu's winning essay is on display in the library, along with the three prize winning essays from our British Psychology Olympiad success earlier this year.
Dr Norman, Head of Psychology and Dr Stevenson, Teacher of Psychology
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