Social
psychology PhD students Matylda Mackiewicz, Monica Gendi, Olivia Evans, Romany
McGuffog, and Stephanie Hardacre and 3rd year Psychology student
Timothy Lang (along with Dr Emina Subasic, Associate Professor Mark Rubin, and
Dr Stefania Paolini) recently attended the Annual Society of Australasian
Social Psychologists (SASP) conference in Melbourne, Australia. SASP is the
most popular avenue for the dissemination of current social psychological
research within Australasia, and attracts between 130-180 pre-eminent national
and international researchers. The 3-day conference provided a chance for us to
communicate our research in a targeted fashion to a broader academic audience,
and to build collaborative networks with key Australian (and international)
social psychology academics.
Monica,
Olivia, and Romany participated in a session titled “Mental Health and Wellbeing”.
Monica discussed her findings on the relations between need for closure, mental
health, and regret. Olivia delivered a presentation on the relationships
between social class, mental health and social integration in first year
university students. Romany presented findings on the relationships between
social class, sleep, and mental and physical health. Stephanie participated in
a symposium on “Prototypicality and Leadership Effectiveness”, delivering a
talk on the effects of leader gender and equality message framing on mobilising
men and women for gender equality. Tim presented a snapshot of his research on
self-expansion motivations. The five PhD students also had the opportunity to
watch their respective supervisors each take to the podium and present their
research in an early morning symposium on "Conflict, Contact and
Cohesion".
Because SASP comprises a strong postgraduate student representation, it provided a distinctive atmosphere compared to usual academic conferences, in that we were able to network with both students and established academics. The postgraduate workshops in particular were extremely valuable – outlining the benefits of adopting open science practices, and describing career opportunities outside of academe. SASP also has a substantial social program, which this year included a trip to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, a cocktail reception, and a screening of the Milgram documentary Shock Room. We look forward to attending next year’s conference in New Zealand.
Because SASP comprises a strong postgraduate student representation, it provided a distinctive atmosphere compared to usual academic conferences, in that we were able to network with both students and established academics. The postgraduate workshops in particular were extremely valuable – outlining the benefits of adopting open science practices, and describing career opportunities outside of academe. SASP also has a substantial social program, which this year included a trip to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, a cocktail reception, and a screening of the Milgram documentary Shock Room. We look forward to attending next year’s conference in New Zealand.
