Psychology student awarded Eileen Healy Scholarship
April 2012
Congratulations to Psychology student Meaghan Barlow who was awarded the Eileen Healy Scholarship from the Lampe Foundation. The scholarship is awarded to a returning female full-time student of Bishop’s University with high academic achievement and overall contribution to University life and her community.
Psychology students awarded McGill Training and Retention of Health Professionals Bursaries
April 2012
At the end of this month, McGill University’s Faculty of Arts will launch this year’s bursary program to aid students from selected regions of Quebec to study full-time in the area of health or social services in an educational institution outside of their region. In 2011, three of our Psychology students Meigan Roberts, Kayla Smith and Kim Desrosiers won this prestigious funding to support their studies at Bishop’s. Award winners must commit to working for at least one year in the field of public health or social services in a Quebec region when their studies are complete. The Psychology Department is proud that our students are committing their skills to improving future health care provision in some of our smaller Quebec communities.
Psychology students and professor recognized at the SRC awards
April 2012
Congratulations to the winners at this year's SRC Awards and Appreciation Event. Included among the winners were Psychology students Emily Bird and Erica Lane, who were each recognized with the Michel Fontaine Experience Award, and Brittany Cameron who was awarded the Golden Mitre award. In addition, Dr. Sirois received a SRC Exec Appreciation Award for her assistance with the SRC survey.
B.E.S.T. awards 2012
April 2012
Congratulations to Psychology student Ryan Kitner who was awarded a B.E.S.T. (Bishop’s Experiential or Service Term) Projects fund. Ryan will be working under the mentorship of Dr. Fuschia Sirois this summer on the project ‘Experiential learning in meta-analytic techniques and working with large data sets’ which will include attending a week-long ‘Stats Camp’ on the foundations of meta-analysis at the University of Kansas, and applying the skills from this workshop to conduct a meta-analytic research study that will be prepared and submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.
Guest speaker in Psychology of Music
April 2012
As part of the class Psychology of Music, the Department is pleased to host a guest lecture from Dr. Dave Miranda on Thursday April 5th at 6pm in Nichols 1 titled ‘Music and Developmental Psychology in Adolescence’. Dr. Miranda is Assistant Professor at the School of Psychology of the University of Ottawa and director of the Laboratory of Personality and Social Psychology (LPSP), as well as an expert on the effects that music exerts on youth and the meaning that adolescents confer to music. He will discuss his own research into the significance of music in both normative development and in psychopathologies. All are welcome, and the event is followed in the evening by this semester’s Undergraduate Psychology Society wine and cheese.
Research week poster competition winners
March 2012
Congratulations to our two Psychology students who were awarded with prizes for their Honours project posters at this year’s research week! Meagan Gallacher won first prize for her poster on ‘Student self-perceptions and puzzle solving’, and Vanessa Jarmuske won third prize and the ‘people’s vote’ for ‘The effects of attractiveness, faithfulness and relevant information on the perceived likelihood of others having a sexually transmitted disease’. Well done to all fourteen of our Honours thesis students who presented excellent, interesting posters on their research, and to those from the group who went on to present again to an even wider audience at the SQRP conference at the weekend.
Research week – 19th to 23rd March
Psychology students and professors are taking part in a range of interesting activities throughout this year’s research week; everyone is encouraged to come along and find out more about the particular areas of research expertise of your professors, how you can get involved in research here at BU, what this year’s Honours class have chosen as their final project areas, and much more about scientific research in the field of Psychology in general! Most exciting of all for Psychology this year too is Monday evening’s Donald lecture by Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker – a must for all Psychology students.
Some of the other events are:
Dr. Laura Mitchell tests the pain tolerance of men and women, including teams from the University staff and the Gaiters! Learn more about what ‘experimental pain’ is, and how our gender and our psychology influence how much physical pain we feel (Wednesday 12-2pm in the SUB).
Dr. Fuschia Sirois will be demonstrating how we observe and measure the effects of stress on the body using psychophysiological technology, and will discuss the many ways in which stress affects us (Wednesday 2-4pm in the SUB).
The Honours students will be presenting the findings of their projects in wide ranging areas of Psychology on Wednesday between 5-7pm in the Centennial Lobby. Come along to wander among the posters and ask them questions about what they have found!
For a full run-down of events, please visit the Research Week Website.
Brain awareness week
Thank you to all Bishop’s Faculty and students who took part in our contribution to international Brain Awareness Week this year. Dr. Andrea Drumheller and the Psychology/Neuroscience students organized information posters all over campus and manned an information and activities table in the SUB, and Dr. Laura Mitchell gave a talk on Tuesday afternoon on ‘More than the Mozart effect: How music affects the brain’. This was followed by an interview on CBC’s ‘Breakaway’ program the next day, in collaboration with the Townshipper’s Association who are organizing musical events to bring all generations of our community together. You can hear the whole interview on how we use music for our health and well-being here.
SQRP 2012
The psychology department at Bishop’s University is organizing the 34th Annual conference of the Société Québécoise pour la recherche en psychologie (SQRP), which will be held at the Delta Sherbrooke, from March 23rd to 25th, 2012. As one of the foremost institutions promotive of Quebec psychological research, this conference allows researchers and students of psychology (undergraduates and graduates) to showcase their research while providing wonderful opportunities to build new research connections within a collegial atmosphere. The conference’s academic activities (symposia, free talks and poster presentations) are organized around four specialized axes: fundamental/neuropsychological, clinical, social/industrial-organizational, and educational/developmental. Every year, the SQRP conference recognizes high achievement by rewarding those senior and junior researchers who extend boundaries and lead us toward new ways of thinking. In keeping with this celebration of diverse viewpoints, this year’s highlights feature two main academic attractions. Friday`s keynote symposium moderated by Dr Rémi Quirion, Chief Scientist of the Quebec Research Funds, will engage five prominent leaders in the field of mental health in the discussion of a very topical question, that is, the state of mental health in Quebec. Saturday`s keynote address will be delivered by Dr Timothy Pychyl, director of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University, who has earned an international reputation for his research on procrastination. The planning of this conference has been 8 months in the making and promises to deliver an intellectually stimulating and rich program. To know more about it please consult the SQRP website at www.sqrp.ca. Welcome to all who are interested in the fascinating field of psychology!
Research funding to Psychology Faculty
Funding awards from Bishop’s Senate Research Committee announced this month will allow several members of the Psychology Department to start exciting new projects as part of their research programs. Dr. Phil Cooper is investigating the influence of subliminal priming on judgements of attractiveness, Dr. Lisa Mask (in collaboration with Dr. Fuschia Sirois) will study self-perceptions and eating behaviours, Dr. Joe Eastwood Improving the complexity and comprehension of Canadian police youth waiver forms, and Dr. Laura Mitchell will study the effects of music on memory of pain.
