Yearly Archives: 2014

Five Reasons to Go To Convention

Going to Convention is an important graduate school experience. There are lots of benefits, and not just for the reasons your professors tell you!

1- Exposure to a wide variety of content

Yes, this is one of the reasons faculty say that Convention is important, but it’s true; Convention gives you the chance to hear perspectives of other psychologists who you don’t see every day. You might even have the chance to hear one of your psychology idols present. If you see a presentation you like, take the opportunity to introduce yourself to the presenter. More than likely they will be happy to talk about their line of research and point you in the direction of additional material you will find interesting.

2- Networking

The APA Convention boasts the largest concentration of Psychologists in North America (probably). What better place to hunt for future employment? Whether you have your dream job in mind or you need to work out what your dream job is, Convention is the place to do it. The phrase “network to get work” always sounded cliché to me… until I landed a job because of conference networking!

3- Get Experience Convention-ing

Do you feel like a tiny fish in a huge ocean when you go to conferences? Are you intimidated by the sheer size of the Convention Program book? It sounds like you have Convention Anxiety Disorder (DSM VII, pending), a common condition for many Convention attendees. You’ll spend the rest of your career attending one kind of conference or another, so what do you do? Why not come to Convention, one of the only conferences that has programming for students, by students specifically designed to ease you into Convention? Check out the APAGS Making the Most of Convention session (for tips and tricks about navigating Convention), or the Flying Solo Social (for students attending Convention alone to connect with each other). You’ll be a seasoned Convention-er in no time.

4- Excuse for a vacation

For busy graduate students, the excuse to travel to another city can be a mini-vacation (without the guilt of being away from your computer; Convention attendance counts as professional development after all). Convention is always in a big city with lots of interesting local sites to go visit, especially this year. There will be plenty to see in DC and many of the sites are free. Take some time before, after, or even during Convention to explore a little. If you register for Convention you will receive the APAGS Survival Guide which will outline many recommended sites and their pricing.

APAGS 2013 Social at the Hotel Modern in Honolulu, HI

5- The APAGS social

And now the real reason to come to Convention! The APAGS Convention Committee and staff always work incredibly hard to throw an awesome social for graduate students- and, not to brag, but we nail it. Hanging with old friends, meeting new ones, letting loose and having a good time is always the best part of my Convention. This year is sure to be legendary- located at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on August 7th. Be sure you don’t miss it!

Research – Get Involved!

Getting involved in research is an important and often necessary way to get prepared for graduate school in psychology. Research opportunities are usually available as long as you know where to look. Every year numerous students ask me questions about research opportunities – I hope this helps our blog readers better understand how to navigate this process.

Where to look for research opportunities

A great place to begin looking is your academic department’s website. I always encourage my students to read the faculty members’ profiles on our department’s website. This will help you get an idea of the research interests of your faculty. Decide which faculty members’ interests best match your interests. Then email the faculty member asking if you can meet with them to discuss their research and ways you might be able to get involved. Some faculty members will let you know they are not currently accepting any new students to their labs, other faculty members might not have research teams but might be willing to collaborate on a project with you. Some will immediately invite you to the next research team meeting, and some will schedule a meeting for you to come in and discuss your interests and determine your fit to the team.

If for some reason you are not able to join a research team with one of your department’s faculty, don’t hesitate to look outside of your department. I have a large research team of 15 students and half of these students are not from my department. If you plan to pursue research opportunities outside of your department you would do so similarly to how I’ve described looking for research opportunities in your department: think about fields of study you are interested in, go to that department’s website to read about faculty research interests, and then email faculty members.

Why finding research experience is important

Research is very important to the field of psychology. Psychologists are consumers of research, as our clinical work is influenced by research findings. Psychologists are also researchers, as research is the force that propels the field forward. Considering that research is important to the field, it is an important aspect of graduate training. If you plan to apply to graduate school in psychology, research experience helps graduate programs assess your preparedness for graduate training. Your involvement on a research team demonstrates your authentic interest in research and it suggests that you have more advanced skills than students who do not have research team experience. When reviewing doctoral applications for admission to the doctoral program I work in, I am always evaluating the applicant’s previous research experience.

So now that you know that getting involved in research is an important thing to do, you might be wondering what you will be getting yourself into. Being an active member on a research team can be very rewarding (I promise!).

First, something that should not be discounted, you gain exposure to the research process. I have found that some students have misconceptions about what research is and conclude that they are not interested in research because of this misinformation. In reality, research is very exciting, intellectually stimulating, and a strong vehicle for promoting social justice (get involved to find out how)!
Secondly, you can gain training and firsthand experience on how to conduct a research study from start to finish. You learn how to design a study (e.g., create research questions and hypotheses, select measures, review literature, etc.). You can gain experience in data collection, data entry, data analyses, manuscript writing, grant writing, and presenting research in public forums and at professional conferences.

If you are an undergraduate…Fundamentally, participation on a research team provides exposure to the research process. Having a history of participation in research gives you a strong background for entrance to graduate school. Participation on a research team also provides a way to network with professors. These professors will be great candidates to write letters of recommendation for graduate school or future employment.

If you are a master’s student…Research experience will be helpful when you conduct your own independent research (i.e., master’s thesis). Research team experience also helps you compete for entry in doctoral programs that have a scientist-practitioner model of training. Admissions to doctoral level graduate programs typically involve an assessment of your research interests and skills. Applicants are typically asked to talk about their research experience, and what they did specifically on past research teams. Participation in research with professors other than your advisor is a great way to learn alternate views of what research looks like, and is a great way to ensure strong letters of recommendation for future endeavors.

If you are a doctoral student…Research experience prepares you for your doctoral thesis, and helps an advanced student learn how to go about assembling her own research team to gather dissertation data. Research experience also helps in the realm of professional development by giving doctoral students the opportunity to present research at professional conferences and participate in the publication of manuscripts in scholarly journals. Research team experience prepares the soon-to-be-academic for assembly of their own research team once tenure track employment begins (there is life after grad-school)!

My hope is that you are thinking about research and how you can (need) to get involved. Involvement in research is critical in shaping the next generation of researchers – you!

Editor’s note: This post was written by Shannon Chavez-Korell, PhD; Assistant Professor, Counseling Psychology; University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It originally appeared on the Multicultural Mentoring blog by the Society of Clinical Psychology’s Section on the Clinical Psychology of Ethnic Minorities. (APA Division 12, Section 6). It is reposted here with generous permission. Over time, you will see all eight original posts on gradPSYCH Blog.

The Academic Hunger Games: Are the Odds in Your Favor?

One of my favorite movies of 2013 was Catching Fire, the film adaptation of the second book of the Hunger Games trilogy. Reflecting on this movie, I started to think about how graduate school could be seen as an academic version of the Hunger Games. For those of you who haven’t seen the movie or read the book, here’s a quick summary (please note there are spoilers throughout the column):

The Hunger Games are set in a dystopian future of the US (named Panem), where a central Capitol District has maintained power over 12 districts (e.g. states) that rebelled against the Capitol 75 years ago.
Districts have limited resources and people are kept starving and poor.
As a punishment to the districts for rebelling against the Capitol, each year the districts must provide one male and female teenager, known as tributes, to compete in the “Hunger Games”, which is a televised battle in which they fight to the death.
The last surviving tribute is the victor, who earns riches, a luxurious new home in their district, and becomes a mentor to future tributes from his/her district.
The books are told from the perspective of Katniss Everdeen, a teenage tribute and eventual co-victor (along with Peeta Mellark) from District 12, the poorest district of Panem. Her key to success was her excellence in archery, a skill she developed so she could hunt to feed her family.

At first glance, this sounds very different from graduate school. However, there may be more than meets the eye. There is growing evidence that there are not enough tenure track positions for all the doctorates being produced. Among all fields of study (including psychology), fewer graduates are landing tenure track positions. Universities are replacing more tenure track positions with adjunct instructors.

While harsh, the academic universe is not quite as bad as the world in the Hunger Games. The prize many victorious doctoral students want for surviving the rigors of graduate school is a tenure track position. While there are not enough faculty positions for every graduate, the ratio is probably better than 1 in 24, the odds in the Hunger Games.

So what can you do to improve your odds in the academic Hunger Games? Here are my thoughts:

Ally with your colleagues. Katniss survived both Hunger Games by building alliances with fellow tributes. How can you build alliances in graduate school? One way might be to develop collaborative projects with fellow students. Funding agencies are putting more preference to collaborative, large scale projects, and developing those relationships early in training can help you. In addition, you might be able to generate more publications by collaborating with colleagues.
Learn helpful skills. By being a great archer, Katniss was able to fend for herself in the Hunger Games and ultimately win. How can this apply to graduate study? Think about what skills could help you land your dream academic job. Departments are always looking for someone to teach statistics and research methods; getting experience in this while in graduate school could put the odds in your favor of landing a tenure track position. Other skills might include interdisciplinary knowledge or cutting edge research techniques (such as fMRI). Think about what skills you want to learn that could set yourself apart in a job application, and make a plan to learn those skills!
Advocate for more resources. One difference from the Hunger Games is that in the academic games we have the capacity to advocate for change. Increased funding for science research at the federal level and increased funding for public universities at the state level could change the playing field for doctoral education. You can make a change by responding to action alerts from APA and other psychology organizations.
Create an alternative path to victory. Finally, you don’t have to play the game the way we are expected to. In the first book, Katniss and Peeta refused to play the game as told, and were able to survive after threatening to kill themselves (which would deprive the games of a victor). Professors train us to become future faculty and some put down alternative career paths. However, if you don’t want to play the academic Hunger Games, your doctoral training gives you options that can take you out of the arena. For some, that is going into health service psychology (getting licensed and practicing). For others, it could mean nontraditional careers. The Odd Jobs column in gradPSYCH features psychologists in unique job settings, such as Cirque du Soleil, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, or Wikimedia Foundation. With a doctorate in psychology, you have a skill set that can take you out of the arena and onto a different path. You don’t have to play the game that is presented in front of you!

Although graduate school may be tough and grueling, your future doesn’t have to be as hopeless as those in the Hunger Games. So build your skill set, cultivate alliances, and as they say in the Hunger Games, “May the odds be ever in your favor!”

Thinking About Getting Tested for HIV? 6 Reasons Why You Should

By David Martin, PhD, ABPP (Senior Director, APA Office on AIDS)

MP900386350[1] June 27 is National HIV Testing Day. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 be tested at least once as part of routine medical care. People who have vaginal or anal sex without using a condom or consistently taking Truvada (a medication that can prevent HIV infection if taken as prescribed) every day, or who share injection drug equipment with someone who has HIV should be tested more frequently (in fact, they should be tested at regular intervals anyway).

Read about 6 reasons why you should get tested on Psychology Benefits Society – A Blog from the APA Public Interest Directorate.

Convention Highlight- APAGS Food for Thought

One great part about Convention is the opportunity to mix and mingle with some of the most famous psychologists of our time. APAGS is proud to present its Food For Thought breakfasts. Each morning of Convention (Thursday-Sunday, 7:30-8:50am) the APAGS suite hosts free breakfast for graduate students and the opportunity to hear from prestigious psychologists. Here is a look at the speakers this year:

Thursday, August 7: Dr. Robert Levine

Dr. Levine has written two best-seller books on topics of time and persuasion. The first one, A Geography of Time, examines our perceptions of time in different cultures. He observes the cultural rules of time in different countries and delineates differences between nature time, event time, and clock time. His second book, The Power of Persuasion: How We’re Bought and Sold, analyzes how individuals can be persuaded if in the right circumstances. Besides these book topics, he is also interested in research on helping and kindness towards strangers, happiness, and the self. Get more information on his research.

Friday, August 8: Dr. Robert Sternberg

Dr. Sternberg may be best known for his triarchic theories of love and intelligence, but he has over 1,500 publications and other topics of interest including creativity, wisdom, thinking styles, hate, ethics, and leadership. He is a past president of APA and has held positions in universities as a Dean, Provost, and President. Get more information on Dr. Sternberg.

Saturday, August 9: Dr. Mitchell Prinstein

Dr. Prinstein’s research examines interpersonal models of internalizing symptoms and health risk behaviors among adolescents, with a specific focus on the unique role of peer relationships in the developmental psychopathology of depression and self-injury. He has co-written and edited several professional development books, blogs, and websites, including the APAGS Workbook on the internship selection process, now in its third edition, and The Portable Mentor, now in its second edition. Dr. Prinstein’s “uncensored advice” on the clinical psychology admissions process has been downloaded over 10,000 times. For over 14 years, Dr. Prinstein has organized a professional development seminar for graduate students, offering practical career advice on topics not typically covered in doctoral curricula. Find out more about Dr. Prinstein!

Sunday, August 10: APAGS Leadership

The final Food for Thought breakfast will introduce the APAGS leadership and these individuals will discuss what opportunities allowed them to become leaders and what their focus is on currently.

Editor’s note: Kelly Lee is a current member of the APAGS Convention Committee. She is a doctoral student at the University of Houston in the Counseling Psychology Department.