lewin

Grad schools usually want academic references, so anywhere you can work that will produce a letter written by somebody with a PhD. It really should have a research component. Volunteer doesn't matter. If I were writing a letter for an RA I might not even mention that they were volunteer instead of paid. Or I would highlight that they were so intrinsically interested in research that they were willing to volunteer. (Poorly hidden secret: Sometimes the grad students write the letters because they work directly with the RA's, then the profs tweak and sign them.) ETA: I worked at a social services agency in their program evaluation department, which is a type of research. My supervisor there (a clinical psych PhD) was one of my letter writers.

"How can you tell when an interview went well or poorly?" When you get the offer, or not. But seriously, there's nothing you can do about it either way at this point so it's probably best to just put it out of your mind and relax

My apologies, I read "i plan to return to school next year.... I feel like I should be focused on a PhD in counselling..." and interpreted that to mean possibly attempting a PhD next year. (Glossed over the "long term" part.) Definitely, I wasn't suggesting that you shouldn't be bringing up the issue now; it's great you're thinking ahead.

"The Compleat Academic" is pretty popular in my field, psychology, but I'm not sure how applicable it is to sociology.

By the way, I think this was implicit in some of the previous comments but to make it clear: With your current qualifications I think you have zero chance of admission into any PhD program of any quality. So you definitely need to think about something preparatory first, whether that's RA experience and/or undergraduate work. Sorry to be blunt, but I don't want you to waste money applying or end up somewhere sketchy that just wants your tuition money.

It probably depends on who you work with and their program of research. At my university there is an interdisciplinary cognitive science program involving psychology, philosophy, computer science, and neuroscience.... they are trying to build computer models that can replicate/explain/predict various cognitive priming findings. It seems pretty awesome. They would definitely like somebody with your expertise. (PM if you want more details, though I don't know much about it... I'm in Canada.)

I agree, it's a bit redundant. But they were 50 cards for $5

I didn't say I had no empathy, I said it was a necessary step in medical research (somewhere in between biochemistry and human trials). All research needs to balance harm versus benefit. But I should have worded that more carefully because--you're right--it's often bad for the research subjects. I meant "On balance, when considering the potential gains, it's not always a bad thing."

I clicked on the website. "Payment options" is prominent link, another red flag. It's run by a corporation, not an academic organization. Also, I saw typos. Assessment based on 2 minutes' thought: This conference looks terrible, especially if you're travelling internationally. Find a better use of your time and resources.

Animal research is critical to the success of modern medicine, among other things, and not intrinsically bad. National defence is also important and--without knowing the specifics of the project--knowledge that contributes to the country's security could be construed as a positive thing. Certainly it's not an easy decision... in the end it's up to you whether you can reconcile the potential benefits with the significant cost (to you and to the animal subjects).

You're a master's student? Don't include anything about your BA. It's not a CV Or are you listing possibilities for both BA and MA students? My cards say: Name PhD candidate for Doctor of Philosophy Social Psychology phone # email website (university logo on left, address on bottom right) It's in the official format prescribed by my university so probably pretty standard.

You're right, a typical BA in psych won't provide much (or anything) in the way of counselling training. "In a perfect world I would picture myself working in marriage and couples counseling with special interest in intimacy issues and sexual trauma." I worked with people who did exactly that and most had a Masters of Family Therapy or Masters of Social Work. I don't know what the prerequisites for those programs are, probably a BSW or BA. ETA: This was not private practise, it was a large nonprofit social services agency.

From your original post it wasn't clear to me whether you have an undergraduate degree in psych; you said "two year degree in an unrelated field". It will be difficult to get into a decent master's program without a degree in psychology, especially without a four-year degree. Taking some undergraduate psychology would help you figure out whether you like it. "...even if the PhD program isn't what I wanted it to be I could still soldier on and finish..." I suggest caution here. PhD programs are unlike undergraduate or master's work. It's a tough slog if you're not intrinsically motivated.

Probably field-dependent but in mine, social psych, it's relatively common. For example, I have a paper under review that has a bunch of experiments and I'm presenting a subset of those at an upcoming conference. Speaking for the paranoid, it's unwise to present material at a conference unless it's almost ready to be submitted, or under review, or in press, so that nobody else has time to see your presentation and scoop you. "In press" seems like the sweet spot because you can present the findings and nobody will have read them in the paper yet, then in a few months out it comes! And if submitting something to a conference meant you couldn't submit to a journal later, nobody would attend conferences. If your advisor is sane, he/she will know the norms of the field. It is tacky, however, to present the same material at multiple conferences. Looks like CV padding.

Yeah what does it mean to have time "off" anyway? Work at home instead of going to the office?

Pretty sure I know who you're talking about because I applied with her a few years ago. I had applied to BBC but at the interview she said I could probably decide to end up in either division and work with her regardless. [Edit to add: She seemed really awesome based on my brief contact. JC?] This is wild speculation but I think your ability to get social psych jobs will more depend on what research you do. That is, you need to do something that social psychologists will find interesting. It's also important to publish (at least a bit) in social psychology journals and have a letter by a social psychologist or two. if you graduate with a paper in JPSP, JESP, or PSPB and have a letter from Bodenhausen or Richeson I don't think it would matter if technically you were in the BBC program. But I'm just a PhD student, I don't know much.

This is a bit more than "small" ($100) but my burr coffee grinder is wonderful. It has a bin of beans and I electronically select how many cups I want to make. I've used it every day for years, totally worth the convenience and flavour.

I lean towards what stereopticons says too. But if you want to email, you could forego asking for anything: "Hi, I'm an undergraduate at X and interested in your work on Y, particularly [insert your own twist on Y]. I did my honours thesis on [Z]. I saw on your website that you're taking students in the fall and I plan to apply, so I'm just writing to introduce myself. Hope to hear from you in a few months!" ^^It's hard to argue that's too intrusive, assuming there aren't explicit instructions to avoid emailing somewhere. For example, "I'm interested in your work on system justification theory. I did my honours thesis on motivated stereotyping of African Americans, so I'm particularly interested in how ethnic stereotypes might perpetuate economic differences between groups."

Careful. Don't ask for anything you can find online (including psycinfo) or you'll look lazy, dumb, or inconsiderate.

^^ Those are good suggestions. I'm a graduating PhD student with 20 conference presentations (after dropping the local ones) and 5 publications, and my CV is still < 4 pages. So I can't help but think that you could include the same amount of information but with fewer words. I'm curious how you are accumulating so many conference presentations. Are you presenting the same research at multiple places? Because that can seem a bit.... tacky. It suggests a bit of CV padding.

If I were in your shoes I would already be going to great lengths to ensure we left at different times so she wouldn't be in my car. But eventually it will probably resort to, "I'm sorry, I can't offer you a ride home anymore. I really need that time alone in the car to disengage from work and get ready for home life." In response to situation number two: "I'm sorry, I have so much on my plate with other coursework and research that I don't have time to read the paper ahead of time." The daycare situation sounds like a quagmire but I'd try and get myself out of that too. Undoubtedly she will try and guilt you into helping her anyway. Be assertive and enforce those boundaries! TLDR: Stop hanging out with crappy people.

Participants are usually assured of their confidentiality and it would be a serious breech of that trust if your RA friend disclosed sensitive health information about a participant to his coaches. I really, really hope that didn't happen. If I were the player and lost my scholarship because of that, I would take my consent form where it says "your responses will be kept confidential", march over to a lawyer, and sue their asses. ....other examples, I have none.

Some day this person is going to buy a used car privately and get mad when it doesn't come with a warranty like a dealership car. Tough beans.

I'm intuiting that people have different definitions of "exclusion" and I'm curious about that. Grad school is less like undergrad and more like a workplace. Some people might want to take that relationship social but others don't and I don't think that's exclusionary. You can be professional and collaborative without being exclusionary. I'm probably jumping to conclusions but when I read "happy and bubbly" I picture the people who drop by my office and want to visit for an hour while I'm trying to work. Same with wanting to talk about cats instead of studies. I have much love for cats too, but maybe people talk about studies while they're at work because they want to be productive. I try to save that stuff for outside the office. Here's a somewhat hyperbolic claim: Once you're a grown up there's no such thing as social exclusion (see Geek Social Fallacies 1 and 5). There are people I don't like and I don't invite them to parties. There are people who do weird research or who might require too much handholding and we don't collaborate. That is not exclusionary. Grad school doesn't come with an obligation to be friends with anyone or work with anyone. (That said, my dearest friends in the world, some of whom are also collaborators, are grad school friends.) Limited exception to above: It's rude to flaunt it (e.g., throw party, talk about it in front of the uninvited person) but that's outside the bounds of normal behaviour; here I assume that grown ups act politely.

I hear Sasha Baron-Cohen is a pretty good autism researcher. Wait. Wrong Baron-Cohen maybe?