Tag Archives: Mitch Prinstein

APAGS Tribute to Raymond D. Fowler

On March 17, 2015, Raymond D. Fowler, PhD, former CEO and past president of the American Psychological Association, passed away at his home in San Diego, CA. APAGS is indebted to Ray, who was instrumental in the founding of APAGS.

Ray Fowler awarding Karen O'Brien with the Fowler Award at the 1997 APA Convention, Chicago, IL.

Ray Fowler awarding Karen O’Brien with the Fowler Award at the 1997 APA Convention, Chicago, IL. Then Chair Mitch Prinstein is in the background.

In 1988, two students, Scott Mesh and David Pilon, were working with two psychologists, Ellin Bloch (Chair of Division 29’s Student Development Committee) and Pierre Ritchie (President of the Ontario Psychological Association) to encourage APA to develop a home for students within the organization. That year, Ray spoke at the Ontario Psychological Association’s annual meeting, and a snowstorm delayed his return home. During that extra evening, Pierre and David were successful in getting Ray’s support to create a student organization within APA. With the support of the 4 leaders, Ray secured additional interest among APA leadership for the new student group, and at the 1988 APA Convention, APAGS was founded by a unanimous Council vote (Mook, 1996).

Ray Fowler awarding Mitch Prinstein with the Fowler Award at the 2009 APA Convention, Toronto, ON.

Ray Fowler awarding Mitch Prinstein with the Fowler Award at the 2009 APA Convention, Toronto, ON.

When Ray became CEO of APA, he continued to support APAGS. He regularly visited APAGS during its business meetings, served as a mentor to numerous student leaders, and spoke at the Psychology Graduate Student Rally on Capitol Hill in August 2000. APAGS established an award for mentoring named in Ray’s honor in 1989 and presented Ray with the first APAGS Fowler Award. Since then, 26 faculty members have been honored with the highest award APAGS can bestow. Ray would come to APAGS events to personally recognize the winning mentor.

Ray Fowler with Nabil El-Ghoroury, 2010 APA Convention, San Diego, CA

Ray Fowler with Nabil El-Ghoroury (Director of APAGS) at the 2010 APA Convention, San Diego, CA. This is the last APA Convention where Ray awarded the Fowler Award to the winning mentor.

 

I feel lucky that I knew you, Ray, when I was a graduate student leader in the early APAGS days. On behalf of over 26,000 current graduate student members, I would like to thank you for your constant support of APAGS and graduate students in APA! So many APAGS members benefited from your wisdom and generosity, and our condolences to your family.

 

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!

 

IMG_6725Sunday, 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.

Are you ready to rank? Seven tips from now until next week

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????If you are participating in APPIC’s internship match system, you have likely experienced a demanding few months. You may find yourself wondering if the exhaustion is a sign you did something right, or just the profession’s odd way of saying “thank you” for your hard work.

The good news is that the end of this process is in sight with just a few more hurdles to clear. Next up: Ranking. You have until Wednesday February 5th to submit your ranking lists for Phase I. Finally, something you can control. Feels good, right? Yeah right!

To help you in any way we can, APAGS compiled some tips for you, taken directly from the third edition of our Internship Workbook by Carol Williams-Nickelson, PsyD, Mitch Prinstein, PhD, and Greg Keilin, PhD.

  1. “The most important thing to remember is to simply rank internship programs in the order in which you want them. That is all you need to worry about” (p. 102). Rank the program you prefer most as number one, and so on.
  2. “Do not, under any circumstances, take into account such things as how you believe a site is ranking you, how well you think you have impressed a site, the feedback that you are getting from a site, and so forth” (p. 102). Even if a site violates Match policies and tells you that they’re ranking you their #1, if they are not your #1, don’t list them as such.
  3. The matching program is designed to favor you — to preference your needs and wishes — allowing you to rank sites as you would them, not the other way around. The system will strive to get you the highest ranked site possible from your list, not the other way around. A site will never learn where it stood on your list.
  4. Rank a site even if you’re not sure they will rank you. There is no penalty for doing so. The computer will skip over that site on your list with no reduction in changes of you actually matching. Even if you’ve learned from a site after you’ve submitted your rankings that they will not rank you, the same truism applies. No penalty.
  5. “You should submit [a Rank Order List] if you are absolutely, positively, 100% sure that you are ready to accept the internship to which you are matched” (p. 103). Because the decision is binding, you should think twice about ranking a site that you’d rather stay on campus instead of attending.
  6. The specific order of your rankings will only determine where you match, not whether you match (p. 80). In other words, if you match, it has nothing to do with your list. This also means that if you don’t match with list in ABCD order, you would not have matched with a list in BCDA order either.
  7. Remember when the lights went out on Beyonce’s halftime show at the Superbowl last year? Well, anything’s possible, including loss of electricity and internet. Don’t wait until the last minute! While you can change your mind and rank and recertify until the deadline, give yourself some peace of mind and celebrate knowing you got your choices in!

Best wishes. Breathe. Let us know in the comments what you are doing to take care of yourself this week!

Tips for Interviewing for Internship by Dr. Mitch Prinstein

If you’re applying for internship this year, you’ve probably submitted most of your applications for internship by now and are anxiously awaiting emails and phone calls from internship training directors inviting you for an interview.

While you’re waiting for those emails, here are some great tips by Dr. Mitch Prinstein, co-author of the APAGS internship workbook Internships in Psychology.  This is a PowerPoint slideshow with Dr. Prinstein speaking over the slides.

If you want more information on interviewing, the workbook has more details.