Bonnie Le was one of seven winners of the Student Poster Award Competition at the 2013 Society for Personality and Social Psychology Meeting. This award recognizes undergraduate or graduate poster presentations characterized by excellence in research, clarity in presentation, and personal knowledge in a discussion with the judges.

Posted on Jan 22, 2013 by admin

Samantha Joel has received a Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement from SSHRC. This supplement supports Canadian graduate students in building international networks through the pursuit of research experiences abroad. Samantha will be spending the winter semester of 2013 conducting research at the Decision Science Laboratory at Harvard University.

Posted on Jan 04, 2013 by admin

Rimma Teper has received the 2012 travel award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Award recipients are selected based on the strength of their academic record, as well as the interest and value of their research to the SPSP community. Winners of this award receive a travel stipend to attend the annual SPSP conference.

Posted on Dec 11, 2012 by admin

Geoff MacDonald, former SPA graduate students Tara Marshall (now a lecturer at Brunel University) and Judith Gere (now a post-doctoral fellow at Penn State University), former U of T undergraduate July Lies, and Atsushi Shimotomai of Senshu University in Japan, have published a paper entitled "Valuing Romantic Relationships: The Role of Family Approval Across Cultures" in Cross Cultural Research. The paper explores differences across cultures varying in interdependence regarding the role of family approval when becoming emotionally dependent on a romantic partner. The research shows that in Canada and Australia (nations relatively low in interdependence), family's approval of the relationship plays little role in allowing oneself to become emotionally dependent. However, in Indonesia and Japan (nations relatively high in interdpendence), people do not allow themselves to become fully emotionally involved in a relationship unless they believe the family approves. The data serve as a reminder that in cultures where marriage is seen as a joining of two existing families (rather than as the formation of a new family unit), the role of family approval is likely to be crucial in regulating relationship behaviour.

Click here to download a PDF of the article.

Posted on Nov 01, 2012 by admin

The Relationship Researchers Interest Group (RRIG) within the Society for Personality and Social Psychology has announced that Dr. Emily Impett has been named the 2013 Caryl E. Rusbult Close Relationships Early Career Award winner.

The Caryl E. Rusbult Close Relationships Early Career Award recognizes an early career investigator who is making significant contributions to research on close relationships as evidenced by an outstanding record of important and innovative research in the general area of close relationships. Dr. Impett was recognized for her impressive body of empirical work, as well as for her important theoretical contributions to relationship science.

Posted on Oct 24, 2012 by admin