Glad that you created this new thread for social / personality psychology Ph.D Program! Thanks for starting one!
I am also applying this year. Just started studying GRE and doing my research to fill out a lit of my goal programs and faculty with related research interest.
I am still trying to narrow down my research interest (omg there are just too many things that I am interested...). Hope I have more specific interest soon. I will post the list of programs later on!
My general questions for you guys is,
How did you all know you know that particular topic (research interest) is what you really want to pursue when there are tons of other interesting topics out there?
How much research experience/ skills do you have? Do you guys have enough research experience particularly related to your research interest?