2012 SPSP Training Committee preconference

Over the last several years social and personality psychology have experienced a burgeoning of techniques that have the potential to afford a deeper understanding of social processes and a broader sense of how individuals function within their social environments. Integration of such techniques into a researchers' toolbox may aid in overcoming methodological and practical challenges with data collection, facilitate reaching beyond the laboratory or simply provide new insight into an existing interest. However, constraints on what individual PhD programs offer mean that getting to know a new technique can often seem daunting or entirely out of reach.

The Graduate Student and Training Committees have partnered to bring together six talks providing practical introductions to some exciting and innovative methods that researchers may want to add to their toolbox, or refine their understanding of. Expert speakers will give concrete and accessible answers to the question "How do you do that?" by discussing advantages and disadvantages of the methods they are discussing, what to consider when using or evaluating them, and how to learn more.

Registration is only $25 for students (graduate and undergraduate), $50 for everyone else, and includes breakfast, a hot buffet lunch, and a chance to sit down with the speakers to discuss the method of your choice in greater depth.

Registration for the Pre-Conference is now closed.

8:30 - 9:00	Breakfast and Introductory Remarks	Marina Milyavskaya Stacey Sinclair
9:00 – 10:00	Using the Internet in Personality and Social Psychology Research	Sam Gosling UT, Austin
10:00 – 11:00	Measuring Hormones	Steven Stanton Duke University
11:00 – 12:00	Cardiovascular Techniques	Wendy Berry-Mendes UC, San Francisco
12:00 – 1:00	Lunch and Table Discussions
1:00 – 1:30	Break to Retrieve Badges
1:30 – 2:30	Using and Understanding fMRI	Jennifer Beer UT, Austin
2:30-3:30	Using Implicit Measures in Attitude and Personality Research	Wilhelm Hofmann University of Chicago Booth School of Business
3:30-4:30	The Sounds of Social Life: Observing Humans in Their Natural Habitat	Matthias Mehl University of Arizona