Peter Peter Desberg

How Peter Desberg got here…

When I was just a boy working toward my M.A., I was studying Physiological Psychology, now called Neuroscience. There’s a big difference between these two fields. Neuroscience is cool. You get to peer into people’s brains using powerful imaging tools like fMRIs and PET scanners. Back then, we had to cut open rat brains and squint inside. I didn’t like rat surgery so I moved on, but maintained my fascination with what makes rats overeat and become obese…and people too. It began my interest in the Psychology of Self-Control.

By the time I was getting my Ph.D. my interest migrated to Developmental Psycholinguistics. All through my doctoral program I was conducting experiments moonlighting in a Government research lab where your tax dollars paid me to do something I enjoyed.

Once I got my doctorate, I began teaching in the California State University system where they told me “the bad news” about working there. If I wanted to be awarded tenure and become a full professor, I’d have to conduct lots of research and publish it. They must not have read my resume very carefully because I was already three years down that road and loving it.

Three years into my university career I was turning thirty and awoke one morning questioning the arc my life was taking. I was publishing in my two research areas: weight control and children’s literacy acquisition. I forecasted what my life would be like if I became successful in these areas.


Books by Peter Peter Desberg