On Thursday, Oct. 12, Psychology Club hosted their second meeting of the year. Their topic: gaslighting. 

President Krishani Khanna ‘25 has built an officer team including Hannah Mary Vinesh ‘25, Sarayu Chittireddy ‘25, Anvita Kondi ‘26, and Hasya Pamu ‘26 to help educate other students within the field of psychology. Khanna decided to take leadership within the club to cultivate her passion for uncovering the unknown of the human brain, and in turn, explore the “whys” of human behavior. 

“I guess I’ve been interested in psychology since 5th grade,” Khanna said. “I’ve always been interested in how people behave, they feel, how they process things, why they behave the way they do.”

Aligned with her role, she is in charge of conducting research on a myriad of mind-provoking topics, including the covered content of the meeting: gaslighting. After a slideshow overview of the basics of gaslighting and several roleplay examples, members were prepared to play a Kahoot as practice for detecting the behavior in real life. 

“It’s relevant to today. It’s a common practice, unfortunately,” Secretary and Webmaster Sarayu Chittireddy ‘25 said. “[We looked for] social behaviors that are common around us, and then we noticed gaslighting is one, so we decided to talk about that.” 

As the club members engaged in the competition, it was clear it would be a tight race for a podium seat. As for prizes, the officers had picked out several candy treats to reward the winners. Similar to many other clubs at Westwood, Psych Club coaxes members through the door with the promise of food. Although this basis for joining may stray from Psych Club’s original mission, there is always room for cultivated interest in the operations of the club. 

“We always have snacks, and I feel like many people just come for the snacks, which is okay, they still learn a little bit, sitting here and playing the Kahoot and all that,” Vice President Hannah Mary Vinesh ‘25 said. 

As a team striving for excellence, each officer is careful to fulfill their roles and maintain their responsibilities to their members by placing emphasis on their team dynamic. 

“We always wanna take into account what everyone thinks,” Chittireddy said. “It’s not a dictatorship, it’s a democracy. All of us contribute to everything, and we love collaborating together.”