Department News – Page 119 – GWU Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Undergrad Research and Service Grant

rwatkinsJanuary 20, 2018January 20, 2018Leave a comment

Thanks to an anonymous alumna donor, is launching a new program of small grants of up to $500 to support undergraduate research and service experiences--experiences that can teach you skills and position you for graduate study or jobs. Details are attached. The first deadline is Monday, January 22nd for Spring funding and April 13th for summer funding. For details and application: Psychology Undergraduate Research and Service Grants Application

Undergrad. Psych. Major – Amber Prince – Discusses DACA Policy

rwatkinsDecember 24, 2017July 26, 2018Leave a comment

One of our undergrad majors has just posted an important commentary on DACA after spending the semester as an intern at SPSSI (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Division 9, APA). See below:

From SPSSI's Blog: SPSSI Intern Amber Prince Discusses The Dream Act of 2017
To mark the culmination of a semester spent interning at SPSSI, George Washington University undergraduate student Amber Prince blogged about the need to address the precarious situation of Dreamers, especially as the Obama Administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy sunsets.

Psychology and our Daily Lives (Prof Mitroff’s innovative freshman seminar)

rwatkinsNovember 16, 2017July 26, 2018Leave a comment

From airport security to highway safety, cognitive psychology can be applied to real-world situations every day, as freshmen in the Science in the District Dean’s Seminar discovered.

Like anyone who has boarded a plane, the students in Associate Professor of Psychology Stephen Mitroff’s freshman seminar Science in the District were all too familiar with the headaches and hassles of airport security. They knew about long lines at checkpoints as passengers removed their shoes and security officers searched through carry-on bags. And more than a few students admitted they had rolled their eyes and wondered if the security employees couldn’t do their jobs a little bit better.

But that was before Mitroff’s class gave them a peek behind the curtain—and they saw airport chaos from a cognitive psychology point of view. During a field trip to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) headquarters at Reagan National Airport, the students trained a watchful eye on the multitude of factors that come into play when thousands of passengers rush through security gates—from the angle and detail of computer monitors to whether an officer got enough sleep the night before. They looked for clues to impaired visual perception. Were the tables too cramped? The alcoves too noisy? Were there too many display screens? Too few?

Read full story: https://columbian.gwu.edu/psychology-and-our-daily-lives