Happy New Year! After a (hopefully) restful respite, we are back on the Road to Graduate School. Most deadlines, especially for doctoral programs, have passed, and you’re in a waiting stage, while selection and admission committees review applications, deciding on whom to invite to the next stage: The Interview.
Author: Claude M. Steele, PhD
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Copyright year: 2011
ISBN: 978-0393339727
Since “Whistling Vivaldi” was first published in 2010, it’s likely you’ve read it or at least browsed through it at a bookstore. If not, it’s worth a read, both for its important content on the impact of stigma on the stigmatized and its accessible description of a two-decade research process. I’ve been aware of and have taught about the phenomenon of stereotype threat for some time, but I learned a lot about the pervasiveness of the phenomenon and also about the author, one of my favorite social psychologists, by reading this book.
In a satirical piece entitled “Psychology Comes to a Halt as Weary Researchers Say the Mind Cannot Possibly Understand Itself,” the Onion reported, in a way that only the Onion can, that psychology as a discipline has come to its official end. Citing the current American Psychological Association (APA)’s President, they maintained that Nadine Kaslow declared “the APA, with its 134,000 members and 54 academic divisions, forever disbanded.”
It’s November, and chances are deadlines for graduate school are approaching fast. But don’t panic – you’ve been following along with our blog, and you’re ahead of the curve (so to speak): In the first article we focused on why you want to go to graduate school, and in the second article we discussed how to research programs and narrow down your options. In other words, you know where you want to go, and the way(s) to get there.
Doctoral degrees in psychology offer individuals preparation to conduct scientific research, professional practice or both. Most individuals receive either the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or the Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) degree. Although each of these degrees is designed to engage students in deep knowledge and skills within a subfield of psychology, there are substantial differences in the type of training and career plans of individuals with these degrees. Finding the best-fitting program for an individual student begins with understanding these differences.
For the very first time, the Society for Teaching Psychology (STP) is sponsoring a Twitter poster conference. Inspired by a Twitter poster conference in chemistry, STP leadership decided to sponsor a Twitter poster conference around the theme of teaching psychology.
When I was a kid, I guess I often stared off into the middle distances. My parents would bring me back to reality with the comment “A penny for your thoughts”. This was a simple gentle prod to the fact that I was daydreaming. Years later, I look out at my classes and am tempted to use the same prod. Not for the occasional student texting, but for those who minds seem anywhere but on the material I am covering.
