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PT@CC and Psi Beta Offer Exciting Awards for Teachers and Students of Psychology!
Several exciting awards and recognition opportunities are offered by Psychology Teachers at the Community College (PT@CC) and Psi Beta. Please see below! Note that the PT@CC awards are available to ALL community college students and teachers of psychology. Psi Beta awards and competitions are restricted to Psi Beta advisors and student members.
THE TEACHING RESOURCES AWARD
Sponsored by the APA Education Directorate and PT@CC, the 2012 Teaching Resources Award aims to encourage sharing of instructional techniques that community college faculty have developed and used in face-to-face, hybrid, or online psychology classes. The committee is interested in receiving teaching activities, resources, presentation slides, or other materials, along with a brief description of the teaching resource, what class it is used in, what topic is covered, and evidence of its effectiveness.
The winning entries will be posted on the PT@CC website. An award of $400 will be given to the first place winner; $300 to the second place winner; $200 to the third place winner; and $50 each to two honorable mention winners. Certificates for all winners will be presented by PT@CC at the APA Annual Convention (http://www.apa.org/convention/index.aspx). Attendance at the convention is not required. Deadline: May 7, 2012
2012 STUDENT PRESENTATION CONTEST
The APA Committee of Psychology Teachers at Community Colleges (PT@CC) invites your students to participate in the 10th annual PT@CC Student Presentation Contest! Supported through funding by the APA Education Directorate, the Student Presentation Contest recognizes innovative and high quality electronic presentations. PT@CC looks forward to receiving presentations including original videos, websites, and electronic presentations.
The PT@CC Student Presentation Contest aims to promote active learning through the submission of psychology student presentations developed in either of the following categories:
Presentations designed as demonstrations or teaching modules that illustrate and explain a psychological concept, theory, or research discovery.
Presentations that illustrate and explain a service-learning experience or other application of psychology in the community.
PSI BETA AWARD OPPORTUNITIES – ONLY PSI BETA MEMBERS AND ADVISORS ARE ELIGIBLE – CAN BE FOUND UNDER “AWARDS” ON THIS WEBSITE.
Best Practices Article – Recruiting New Members!
Note to readers: A few weeks ago the chapter at Community College of Allegheny County, North Campus submitted an induction order for over 130 students! We asked the chapter advisors to share their recruitment strategies. Their excellent, informative response follows. – Jerry Rudmann, Psi Beta National Office
RECRUITING NEW MEMBERS OVER 30 YEARS–SOME STRATEGIES WORK BETTER THAN OTHERS
Psi Beta is at the heart of much of what the Psychology Program does at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), North Campus Chapter. CCAC has four campuses and seven centers geographically disbursed in Allegheny County, PA. To assist students in participating in Psi Beta, the members and advisors have used many recruiting strategies since the first students joined in the 1981-82 academic year. The North Campus Office of Student Life supports these strategies and provides campus-wide recruiting programs for other campus organizations as well. Psi Beta participates in the campus programs, too.
In 1981-82, psychology faculty announced in North Campus classes that students who met the criteria for membership were welcome to join. This strategy is still used. Additionally, a Blackboard site for psychology majors and a separate one for psychology faculty have been added. These two sites afford communication with psychology faculty and psychology majors system-wide about Psi Beta opportunities and programs.
However, the greatest response to a strategy occurred in fall 2011 when letters were sent via US mail to all students on three of the campuses who qualified academically to join. South Campus has a separate Psi Beta chapter so that campus’ student body was not included. The letter provided information about Psi Beta, the qualifications for membership, the membership fee and benefits of joining, contact information for receiving a registration form along with a deadline for submitting it and the date of the fall induction. The response to the letter was overwhelming in terms of students who expressed interest in joining. Over 200 students requested registration forms and ultimately, one hundred thirty-five were inducted this fall. Many others who waited too long to complete registration are being deferred until spring 2012. Traditionally, we inducted between 10 and 15 members using the old method of announcing Psi Beta in our classes. We were obviously missing literally hundreds of qualified students using this technique.
The response, both by email and phone calls/messages, was overwhelming to the advisors and Student Life secretary because of the unprecedented number of students who requested registration forms, most of which were sent electronically via email. The North Campus chapter asks all students to submit their applications and payment to the Office of Student Life prior to registering with the Psi Beta National Office.
This invitational strategy required much coordination with the national office and the North Campus Office of Student Life. Both were extremely helpful.
We have learned much from this new strategy. In the future, including the registration form in the invitational letter is paramount. This will help students return the registration forms and their checks to the Office of Student Life prior to the deadline and will eliminate the need for them to contact us to request a registration form, thus reducing the work load for all of us. In addition, we will be working with the IT department to exclude current members if possible from future invitational mailings, and have asked the advisors of the South Campus chapter to include students from one of the other campuses in their recruitment process, which would result in each chapter being responsible for two campuses, evening out the load.
North Campus Psi Beta officers, advisors and members are excited to have so many new members for the many activities on their fall and spring calendars. They will also be adding new chapter activities as they become active. We look forward to the new ideas these new members will bring along with them.
Anne Louise and Allison
Anne Louise Dailey, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology Emeritus CCAC North Campus Chapter Psi Beta Advisor
8701 Perry Highway
Pittsburgh PA 15237
Professor Allison Caveglia Barash
CCAC North Campus Chapter Psi Beta Adisor
8701 Perry Highway
Pittsburgh Pa 15237
National Research Project – Data File is Available
Chapters that provided data from at least 30 participants have access to the national study data base. Data collection was very successful – 741 cases! Chapter advisors should contact jrudmann@ivc.edu to request the SPSS file derived from the data.
Psi Beta National Research Project – Participation Registration Deadline Reached Nov. 18
Psi Beta’s National Council is pleased to have 20 Psi Beta chapters participate in an exciting new research study. Chapters will have the opportunity to conduct a great research project that involves participation in a national study. Chapters can then present their portion of the study at local, regional, and/or national conferences.
1. Variables – The study will measure the following variables: cell phone use (reasons, ways, and extent of use), the Big Five Personality Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Cell Phone Addiction Scale, the Leisure / Boredom Scale, and a limited number of demographic items. References for the scales are available in the psychological literature. Reading about the scales will help student researchers formulate additional hypotheses regarding psychological factors associated with cell phone use.
2. Primary Hypothesis – There is a positive correlation between leisure/boredom and degree of cell phone use.
3. Target Population – The target population is community college students who are 18 years and older.
4. IRB Safeguards – The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Irvine Valley College has approved this study. The study meets the APA’s research ethics guidelines for proper and safe treatment of human participants.
5. Informed Consent – A consent form is presented at the beginning of the online questionnaire designed for this study’s data collection.
6. Data Uses – Student researchers at local Psi Beta chapters can analyze their data to determine the extent to which participants use cell phones and some of the personality factors that relate to cell phone use. Chapters can prepare their findings and present them at regional and local conferences. Having done a high quality research project will help chapters qualify for Psi Beta’s “Chapter Excellence” recognition award.
7. Project Due Dates –a. Notify Psi Beta of your chapter’s interest in participating – by November 28, 2011. The chapter advisor must notify Executive Director Jerry Rudmann (jrudmann@ivc.edu).b. Submit data via the online survey – between November 30, 2011 and February 28, 2012.c. Request data files from Executive Director (jrudmann@ivc.edu) any time after March 10, 2012.
8. Research Consultants – We are very grateful for the following individuals who have agreed to serve as research consultants for this study: Bernardo J. Carducci, Ph.D., Shyness Research Institute, Indiana University Southeast; Dr. Katherine Wickes, Psi Beta’s Southwestern Regional Vice-President and professor of psychology at Binn College (TX); Michael Cassens and Dr. Kari Tucker, Psi Beta advisors and professors of psychology at Irvine Valley College (CA); Liana Gheorma, chair of the Irvine Valley College student research committee and the members of Ms. Gheorma’s research committee.
Further Details for Chapter Participation.
a. Request to Participate – The chapter’s primary advisor should email Psi Beta’s Executive Director (jrudmann@ivc.edu) and request to participate by November 28, 2011. Note: this deadline is FIRM!
b. Download Materials – Download and print the following documents.A) Scripts -
- Researcher script for recruiting instructors
- Researcher script for recruiting participants
- Debrief Script
c) Data Gathering Procedure – Chapter researchers can bring participants to an on-campus computer lab or a room equipped with a laptop or desktop computer and have participants themselves enter their responses directly into the online questionnaire. The online questionnaire begins with an informed consent form. If the participant fails to click on the option verifying his or her agreement to the informed consent, any data the participant enters will be deleted from the final database. NOTE: It is essential that participants enter their responses in a proctored environment! Please DO NOT send the link to participants to complete at home or elsewhere, doing so will compromise the quality of the data-gathering process.
d. Search the Literature- Using Leung’s (2007)* paper as a “seed” article, search for more recent journal articles on cell phone / mobile phone / smart phone use, personality characteristics, and Internet and other types of addiction. Look also for recent articles on the Big Five personality inventory, the Leisure/Boredom scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The literature search will serve to familiarize student researchers with the current state of knowledge on this topic. *Leung, L. (2007). Leisure, boredom, sensation seeking, self-esteem, addiction symptoms and patterns of mobile phone use. Manuscript submitted to the International Association (ICA) Conference.
Preliminary Reference List – to get you started!
e. Gather and Submit Data – You should sample from the population of students who are 18 and over at your college. Your sample size should be at least 30, but a larger sample size will help ensure a more representative sample especially when randomly sampling is not practical. Submit your data via the online data within the span of November 30, 2011 and February 28th, 2012.
f. CLICK HERE to go to the online data submission form. (NOTE: this link has been disabled. The data sumission period has ended.)
g. Request National Data File- After March 10th, 2012, the chapter’s primary advisor should contact the Psi Beta Executive Director at jrudmann@ivc.edu to request a copy of the national data file (Excel and SPSS). Only participating chapters will be eligible to receive the data files.
h. Analyze the Data– Local chapters must conduct their own data analysis. Analyze your data using procedures covered in introductory level statistical courses. Use appropriate descriptive statistics to determine response frequencies, averages, and standard deviations. Basic inferential statistics (e.g., correlations, independent and dependent t-tests, and ANOVA) can be used for testing your hypotheses. Many hypotheses can be explored.
i. Write-Up Your Findings- Prepare a research report for your study. Follow reporting guidelines as described in the textbook used in your college’s research methods course. If the psychology department at your college doesn’t offer a research methods course, obtain a copy of one of the many textbooks written for this course (e.g., Cozby, 2004). Write your report using American Psychological Association (APA) style format (American Psychological Association, 6th edition). Use your research report to prepare a research poster for presentation at a conference poster session. Members can enter their papers into the annual Psi Beta student research paper competition. Your chapter can host its own research mini-conference. Invite a keynote speaker on psychological research (from your own teaching staff or from a nearby university), then have a student poster session, followed by refreshments!).
Psi Beta 30th Anniversary Power Point
Nine New Psi Beta Videos
We’ve prepared nine videos on different aspects of Psi Beta.
*Students talk about the benefits of Psi Beta membership.
*Chapter advisors discuss how Psi Beta has helped their growth as professional psychologists.
*Psi Beta co-founder Carol Tracy discusses Psi Beta’s early history.
Navigate to the Psi Beta videos by going to the Psi Beta homepage, click on Media, then click on Psi Beta Videos. Or click here.
Induction Ceremony Resource Video-NEW!!!
This new 9 minute video will help you plan your chapter’s next induction ceremony. Learn how you can make your induction a memorable and educationally enriching event. Click here to visit the Psi Beta resource video page on this website.
Click here to watch the actual induction ceremony upon which the 9 minute induction overview is based.
Psi Beta/Psi Chi Collaboration Grants – Call for Applications
Collaboration Grants – Complete Details
Background – In order to encourage collaborative and cooperative activities and projects between Psi Beta and Psi Chi chapters, a Collaborative Grant has been established to help nearby Psi Beta and Psi Chi chapters carry out collaborative events. Grant funding will allow seed money (up to $500) for up to four collaborating chapter pairs. All applicants for the Collaboration Grant will automatically be entered in the Building Bonds Award Competition. The Collaboration Grant is open to all active Psi Beta chapters and Psi Chi chapters. Chapters are eligible for just one grant per year.
Find the Psychology Program that Meets your Needs and Interests
This resource website was recently brought to Psi Beta’s attention. It provides an efficient
way to learn more about the psychology programs offered in America that may best meet your
educational needs. http://psychologydegreeguide.org/
Psi Beta Inc. is not responsible for the accuracy of the information at this site, but our staff has
reviewed the site and the information provided appears to be accurate. If you find any inaccuracies,
please let us know. Thank you!
Career Development Videos for Psi Beta Members
Two new career information resources are now available for on-demand viewing. Each
presentation includes videos and a specially prepared PowerPoint. We are grateful to two
Psi Beta advisors for these excellent presentations.
Considering and Getting Into Graduate School – Kari Tucker
Kari Tucker, PhD, speaks on Considering and Getting in Graduate School: Information and
tips that I wish I had as an early undergraduate psychology student. Dr. Tucker is the
primary chapter advisor at Irvine Valley College. She was honored in 2006 as Psi Beta’s
national advisor of the year!
Date of Taping: Friday, March 05, 2010, Duration: 1:28:29
Link: http://mediaex.ivc.edu/ms/Viewer/?peid=35402c8da8c04d8f89de14c52c003895
PowerPoint: Dr. Tucker’s PowerPoint
The Curriculum Vita – Bari Rudmann
Bari Rudmann, MS Counseling, speaks on How to Develop and Maintain a Curriculum Vita.
This presentation includes information critical to your development as a professional
psychologist. In 1992, professor Rudmann co-founded the Irvine Valley Chapter of Psi Beta.
Date of Taping: Friday, March 05, 2010, Duration: 00:46:12
Link:http://mediaex.ivc.edu/ms/Viewer/?peid=282433f75951474f9bfb4165576bc7b3
PowerPoint: Bari Rudmann’s PowerPoint
Please note that Internet traffic can sometimes slow down a video. If so, you may notice
a tendency for the PowerPoint portion of your picture to refresh. If you find this distracting,
you can select “full screen” on the video. Recent tests have found that MACs are less vulnerable
than PCs to the refresh tendency. Again, however, if you find yourself with a slower
connect speed, you can avoid the screen refresh by selecting full screen on the video.