WPA Convention 2011: Los Angeles, CA
The first symposium I attended was the ideal launching pad for my day at the WPA’s 91rst Annual Convention. Daniel Scott Michalski, a Research Associate with the APA’s Center for Workforce Studies, presented us with the latest updates on the job market. Michalski elaborated on the various opportunities available as well as the various income levels psychologists are making in each given subfield. The best part about this presentation was the improved forecast on the way the field is expanding. He mentioned that the federal government is currently hiring psychologists at a rapid pace; also new data show 90% of psychologists are employed, 8% retired; the fastest growing subfield is industrial-organizational psychology; and that most individuals in graduate programs are getting jobs before they receive their PhD degree. Current median salaries for PhD and doctoral degree recipients: $70,000; a Master’s degree will land you a median salary of $40,000; and with a BA in psychology, we are looking at $30,000. Starting salaries for a doctoral level degree is currently at $60,000 a year. A lot of useful and encouraging data and projections were presented and these can be accessed by login onto
www.APA.org/workforce.
Despite the fact that my most anticipated invited presenter of the day was scheduled head-to-head with Elliot Aronson, I was delighted to hear Professor David Funder from
UC Riverside. A distinguished professor who has taught personality at a number of institutions across the nation, some of which include Harvard University, and currently, at the University of California Riverside. Dr. Funder gave a presentation on his latest finding on accurate personality judgment. He described accurate personality judgment using the Realistic Accuracy Model (RAM) to explain the four necessary conditions that need to be present in the process of accurate personality judgment.
Invited speaker Diane E. Halpern from Claremont McKenna College presented Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities. She explored the variations between males and females and how their cognitive abilities differ with the aim of interpreting large volumes of contradictory data on this matter and preventing the misuse of research in formulating public policy. She pointed out neurocognitive bases for the distinctions made between male and female cognitive styles. She presented a lot of data, some which came directly out of the SAT data bank to illustrate her point.
During the poster session (poster session 16) I had the opportunity to meet with students who had conducted research in various sectors of the collective discipline of social psychology.
I enjoyed the fact that I had the opportunity to walk amongst people who are—in a sense—peers of mine. It was great to enter the poster session equipped with knowledge of how research in psychology is conducted and actually engaging in dialogue with the researchers in regards to their findings, methodology, and so forth. For instance, I asked questions about operational definitions of certain variables when they weren’t clearly defined. In another instance, I had an exchange with graduate students from UC Berkeley who had conducted research on Mahayana Buddhists to see if they found correlation between duration of mediation and the tendency of altruistic behavior towards strangers. I also had a chance to speak with Professor Funder from UCR about his research on personality judgment. I took that opportunity to introduce myself and ask him questions about how undergraduate research assistances are selected at UCR. So had the chance to think like a psychologist, to feel like a psychologist, and to network.
The oppertunitiy to gain a hands-on experience at the Convention really widen perspectives. I learned how speakers present, what they present, how they came up with their research design, and how they reached their conclusions. I learned about the diverse array of opportunities present both during and after the course of formal training in the field of psychology.
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