Looking for a new way to connect with other SPSP members? Join a Free-Form Friday session. These small, virtual meeting rooms (generally maximum 15 attendees) are hosted by members for a variety of activities, including: Sharing career advice, pondering big picture questions together, meeting members with a similar background, brainstorming sessions, and more. Take advantage of this unique opportunity!
Have an idea to host a Free-Form Friday session? Apply to host a future session (submit a meeting name, host, description, and preferred dates/times). Submit your January session idea by December 13, 2021.
Changes for 2021–2022
To make participation more equitable and inclusive, the following changes will be implemented:
- Sessions may be recorded for inclusion in SPSP Learning Online
- Sign-up times will be spread out and with advanced notice
Sign-ups
Sign-ups for December open November 22.
December Free-Form Schedule
All Times U.S. Eastern Time Zone
In this session, we will discuss tips and tricks for applying and interviewing for faculty jobs at UK institutions. We will highlight some of the similarities and differences between the North American (US, Canada) and UK job markets and interview processes, with an emphasis on practical guidance. This free-form Friday session is geared toward anyone interested in pursuing the UK academic job market.
Hosts: Sarah Stanton (University of Edinburgh) & Veronica Lamarche (University of Essex)
This session provides an opportunity for faculty to learn about submitting a proposal to the Social Psychology Program at the National Science Foundation. The session covers information and tips and allows time to ask and answer questions. The session is intended for current faculty and post-docs who are preparing proposals that advance Social Psychology; we will not cover funding mechanisms in other NSF programs (e.g., no coverage of the Graduate Research Fellowship Program).
Hosts: Ximena Arriaga (NSF) & Steve Breckler (NSF)
Human societies are not static - a truism with some dramatic examples of psychological change in the last 20 months. How can social/personality scientists capitalize on the dynamic nature of human psychology? How can we shift from a science of (post-hoc) explanations and local ethnographies to a science of predictive modelling of psychological change? In this free-form Friday session we will reflect on the benefits of predictions and explanations, predictive methods in social and behavioral sciences, and will ponder the question whether the time is ripe for an area of predictive behavioral science. This session is for scholars interested in prediction and forecasting methods in psychology, meta-scientists, as well as scholars of psychological change, cultural evolution, political dynamics, crime trends, and behavioral economics. Seasoned experts and students interested in these themes are equally welcome to attend.
Host: Igor Grossman (University of Waterloo)
The Part 3 of the series The Roadmap to Graduate School, we will discuss what comes after your application is submitted, including preparing for graduate school interviews and considering other paths. We will discuss the interview process, describe it typically entails and offer tips on how to prepare. We will also discuss alternative trajectories to graduate school, including the pros of taking "breaks" and pursuing post-baccalaureate training. Join Fernanda Andrade (PhD candidate, Duke University), Kathryn Austin (PhD candidate, University of Texas at Dallas) and guest speaker Sarah Kwiatek (Lab Manager and Research Technician, Duke University) for the last session
Hosts: Fernanda Andrade (Duke University) & Katie Austin (University of Texas at Dallas)
The presenter will share some tips and tricks that have been helpful for the presenter to maximize the return of two key resources for graduate students and researchers, time and funding.
Host: Hui Bai (Stanford University)
Are you considering a career outside academia? Or curious about industry research? In this session we will chat about the benefits and downsides of the different careers, including how they relate to data access, scientific rigor, ethics, and any other topics you'd like to discuss.
This session is primarily for early career researchers who are considering a switch, as well as any career stage researchers who may want to collaborate with industry researchers.
Host: Maarten Bos (Snap Inc.)
Posting preprints online allows researchers to get feedback, speed dissemination, and make their work open access (i.e., freely available on the public internet). This session will aim to help people learn about and feel comfortable with using preprints to suit their needs with a given manuscript. The session will also cover some technical aspects of posting preprints, like choosing a license or strategic file naming.
This session will be useful for many people, including people who are unsure about the benefits of open access or preprints, people who want to learn tips about posting preprints in ways that maximize their use, and people who love preprints and want to talk about them with other people who love preprints.
Host: Hannah Moshontz (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
In this session, the section leaders review qualitative and quantitative research that can be done with Reddit, going over the details of the platform and best practices for conducting research on Reddit, be it qualitative or quantitative, Big Data or more focused analyses. The goal of the session is for attendees to come away with a working understanding of what Reddit can (and can't) be used for as far as psychological research is concerned. Anyone interested should attend!
Hosts: Quinnehtukqut McLamore (U Mass Amherst) & Kate Blackburn (University of Texas at Austin)
When people talk about "climate scientists" they usually don't mean personality and social psychologists - yet. Let's change that. With some creativity, so much of our research - whether basic or applied - has potential to meaningfully inform how our societies address the climate crisis. Even if so far you feel like you know very little about "environmental issues" you are an expert in our field. In this conversation, we will share big and small ways we have or hope to incorporate discussions of the climate emergency into our classes, barriers, and creative ideas for doing it anyway. Though challenges on this scale bring to surface a profound sense of powerlessness, it's also true that as teachers we have great potential for shaping how students learn, frame, and act upon these issues. Let's begin exchanging ideas about how you might incorporate teaching about the climate crisis in your upcoming personality/social classes, and specifically how theory and findings from our subfields could be used to offer new perspectives on this wicked problem that affects us all. We will brainstorm ideas in small groups for imperfect right next actions you might take starting as soon as next semester.
Host: Benita Jackson (Smith College)
Perhaps you're thinking about bolstering your CV for the academic job market and/or maybe you really need funding for a neat project you hope to lead. What funding opportunities are there for junior scholars in Canada (especially where you can be PI or co-PI)? In this session we'll talk about some of the ways you can scrounge up funding for your projects and start building a record of your abilities to obtain external funding.
Hosts: Shayna Skakoon-Sparling (Ryerson University) & Kaitlyn Werner (University of Toronto)
