Tag Archives: graduate school

Reflections on #APA2024 from APAGS Leaders, Volunteers, and First Time Attendees

Didn’t make it to APA 2024 in Seattle this year? Make sure to join us next year in Denver, CO! It is never too early to start planning — consider submitting a program proposal for a poster or session to APAGS. There may be a chance for you to receive a registration waiver as a first author of an accepted program or poster. Look for information on the APAGS Call for Proposals coming out in the Fall.

Here are some reflections from our APAGS members about their time at APA2024.

Karla Giron, APAGS Ambassador

“Browsing through Browsing through the convention agenda days before it started, I was excited at the thought of meeting like-minded individuals, seeing plenty of innovative research ideas, and being surrounded by the buzz of energy from the APA convention. This would be my first time in Seattle and my first time attending an APA convention!”

Some of my Convention highlights:

Erasure and Consequences: The Hidden Toll of Marginalized Psychologists’ Exclusion

A Critical Conversation led by Dr. Konjit Page from Fielding Graduate University in which Dr. Page discussed her experience taking and teaching the History & Systems course required of clinical/counseling psychology programs. She notes that the curriculum is largely outdated and omits the impact of psychologists from marginalized communities. Omitting these individuals hinders the development of psychologists, inhibits growth within the field of psychology, and fails to address the needs of BIPOC communities.With these concerns in mind, Dr. Page restructured her course to center BIPOC psychologists from the last 20 years who have made significant contributions to the field.

Grant Writing for Graduate Students: Identifying Opportunities and Crafting Competitive Applications

This session provided advice on how to apply for grants as a graduate student. This session was so packed that attendees were standing to the side and even sitting on the floor. I believe this speaks to the importance of grant funding availability to graduate students!

Some helpful tips I gathered from the session:

  • Do not limit yourself to psychology grants, as many other grants may fit your specific research interests. Search also for similar topics, like mental health, or specific methodologies that apply to your research.
  • Utilize search engines to your advantage – search for program announcements (PAs) and requests for proposals (RFPs)
  • Look at the CVs of people you admire and see what grants they have received!
  • The APAGS Psychological Science Research Grant (PSRG) is a great opportunity for funding! – https://www.apa.org/about/awards/apags-science?tab=1 

Some other activities/events that inspired me:

  • Volunteering for Division 17’s Liberation Lounge
  • Attending Division 44 poster sessions
  • A symposium on documenting immigrant trauma and another on advancing social equity in psychological science. 
  • Meet Your Leaders events were a great opportunity to meet other psychology graduate students outside of my home program and learn about student leadership opportunities.
  • And off course I also strolled through the Solutions Center – an enormous space filled with booths, books, activities, and all kinds of giveaways.

I had a great experience at the 2024 APA Convention and will be looking forward to APA 2025 in Denver, CO!

Matt Hutnyan, APAGS Science Committee Member

“In August, I attended the APA annual convention for the first time. It was an excellent opportunity to meet leaders in our field, learn about advancements in psychological science, share research and professional knowledge, and connect with many peers who are engaged in inspiring research, advocacy, and clinical work.”

Some highlights included hearing from keynote speakers on important topics such as loneliness and artificial intelligence, engaging in conversations with early career psychologists, and enjoying the beautiful Pacific Northwest landscape and the city of Seattle.

Sitting in my hotel room after a long three days, I jotted down a few takeaways from my experience to share with the APAGS community:

1. Diversify your itinerary. As is true in investing, diversifying your itinerary is key to a successful convention experience. APA offers a wide variety of programming — opportunities to hear about cutting edge research, network with other students, professionals, and community members, build skills, engage in critical conversations, and so on. For those who are research-oriented like me, it can be tempting to focus on keynotes, symposia, and poster sessions. I also talked with folks who were most excited to socialize and engage in informal networking and professional development opportunities. Balance is key. Although I went into APA most excited for specific divisional events and talks focused on research and clinical practice, I thoroughly enjoyed social hours and learned a lot at informal discussions about professional issues in psychology.

2. Don’t overcommit. When APA publishes the full program, it can be overwhelming. There are hundreds of events. With so much programming, it can be easy as an eager first-time attendee to fill every hour of the day. The initial draft of my itinerary, for example, had me in a chair from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the first day of the convention. As I quickly realized, convention is tiring. By noon, I was ready for a break. Actively listening, talking, presenting posters and papers, and walking around all day can take a toll physically and emotionally. It’s crucial to build in time to relax, eat, have a coffee break, go for a walk, connect with friends, browse the exhibitor and APA booths, and to explore the city. I would recommend anchoring your schedule around your presentation(s) if you have any and choosing a few nonnegotiable sessions each day that excite you the most. Let the rest of your schedule be flexible and build in time for yourself.

3. Take a chance. The thought of engaging with hundreds of people can be overwhelming for most of us. Creating balance in your itinerary and space for yourself to rest, relax, and reflect may reduce stress and anxiety that you might experience during the convention. It is also important to believe in yourself and to take chances with the goal of making the most of your time. Introducing yourself to someone new, asking for someone’s email, going to a session outside of your primary area of study, or asking a question during a presentation may be daunting. Exploring discomfort with these sorts of actions may be helpful and engaging in them can create unexpected connections and opportunities. For example, I attended a speed-mentoring event hosted by a division that I’m not a member of. I was nervous and didn’t know what to expect. I even considered not attending at the last-minute. To my surprise, I had mutual connections with some of the mentors, learned a ton about career development, and met leading professionals I wouldn’t have otherwise. Stepping outside of your comfort zone can create exciting opportunities, especially in the context of APA where there are so many people to meet and so much to learn.

APA 2025 will be here before you know it. I look forward to another great convention next year in Denver (August 7-9), and I hope to see you there!

Data Sharing and Code Commenting: Best Practices for Graduate Students

Scientific computing has become increasingly important in psychological science research. However, proper data management and techniques related to analytic workflow are rarely directly taught to graduate students. This short piece highlights a few best practices for data sharing and code commenting that can be incorporated as a graduate student to facilitate data reproducibility and replicability.

Why Should I Share My Data and Code?

Based on concerns of poor self-correction in psychological science (Klein et al., 2018; Open Science Collaboration, 2015), much attention has been drawn to the replicability crisis, also known as the “credibility revolution” (Vazaire, 2018). Accordingly, the open science movement has strengthened the scientific community’s expectation of access to key components of research (e.g., protocols, resources, data, and analysis software code) in order to assess, validate, and replicate prior research (Ioannidis, 2012). Data sharing is one of several key practices research organizations and major funders have begun to mandate (Houtkoop et al., 2018). Despite this, data sharing remains quite rare in the psychological sciences, due to two primary reasons:

  • 1) a lack of knowledge on how to get started
  • 2) researchers are unaware of the benefits of data sharing or may not be confident in the quality of their data

Here, we will be focusing on the latter concern, however, for specific guidelines on how to prepare and share your data, see Klein et al. (2018).

Benefits of Data and Code Sharing

When a researcher makes their data and code widely available, they are, in effect, endorsing:

  • analytic reproducibility (i.e., statistical analyses that can be re-run to detect unintended errors or bias and verify the logic and sequence of data analysis steps; Hardwicke et al., 2018, Wilson et al., 2017)
  • analytic robustness (i.e., alternative analytic decisions that may be used to verify results)
  • analytic replication (i.e., replication of the same analytic steps with new data to investigate generalizability; Houtkoop, 2018)

Importance of Code Commenting

Data sharing should be, however, the bare minimum. Above and beyond this, making your data management and analysis code publicly available, requires that the code be readable (i.e., understandable) and reproducible. There are some basic scientific computing practices that ensure research is not just reproducible, but also efficient, transparent, and accessible in the future (Cruwell et al., 2019). As an example, one way to ensure analytic code can be easily understood, is to provide a detailed, commented version of the code. When you have to come back to modify or review the code you wrote weeks, months, or even years ago, will you be able to remember what you did and what that code means? Even more important, will other people be able to understand what you did? Within an open science framework, it’s essential for other people to be able to easily interpret your code for data quality checks and reproducibility. Although incorporating code comments may seem tedious at the time,  the long run benefits afforded to your future self, your peers, your co-authors, and other researchers in the field cannot be understated.

How to Comment your Code

Now that we covered the why, let’s talk about the what. Here are some concrete steps to take when addressing your code (adapted from Wilson et al., 2017). First, create a commented-out section, i.e., the “header”, at the top of your code. Here, create an overview of your project to self-reference. List the project title, filename, the co-authors, a description of the purpose (e.g., initialization, data cleaning, analysis) and any dependencies including required input data files, software version, and calendar date.

Then insert a table of contents that describes the sections of the code. An example table of contents can include:

  • 1) Loading in Data and Libraries
  • 2) Descriptive Statistics
  • 3) Preliminary Analysis
  • 4) Main Analysis for Aim 1
  • 5) Main Analysis for Aim 2
  • 5) Sensitivity Analysis
  • 6) Tables

Adjust this based on your project, your aims, and your workflow. It might also be helpful to include a list of all the variable names and a brief description of each variable in the dataset at the top of the code.

Next, it’s important to record all the steps used to process the data. Find out how to make a comment in the code in the software you are using (e.g., SAS, R). Place a brief explanatory comment at the start of a data step or analytic move. 

***An example of commented out code in SAS:

/* Load in Library */
libname gradPSYCH 'N/project/APAGS/data';

/* Designate data */
data APAGS; set gradPSYCH.AGAPS; run;

/* See Contents of Data File */
proc contents data=APAGS; run;

If you carefully comment chunks of functionally-related code, i.e., writing out what you are doing and why, other researchers, and your future self, will be able to easily reproduce your data steps.

Final Thoughts

As a scientist, being committed to open science means engaging in responsible data management techniques, embracing transparency, and preparing your data for a reproducible research workflow. Publicly sharing data as well as a well-organized, carefully commented data management and analytic code that enables other researchers to engage in analytic reproducibility, analytic robustness, and analytic replication is a good start. Overall, these practices will also improve your personal research efficiency and external credibility.

References

  • Crüwell, S., van Doorn, J., Etz, A., Makel, M. C., Moshontz, H., Niebaum, J. C., Orben, A., Parsons, S., & Schulte-Mecklenbeck, M. (2019). Seven easy steps to open science: An annotated reading list. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 227(4), 237-248. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000387
  • Hardwicke, T. E., Mathur, M. B., MacDonald, K. E., Nilsonne, G., Banks, G. C., Kidwell, M., … Frank, M. C. (2018, March 19). Data availability, reusability, and analytic reproducibility: Evaluating the impact of a mandatory open data policy at the journal Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180448
  • Houtkoop BL, Chambers C, Macleod M, Bishop DVM, Nichols TE, Wagenmakers E-J. (2018). Data Sharing in Psychology: A Survey on Barriers and Preconditions. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science.;1(1):70-85. doi:10.1177/2515245917751886
  • Ioannidis, J. P. (2012). Why science is not necessarily self-correcting. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(6), 645-654.
  • Klein, O., Hardwicke, T. E., Aust, F., Breuer, J., Danielsson, H., Mohr, A. H., Ijzerman, H., Nilsonne, G., Vanpaemel, W., & Frank, M. C. (2018). A Practical Guide for Transparency in Psychological Science. Collabra: Psychology, 4(1), 20. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.158
  • Open Science Collaboration. Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science.Science349,aac4716(2015).DOI:10.1126/science.aac4716
  • Vazire S. (2018). Implications of the Credibility Revolution for Productivity, Creativity, and Progress. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 13(4), 411–417. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617751884
  • Wilson, G., Bryan, J., Cranston, K., Kitzes, J., Nederbragt, L., & Teal, T. K. (2017). Good enough practices in scientific computing. PLOS Computational Biology, 13(6), e1005510. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005510

Revive and Thrive: Reclaiming Balance After the “Academic Grind”

As the semester draws to a close, graduate students can often find themselves teetering on the edge of burnout, their mental and emotional reserves drained by the relentless demands of academia. It’s a familiar narrative, marked by sleepless nights, endless deadlines, and the perpetual pursuit of perfection. In fact, according to the American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2021 Work and Well-being Survey, 79% of individuals reported experiencing some form of work-related stress, with 3 in 5 participants noting negative impacts from work such as apathy, reduced energy, or decreased motivation. Yet, amidst the chaos of the academic year, a glimmer of hope emerges – an opportunity to reclaim balance, restore vitality, and rediscover the joy of simply being in the summer. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore the phenomenon of burnout among graduate students, offering insights and strategies to navigate the treacherous waters of academic exhaustion. From practical self-care tips to rejuvenating hobbies for the summer months ahead, we’ll arm you with the tools you need to replenish your spirit and emerge more vital than ever. 

So, take a deep breath and let’s embark on this journey together. It’s time to prioritize your well-being, nurture your passions, and embark on a path of self-discovery. Are you ready? 

What is burnout?  

In an APA Speaking of Psychology podcast, Dr. Christina Maslach describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon that embodies a triadic manifestation: (1) Pervasive stress and exhaustion, (2) a manifestation of cynicism and hostility toward one’s work environment, and (3) a profound sense of personal inefficacy (Mills, 2021). Distinguished from mere stress and exhaustion, burnout is characterized by the chronic and simultaneous presence of all three aforementioned components – exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. This distinction is paramount, as it delineates a condition wherein individuals, despite potentially enjoying their work, find themselves grappling with an overwhelming workload (Mills, 2021). 

Stressors that can lead to burnout can encompass environmental and personal factors, which can overwhelm students who lack effective coping mechanisms. Burnout often manifests through symptoms like chronic fatigue, decreased motivation, and detachment from work (Clay, 2018). The demanding nature of graduate studies, such as tight deadlines, heavy workloads, and limited resources coupled with the pressure to excel academically and professionally, can exacerbate feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. However, it’s crucial to recognize that burnout is not an inevitable consequence of academic pursuits; rather, it signals that self-care and proactive coping strategies are essential. In the following sections, we’ll explore various techniques and practices, including self-care rituals, engaging hobbies, and reflective journaling, to empower graduate students to combat burnout and cultivate resilience.

Self-Care Rituals

Amidst the hustle of graduate life and even working through the summer, carving out time for self-care may seem like a luxury reserved for the privileged few. However, it is crucial to recognize that self-care is not a selfish indulgence but a fundamental necessity. Recognizing that self-care can be an accessibility issue, here are some activities that APA recommends that are primarily low-cost and easy for graduate students to incorporate (Clay, 2018): 

  1. Limit screen time
  2. Catch up on sleep
  3. Prioritize more nutritious foods
  4. Reconnect with loved ones/your community 
  5. Delegate responsibilities 
  6. Go on a trip
  7. Start your nighttime routine again 

Hobbies to try 

As summer is on the horizon and the weight of academia begins to lift, there’s no better time to explore new avenues of joy and fulfillment. Engaging in hobbies not only offers a welcome respite from the rigors of graduate studies but also provides a much-needed opportunity for self-expression and exploration. Whether immersing yourself in the soothing strokes of a paintbrush, losing yourself in the pages of a captivating novel, or embracing the therapeutic rhythm of a yoga practice, the world is brimming with possibilities waiting to be discovered. Below are some new hobbies to try: 

  1. Photography
  2. Gardening
  3. Hiking 
  4. Kickboxing
  5. Cooking/baking
  6. Knitting/crocheting 
  7. Pilates

Questions to Reflect on:

As graduate students’ workload begins to slow, it’s the perfect time to get back in tune with our thoughts, feelings, and aspirations. Reflection journaling offers a sacred space for unraveling the tapestry of our experiences, inviting us to pause, ponder, and gain clarity. Below are some questions to reflect on for the summer to measure how your academic year went and set goals for the next one!

  1. How am I measuring success? How did I see this play out during the school year? 
  2. How did I prioritize self-care and well-being this year? What practices were most effective? 
  3. How can I apply the lessons learned from this semester to improve my academic performance and well-being as a grad student?  

As the academic year comes to an end, it’s important to remember that resilience is not merely about weathering storms but also finding strength and growth amidst stress. By prioritizing self-care, embracing rejuvenating hobbies, and engaging in reflective practices, graduate students can equip themselves with the tools and strategies needed to navigate the challenges of academia with grace and resilience. For more resources from APA, see below! 

APAGS Related Blog Posts: 

7 Tips to Help Create a Positive Mental Attitude
Self-Care on a Student Budget
Year-by-Year Self-Care for Graduate Students: Part 1 of 4

APA Monitor on Psychology: 

Speaking of Psychology:

Why we are burned out and what to do about it, with Christina Maslach, PhD

About the Author:

Lauryn Hoard is a second-year clinical psychology graduate student at George Washington University and is the current intern for the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS). Her current research interests pertain to examining the effects of offline and online racial discrimination and protective factors in Black Americans. When she is not doing work, she is either running, doing Pilates, trying new foods, reading a book, or watching a documentary. 

References

American Psychological Association. (2021). The American workforce faces compounding pressure. https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-well-being/compounding-pressure-2021

Clay, R. A. (2018, February). Are you burned out? Here are signs and what to do about them. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/02/ce-corner

Mills, K. (2021, July). Why We’re Burned out and What to do about it, with Christina Maslach, PhD (No.152) [Audio podcast episode]. In Wireman, L. (Producer) & Mills, K. (Host), Speaking of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/burnout

Announcing the 2024 APAGS PSRG Grant Winners!

Every year, graduate students apply for $1,000 worth of funding to provide support for their psychological research endeavors through the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) Psychological Science Research Grant (PSRG). This year, we are proud to provide $12,000 of funding in $1,000 increments: $9,000 awarded to student researchers with an additional $3,000 awarded to innovative research dedicated to topics on diversity and inclusion. I am incredibly excited to announce the winners of our 2024 PSRG Grant applications!

Here are PSRG winners for the general category:

Christopher Gomez aims to investigate the relationship between exposure to community violence and experiences of peer conflict among Latino youth and how these experiences are related to changes in daily negative affect and peer conflict. Additionally, this study seeks to explore the mediating role of daily negative affect and peer conflict on the relationship between community violence exposure and school engagement.

Jill Smokoski proposes a mixed-methods study which aims to provide an overview of associations between racial trauma symptomology and key aspects of parenting. Qualitative interviewing will be used to allow for a greater understanding of how caregivers’ experiences of racial trauma shape their parenting beliefs and behaviors.

Jenna Stadheim plans to understand the experience of young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when enrolled in college by elucidating how symptoms are expressed and change over a year of college. Further, Jenna aims to compare these individuals’ experiences with substance use when compared to peers without ASD or ADHD.

Kevin Summers seeks to highlight the impact of racial and ethnic identity on inaccurately identifying children and adolescents as older than they really are, or “adultification.” Kevin plans to identify the identify the primary modalities in which the adultification of children might occur, while investigating the boundaries of adultification across racial and ethnic identities and age.

Sarah Dolan proposes a study to investigate the relationship between eating disorder symptoms and motivation for reward in women with and without loss-of-control eating. Sarah aims to test whether individuals with self-reported symptoms of an eating disorder differ significantly in their responses on tasks in the presence of food versus monetary rewards when compared to other populations.

Meghan Evans aims to understand the relationship between former foster youths’ current resilience and the perceived cultural humility and trauma-informed parenting of their poster parents. Meghan seeks to shed light on the importance of incorporating culturally humble and trauma-informed parenting approaches in foster parent training.

Celine Lu and co-PI Wendy Chu seek to examine the impact of an applicant’s intersectional race and mental health disclosures on graduate school admissions decisions. This team also aims to understand factors in evaluating applicants who disclose such details in their application paperwork and explore how faculty-level variables influence graduate admission decisions.

Elyssa Barrick proposes a study to establish the role of theory of mind in omniscience errors, or errors about another person’s knowledge. Additionally, Elyssa aims to investigate omniscience errors in individuals with autism spectrum disorder to further identify the strengths and weaknesses of theory of mind ability.

Zainab Shabbir seeks to understand the role of phenotypical characteristics on self-categorization choices among multiracial individuals. This study aims to further understand ethnic-racial identity development in multiracial individuals.

Here are the three diversity grant winners:

Qingyi Zhang proposes a grounded theory study to investigate the experiences of mattering and anti-mattering among Chinese international students in the United States. In doing so, this study aims to identify interpersonal experiences that enhance or deter Chinese international students’ feelings of mattering and anti-mattering, along with how these experiences are influenced by cultural factors and are associated with psychological well-being and sense of belonging.

Bek Urban aims to fill an existing gap in current literature by working to understand eating pathology in the trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and otherwise gender expansive (TNB) community. To do so, Bek plans to validate a new scale to measure the multifaceted nature of eating pathology in this population.

Adrienne Jankowski plans to evaluate the use of specific attention-based tests for the potential utilization as cognitive performance validity testing. Further, Adrienne aims to evaluate potential invariances to racial and ethnic language differences when completing the task.


As always, thank you to all the PSRG reviewers and the members of the APAGS Science Committee for dedicating their time and efforts to reviewing proposals and identifying winners. Be on the lookout for information on next year’s application process if you are interested in applying for future funding!

Tackling Student Debt: Loan Repayment Options for Psychologists to Explore

By Megha Nagaswami, MA

You’ve worked hard to learn new skills, take classes, and gain experience for your future career in psychology. With graduation from a master’s or doctoral program in the U.S. comes new opportunities, excitement, and … worry about repaying your loans. Student loans can seem like a daunting obstacle to overcome, especially as a brand new graduate. What you may not know is that there are many federal programs designed to help support recent graduates in psychology. Keep reading to learn more about these loan repayment options!

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program benefits psychologists who work for qualified public service providers. For those who meet the employment criteria, the remaining balance of their student loan is forgiven after making 10 years of qualifying payments. Since the program began in 2007, a total of $10 billion in loans have been forgiven for 175,000 individuals. There are many eligible qualified public service providers, such as government groups and certain non-profit organizations.

Heads up! In October 2022, the Limited PSLF Waiver Opportunity expired. As of October 31, 2022, certain types of payments or loan types will no longer be counted towards PSLF repayments. However, additional changes, providing more flexibilities for PSLF eligibility, went into effect in July 2023. More information about the specific changes to PSLF policy can be found here and here.

NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs)

The NIH LRP is designed to help scientists with doctoral-level degrees pursue careers in research. Through the program, psychologists can have up to $50,000 of their student loans forgiven each year for two years (up to $100,000). In exchange, you must commit to at least two years of research. You can apply to the LRP as an independent researcher or a mentored researcher.

Health Resources and Services Administration Loan Repayment Programs

HRSA has a number of loan repayment programs that include behavioral health professions such psychologists. Several of them are through the National Health Service Corps, under which health service psychologists are an eligible professional.

The links below include all of the loan repayment programs for which behavioral health professions are eligible.

Learn more about managing student debt through other APA resources:

About the author: Megha Nagaswami, M.A., is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been a member of the APAGS Advocacy Coordinating Team (ACT) since 2022. Please contact Megha if you have any questions about this blog post or about the Advocacy Coordinating Team.