Tag Archives: grants and awards

Looking for funding? APAGS can help!

APAGS has the following funding opportunities available for members. Apply today! The deadline for these grants is May 6th, 2015 at 11:59PM (ET). Don’t miss out!

The Nancy B. Forest and L. Michael Honaker Master’s Grant for
Research in Psychology – This grant, named in honor of Nancy B. Forest and L. Michael Honaker, funds thesis research in psychology at the Masters level.
The Scott Mesh Honorary Grant for Research in Psychology – This award honors Scott Mesh, one of the founding co-chairs of APAGS. The recipient of this award will receive $1,000 to support dissertation research in psychology.
The David Pilon Scholarship for Training in Professional Psychology – This award honors David Pilon, a founding co-chair of APAGS in 1988. The recipient will receive $1,000 to promote supplemental training and education experiences in professional practice. The scholarship can be used for a specific training program or opportunity not otherwise available to the student.
Ellin Bloch and Pierre Ritchie Diversity Dissertation Grant – This award provides funding to support research on issues of diversity such as varied ethnic backgrounds, women’s issues, ageism, sexual orientation, disability, etc.
APAGS Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (CSOGD) Grant Program – This award provides $1,000 to support a project that promotes training and educational experiences in LGBT practice. Examples include, but are not limited to: workshops, conferences, speaker series, mentorship programs, and the development of student organizations with a focus on LGBT concerns.
APAGS-LGBT Dissertation Grant – This award provides funding for a proposed research in the area of unique concerns facing LGBT individuals. Funds will not be awarded for a completed, or nearly completed dissertation.
APAGS Outstanding APA Division Award – This award recognizes an APA Division for superior performance in promoting graduate student development, involvement, and joint APAGS/APA Division membership.
APAGS Carol Williams-Nickelson Award for Women’s Leadership and Scholarship in Women’s Issues – This award is designed to acknowledge women APAGS members who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in psychology by serving in one or more leadership roles locally, regionally and/or nationally while also advancing women’s issues through their writing/publications, research, advocacy or other scholarly activities.

Visit the APAGS Scholarships and Grants page for more information on eligibility and how to apply. Good luck!

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. 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.

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.

Early Convention Tips and Tricks

Are you planning to go to the APA Convention in Toronto on 2015? It may be tough to think about something that seems so far away, but it might be helpful to start planning since this year it will be in another country!

When preparing to travel to Canada, the first thing you need is a passport. If you do not already have one, or need a replacement or renewal, you should definitely consider applying soon. Processing times take anywhere between 8 business days to 6 weeks depending on how urgent you need it. Get started today by visiting the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

After getting your passport, there are other steps that you might want to consider planning in advance. If you submitted a proposal that was accepted for presentation and you are a first author, your registration fee will be waived if you are also an APAGS member!

Other ways to get some funding for travel would be to look at travel grants. Different sections and divisions of APA offer various types of funding. APAGS offers the Convention Travel award for first time convention attendees. The deadline to apply for this award is TODAY, April 1, 2015. The APA Science Directorate also offers assistance for psychology graduate students to travel to the Convention.

Some APA Divisions of APA also offer funding for Convention travel. Be sure to check with any Division to which you are a member to see what type of funding is provided for students to attend Convention. You may also consider joining your Division’s listserv to get information on services and funding provided by your Division.

After getting your passport, and applying for funding, low cost travel would be the next thing for you to consider. Sites like Expedia and Kayak are popular for cheap travel, while accommodation sites include Hostels.com and AirBnB among others.

Do stay tuned for more tips and tricks to help you plan your Convention travel!

New Tools for Affording and Repaying Graduate School

On our APAGS website, we recently published a page with tools and materials sorted into four key areas:

Education costs and affordability
Aid, grants and funding opportunities
Loan repayment and forgiveness
Financial fitness

Please visit our new webpage to get information on any of these areas. No matter what phase of an academic career you’re in (a prospective, current, or recent graduate student) there’s likely a link or two to help you. Links consist of materials APA publishes and also materials vetted by APAGS staff.

Improving Life for People with Schizophrenia Using my APAGS Grant

Imagine you had a hard time learning from a behavior that brought rewards. This very dilemma is a reality for people with schizophrenia.

If you know something about Skinner’s contributions to reinforcement learning, you know that human behavior is shaped by outcomes. Quite simply, behaviors that result in positive outcomes (rewards) should increase in frequency over time, while behaviors that result in negative outcomes (punishments) should decrease over time. But imagine for a second that you had a hard time learning from a behavior that brought rewards. Would you be more likely to engage in that behavior in the future?

This very dilemma is a reality for people with schizophrenia. Such individuals have difficulty learning from behaviors that result in rewarding outcomes and in turn, engage less in those types of behavior. Decreased social engagement is the most common manifestation of motivational impairment in people with schizophrenia and a leading cause of disability in this illness — even though the mechanisms underlying this problem remain unclear.

Through the generosity of APAGS’s Basic Psychological Science Research Grant [next deadline: 12/3/14], participants in my study will use a novel social reinforcement-learning paradigm to interact with virtual players. To investigate learning, virtual player behavior will be designed to result in either positive (rewarding) or negative (punishing) social outcomes.

My proposed research seeks to investigate the following questions:

How do people with and without schizophrenia learn from social interactions with positive and negative outcomes?

Can utilizing a social partner’s emotional display facilitate learning from social interactions?

Hopefully, results will increase our understanding of the mechanisms underlying decreased social engagement among people with schizophrenia. My goal is improve the quality of life and social well-being of people with schizophrenia through tested interventions. Given that motivation is also a prominent feature in depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety, these findings may also shed light on potential targets for a transdiagnostic approach to treatment.

Tim Campellone pic For more information on this project, please feel free to contact me at tcampellone@berkeley.edu or visit our lab website.

Editors note: This post was written by Basic Psychological Science Research Grant winner Tim Campellone, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at University of California, Berkeley.

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