Convention Highlights

Congratulations to programs chairs Bill Froming and Jim Breckenridge from Palo Alto University, along with WPA President Delia Saenz, for inviting an outstanding group of distinguished psychologists who will be presenting talks on a variety of topics. The WPA student council, headed by graduate student representative Amanda Chiapa, is arranging for student conversation hours to follow several speakers. There will also be symposium, paper and poster sessions, the WPA Film Festival, Statistics Workshops, and special workshops and panels for students and teachers.

THURSDAY HIGHLIGHTS

Our first speaker on Thursday is David Myers. Dr. Myers (Hope College) is known for both his research and his popular textbooks. His research and writings have been recognized by the Gordon Allport Prize, by an "honored scientist" award from the Federation of Associations in the Brain and Behavioral Sciences, by the Award for Distinguished Service on Behalf of Personality-Social Psychology, and by three honorary doctorates. In recognition of his efforts to transform the way America provides assistive listening for people with hearing loss (see hearingloop.org) he received “the 2011 American Academy of Audiology Presidential Award.” His 10am talk is titled A Quiet World: The Psychology of Hearing and Hearing Loss.

Claude Steele from Stanford University will deliver the Thursday afternoon address: Remedying Stereotype Threat. Dr. Steele, known for his pioneering work on social identities and the impact of stereotype threat, will focus on strategies for reducing this threat. His most recent book is Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do.

Also on Thursday, Dr. William Froming from Palo Alto University will speak on Comparative Genocide and Social Psychology. Dr. Froming will describe instances of genocide and the insights that can be provided by a social psychological analysis.

The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) is again sponsoring the very popular Last Lecture, this year featuring Nancy Segal (pictured) from CSU Fullerton, Theodore Bell from CSU Los Angeles, and Keith Widaman from UC Davis.

In addition to talks by featured speakers, there will be numerous poster and paper sessions, symposia, and workshops each day of the convention.

FRIDAY HIGHLIGHTS

Hall P. Beck (Appalachian State University) will describe the quest that he and his students undertook to discover the fate of John Watson’s famous subject: Finding Little Albert: Adventures In The Search For Psychology’s Lost Boy. His address will follow the Psi Chi/Psi Beta poster session.

The APA G. Stanley Hall Address will be given by Greg Madden from Utah State University on the topic of Behavioral Economics, Impulsivity, and Health Decision Making. A Health Psychology poster session will follow his talk.

Sue Frantz (Highline Community College) will speak on Technology For Today’s Academic: Tools That Will Make You Look Like a Techie. Sue is well known for her entertaining and informative presentations. This session is sponsored by PT@CC and the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP).

Adele Eskeles Gottfried (CSU Northridge) will deliver the WPA Social Responsibility Award address: From Research To Social Responsibility: Making The Connections.

Christina Maslach (UC Berkeley) will speak on Burnout and Engagement In The Workplace: New Perspectives.

Ten Things I Have Learned About Virtual Reality and Behavior is the focus of a talk by Jim Blascovich (University of California, Santa Barbara).

The Longevity Project: The 8-Decade Study of Staying Healthy and Living Long is the topic of a presentation by Howard S. Friedman, University of California, Riverside and Leslie R. Martin, La Sierra University. Their book on The Longevity Project, has just been released in a paperback edition.

The WPA Awards Presentation and Presidential Address will be held at 4:30 on Friday. The Presidential Address will be delivered by Delia Saenz (Arizona State University): Solo Status, Perspective-Taking, and Social Creativity: The Power of One.

Other sessions on Friday focus on such diverse topics as Ethnicity and Mental Health: Surprising Findings In Need of an Explanation, Neurobiological Pathways Underlying Responses To Negative Social Experiences, Predictors and Pathways to Adult Life Satisfaction, Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Development and Relationships, and Item Response Theory: A Modern Direction For Personality Measurement. The APA Journal Office is also sponsoring a panel on How to Publish.

SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS

Jason F. Reimer (California State University, San Bernardino) will deliver the WPA Early Career Research Award presentation: Development of Cognitive Control: Goal Representation and Maintenance In Children and Young Adults.

Stanley Sue will speak on Cultural Competency: Necessity Or Political Correctness? Stan Sue was WPA President in 2010; he recently retired from UC Davis and is currently Professor and Director of the Center for Excellence in Diversity at Palo Alto University.

The WPA Outstanding Teaching Award presentation will be given by Mark Costanzo, Claremont McKenna College: Teaching Psychology Through Its Applications.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Stewart I. Donaldson (Claremont Graduate University) will be Taking Stock of the First Decade of Positive Psychology in their presentation on Saturday.

Doing Collaborative Research With Undergraduates: A Team-Based Approach is the topic of a presentation by Brian Detweiler-Bedell and Jerusha Detweiler-Bedell from Lewis & Clark College.

Barbara Tabachnick (CSU Northridge) is the recipient of the WPA Lifetime Achievement Award and will deliver an address titled The Yellow Brick Roller Coaster.

The E. E. Jones Award for Research in Psychotherapy and Clinical Psychology Address will be given by George M. Slavich, University of California, Los Angeles: Black Sheep Get the Blues: A Psychobiological Model of Social Rejection and Depression.

Saturday will conclude with a talk by Philip Zimbardo: Why I Am Managing a New Hero Factory in San Francisco. Phil’s focus on heroes will continue with another talk on Sunday morning with Christina Maslach.

The program on Saturday will also include a number of sessions focusing on international psychology. These include: The Psychology of Dictatorship: The ‘Springboard Model’, Ideology, and Brute Force by
Fathali M. Moghaddam, Georgetown University; Using Psychology and the Internet to Reduce Health Disparities Locally and Globally by Ricardo Munoz, University of California, San Francisco; Narrative of Hope for War-Torn Children, Sally Mallam, Hoopoe Books for Afghanistan. Mallam will describe a major program to use literature to change the cognitive focus of children who have grown up in the chaotic life of Afghanistan. Other international psychology sessions include Enacting International Engagement: Opportunities for Students and Professionals , Sex Trafficking: Victims and Perpetrators, Gender Violence and Human Rights: Sexual Slavery, Honor Killings and Educational Access, and International Immersion Learning in Higher Education: Research Results.

Also on Saturday, there will be sessions on teaching sponsored by Psychology Teachers at Community Colleges, the Psi Chi/Psi Beta Leadership Workshop, the Psi Chi Grad School Panel, and the Psi Chi and Psi Beta Chapter Exchange sessions.

Symposia on Saturday include a session chaired by Dan Krauss (Claremont McKenna College) on the State Of The Discipline In Forensic Psychology. Robert Bjork (UCLA) has organized a symposium on Self-regulated Learning, and Allen Gottfried will lead a symposium on Everyday Leadership. Eva M. de la Riva (University of Texas at El Paso) chairs a session on Automatic Attitude and Semantic Activation: Examining the Role of Arousal, Time, and Response Selection. A symposium on New Explorations of Intimate Partner Violence has been organized by Christine Fiore (University of Montana).

SUNDAY HIGHLIGHTS

The Stanford Prison Experiment: A 40-Year Retrospective, Philip Zimbardo and Christina Maslach. In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Stanford Prison Experiment (1971), Phil Zimbardo will resurrect it with slides and videos as he discusses its legacy in psychology and law enforcement. Christina Maslach (Zimbardo) will discuss the reasons she challenged him openly and ultimately forced its premature termination after only six days of its two-week intended duration. She will describe how that experience led her to study of dehumanization in social service professions, which in turn ultimately resulted in her life- long work on job burnout. Phil will update us on how her heroic action mirrors and foreshadowed his new mission in life, the creation of the Heroic Imagination Project, teaching people of all ages how to be wise and effective everyday heroes who stand up, speak out, and take action against injustice and public apathy in life's challenging moments.