Club

Minutes

Psychology Club Meetings

November 11, 2009
6:00-7:00pm
Speaker: Dr. Ollendick

We started the meeting by handing out Eye on Psi Chi, and then Emily and Amanda introduced Dr. Ollendick. Dr. Ollendick talked about his own personal journey into Clinical Psychology, the Research that he does at the Child Study Center, and about getting in to a Clinical Psychology program. He talked about how Clinical Psychology is a young discipline, and how it became the way it is now, with three different concentrations: the PsyD, which is more focused on practicing, the PhD which is a balance of research and practice, and the Clinical Scientist, which is primarily focused on research. He talked about how the field is moving towards the more empirically supported therapies. He specifically mentioned play therapy as one that has been widely practiced, but has no evidence to support it. He then went over the 5 things that graduate schools are looking for, and stressed the importance of contacting professors at graduate institutions early. He then finished with a question and answer session. Emily ended the club meeting reminding everyone that the results of the Psi Chi applications will be emailed next week.

10/14/09
Emily made a couple announcements about the graduate school workshop next week and the applications for Psi Chi. Brad introduced the speaker for tonight, Dr. Geller. Dr. Geller's presentation tonight was titled "How to Develop an Actively Caring Culture." He wanted to leave the club the challenge of starting an actively caring culture on Virginia Tech's campus. He said that he has been talking to the SGA about how to get a campus wide Actively Caring Campaign started. He also handed out wristbands to the club that said "Actively Caring for People." Dr. Geller started his presentation talking about the importance of courage. He talked about his book The Courage Factor, which is about a woman who lost her courage, and what it means to lose courage, and how to get it back. He said that three states determine performance: commitment, competence, and courage. Courage is not enough, Dr. Geller told us, because actively caring also requires compassion. Actively caring requires 1. Raising Awareness, which is what the wristbands are for. 2. Holding people accountable, this is what his Actively Caring "Thank You" cards are for. 3. Increasing self-accountability and self-direction, which is the point he spent the most amount of time on. Increasing self- accountability and self-direction require enhancing relevant person states, which are self-efficacy, personal control, optimism, self-esteem and belongingness. He talked about strategies to improve other's self-esteem. He also said that success leads to self-motivation, and that perception affects personal behavior. He also emphasized that our culture promotes a win/lose instead of a win/win mentality, and having a sense of belongingness requires putting this aside. He stated that interdependency is the next mature step up from independence. He said that our culture promotes punishment, and the feedback we receive is more negative than positive. This is why giving positive feedback can be so powerful and is so necessary. Dr. Geller also gave a couple of websites: activelycaring4people.org, which is the SGA website for the Actively Caring Campaign, and authentichappiness.com, which is Marty Seligman's (the person who started the positive psychology approach) website.

Psychology Club Graduate Panel
9/30/09

Emily started the meeting by announcing that Psi Chi applications are due next week. There was an icebreaker which seemed to lighten up the mood a bit. The graduate panel introduced themselves, and the floor was opened up for questions. Some of the questions were: How many people went directly to graduate school from undergraduate? What did people who took time off do during the time between undergraduate and graduate? -The panel was pretty split on this one, with about half saying they went to graduate school directly from undergraduate, and half saying they took time off. Those who took time off worked, traveled abroad, and basically tried to gain experience and explore their interests. How many schools did the graduate students apply to? -The answers for this question ranged from 1 for Human Development, to 12 or 13 for Clinical PhD students. What does a good GRE score look like? -This is always a very popular topic for discussion. Opinions seemed to differ. Some grad students thought that the GREs were a great opportunity for them to offset a bad GPA. Others thought that the GRE score did not matter as much as a good GPA coupled with research experience. I was mentioned that the weight put on the GRE score on applications varies from school to school. When is the best time to start undergraduate research? -The answer to this question seemed unanimous, as soon as possible. How have they handled the financial situation of being in school for so long? -Most of the panel emphasized to go to a school that will help support them. The stress of dealing with financial issues does not help the already considerable stress that comes with being a graduate student. After the formal panel ended, many students stayed to talk one on one with some of the graduate students.

Career Services Information Session Minutes
9/16/09
6:00pm-7:00pm

Emily started off the meeting with some announcements. -The Violence and Victimization Lab is looking for male research assistants. -T-shirts for sale -Psi Chi applications handed out after meeting by Jackie -Collecting dues at end of meeting -Gobblerfest raffle winner announcements -Surveys for Dr. Hoffman's graduate schools session(s)will be sent out After announcements, Amanda introduced Johanna Smith, the speaker from Career Services. Johanna informed everyone of the location of Career Services on campus and then went on the talk about the many services offered. Walk-in advising is available from 12-3pm every day during the week. Appointments are recommended if a student has concerns that may take a lot of time to address. Johanna asked about student's majors and career aspirations. There were a variety of answers; Psych, forensic psychology; Psych/HNFE, dietician; Psych/BioChem, psychiatrist were among some of the responses. Johanna mentioned the Career Resources Library located at the Career Services Center which can be accessed anytime the center is open. The library also contains reference material for graduate school. The center also offers help with graduate school application preparation, especially the personal statement aspect. They are also associated with Kaplan and offer various graduate school test preparation. The center also offers mock interviewing for graduate school and jobs. The center assists in career development and job searching in three different areas. -Exploration (including a 3 credit P/F career exploration course, as well as help choosing a major) -Experience -Achieve Johanna mentioned the Career Planning Guide and how if offers information on resumes, networking skills, interviewing, professional correspondence, and contains a post graduate report. She also mentioned the website: career.vt.edu She focused the rest of her time on the experience aspect. Three handouts were passed out: -Reasons to Get Career Related Experience During College -Externship Student FAQ sheet -VT's Co-Op and Internship Programs Johanna went through each of these sheets, talking about ways to get experience and why this experience is important to graduate school and trying to get a job. She tried to tailor the information to psychology students as much as possible. She mentioned how psychology is a highly transferable major, and encouraged the students to look at different career fields, talk to representatives, visit the career fairs on campus, and visit Hokies4Hire. The floor was then opened for questions, but there were none. Johanna did a very good job explaining the services the center offers and explaining what options the students have. Emily then took the floor and told everyone to pay their dues to Nicole and,if they were interested,to pick up a Psi Chi application from Jackie. Jackie only handed out about 20 applications, but Nicole was flooded with people trying to pay dues. In fact, most of the people at the meeting said on the sign-in sheet that they were paying their dues tonight. I guess we will see if that has any effect on next meeting's attendance.

Psychology Club General Meeting
9/2/09
6:00pm-6:45pm

At the start of the meeting, two representatives from the SGA spoke to the group about how the SGA would like to hear from the students, and gave information about how students can have their voices heard by the SGA. Amanda took charge of the introductions. She welcomed everyone, and gave a general overview of the club and what we expect to do for the year. Each officer introduced themselves and gave an idea of what their job is within the club. Jackie gave some information about Psi Chi applications. Then we opened the floor to any suggestions or ideas anyone might have for the club. Pretty much the only idea given was for there to be a speaker from the Human Development Department. After it seemed that no one else had anything to contribute, we decided have an icebreaker. The icebreaker went well, but it did not last very long. Apparently candy wasn't enough positive reinforcement. Around 6:30 we passed out pizza and most people dispersed, but a few people stayed around to chat for a while. A few people came up to ask the officers questions about the club. Most of the questions were related to dues for the club and applications for Psi Chi. There were about 5 pizzas left over, so the officers took extras home with them. The meeting was officially over around 6:45.