SPSP at APA 2023: A Student Guide to the Division 8 Program

Are you preparing to attend the upcoming APA 2023 convention in Washington, DC? This SPSPotlight article is an essential guide to help you build your schedule that includes details on the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Division 8 programming at the upcoming APA 2023 convention held from August 3 to August 5.

SPSP's Division 8 programs and presenters for APA 2023 will have sessions available on all three days of the convention, both in-person at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and virtually. If you haven't registered for APA 2023 yet, click here to register now and check out the reduced APAGS member and APA student affiliate pricing.  

The SPSP Division 8 agenda for APA 2023 is dedicated to programming, research, and the latest trends for those individuals focused on social and personality psychology topics and theories. The APA 2023 tagline, "You Belong Here," speaks to us as students to join the discussion and get inspired for the convention. Whether you are attending virtually or in person, APA 2023 will energize and excite you through engaging presentations that will help fuel your unique research interests for the next year.

Thursday, August 3

Presidential Address

At 3 PM ET in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Level 1, Room 149A), Dolores Albarracín, PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Social Action Lab, will be delivering a Presidential Address on Communicating about Attitudes and Behaviors to Change Attitudes and Behaviors, The Psychology of Attitudes and Behaviors. Dr. Albarracín has authored six books and has received numerous distinguished awards. Dr. Albarracín's research concentrations include the social impacts of human communication, persuasion, beliefs, attitudes, and goals.   

Invited Addresses

At 8:30 AM ET in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Level 1, Room 156), Gandalf Nicolas, PhD from Rutgers University, will be presenting an Invited Address on Intergroup Bias at the Intersection of Social Psychology and Artificial Intelligence Language Models. Dr. Nicolas' research interests include social perception and cognition, bias in machine learning, language, discrimination, and stereotypes. Dr. Nicolas runs the Nicolas Lab at Rutgers and has received numerous research grants, distinguished awards, and fellowships.

At 11 AM ET in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Level 1, Room 146A), Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi, PhD, from the University of Virginia, will present an Invited Address on The Racialization of Social Class. Dr. Brown-Iannuzzi runs a research lab at UVA, and their research focuses on social group disparities, leadership, and group-based inequalities. 

At 12 PM ET in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Level 1, Room 101), Sarah Gaither, PhD of Duke University, will be presenting an Invited Address on Malleable Identities, Perspectives & Contexts. Dr. Gaither runs the Duke Identity and Perception Lab and has earned numerous research grants, fellowships, and distinguished awards. Dr. Gaither's research concentrations include social identity across the lifespan, social perceptions, multiple racial or social identities, and racial perceptions and biases across the lifespan.

At 2 PM ET in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Level 1, Room 149A), Julian M. Rucker, PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be presenting an Invited Address on Lay Beliefs About Structural Racism and Responses to Racial Inequality. Dr. Rucker has received numerous distinguished grants, awards, and fellowships. Dr. Rucker's research concentrations include the social perceptions of racial inequality, motivations to reduce racial inequality, and tendencies of associated racism and interpersonal biases.

Poster and Data Blitz Sessions

SPSP Division 8 programming at APA 2023 will include multiple sessions for poster presentations and data blitz sessions on different convention days.

The Data Blitz I Session is at 1 PM ET in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Level 1, Room 154B) and will include presentations on political religious rhetoric, emotion regulation among Chinese college students, large language models, and research on living well in 10 countries.

The Division 8 Poster Session I is at 4 PM ET in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Level 2, Halls D and E) and will feature over 30+ poster presentations.

Friday, August 4

Skill-Building Session

9 AM ET: Engaging Personality Assessments for Self-Understanding and Fostering Stronger Relational Dynamics (). Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Level 1, Room 149B. This skill-building session will be presented by Rodney Luster, PhD, and will discuss personality assessment tools, such as the Enneagram, and case studies on communication breakdowns in families through education and the unburdening effect of knowing personality types.

Symposium

10 AM ET: New Insights into Understanding Motivations for Social Justice Efforts. Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Level 1, Room 149B. SPSP Student Committee member and SPSPotlight Co-editor Fahima Mohideen from Rutgers will be the Co-Chair of the symposium alongside Samantha J. Heintzelman. The symposium will include three presentations including Motivation to Change and Protect the Status Quo Has Changed Over Time, The Role of White Racial Collective Narcissism in Opposition to Anti-Racism Education, and Search for Meaning Motivates Collective Action by researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers the State University of New Jersey.

2 PM ET: Race in the Metaverse: Racism, Bias, and Intergroup Contact in Augmented and Virtual Reality. Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Level 1, Room 149B.  The Session Chair is Valerie J. Taylor, PhD of Lehigh University and the symposium topics include how racial biases may intensify in augmented reality or virtual reality settings. Presentations will include Less Than Human: How Transparency Affects Perceptions of Dark-Skinned Avatars, Stress and Essentialism Impact Lethal Force Decisions in Virtual Reality, Do Black Lives Matter in the Empathy Machine?, and The Challenges of VR Interracial Contact: Consequences for Real-Life Contact by researchers from Lehigh University, Davidson College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Georgia. 

Continuing Education

3 PM ET: The Polarized Mind: Psychospiritual and Multicultural Perspectives (Critical Conversations), Continuing Education Credit (CEC) Eligible. Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Level 1, Room 144A. The session chair is Kirk Schneider, PhD, President of Saybrook University. Presentations will include Why the Polarized Mind is Such a Peril and What We Can Do About It by Dr. Schneider and How the Polarized Mind Blocks the Process of Empathic Attunement by Sayyed Mohsen Fatemi, PhD from York University.

Data Blitz

The Data Blitz II Session is at 1 PM ET in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Level 1, Room 102A) and will include presentations on primal world beliefs and interpersonal relationships, awareness acknowledgment of racism through values affirmation, and youth self-identification as social contagion or gender dysphoria.

Saturday, August 5

Symposium

8 AM ET: Healthy Spaces, People, and Communities – From Soil to Society. Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Level 2, Room 203. The symposium session chairs are Gina C. Iliopoulos and Michela Coffaro, including presentations on The Science of Connecting with Nature and Advancing Youth Through Nature Play.

Poster Session

The Division 8 Poster Session II is at 3 PM ET in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (Level 2, Halls D and E) and will feature more than 25 poster presentations. 

Sunday, August 6

Online Presentations

8 AM ET: Division 8 Virtual Poster Session, featuring over 15+ poster presentations.

The SPSP Student Committee and SPSPotlight team look forward to seeing you at this year's annual APA 2023 convention. Learn more about APA 2023, and begin registration for APA 2023, which will prompt you to log in to your APA account.

Find more information on each session with the APA 2023 interactive program schedule, where you can drill down by filtering options or learn more about the sessions you are interested in attending.

For all students presenting at this year's APA 2023 convention—congratulations on your hard work and good luck.

Be well, enjoy your summer, and get excited for APA 2023!