News

As a Vanier scholar, Jackson plans to build on the skills and knowledge he has acquired to become a leader in the field of developmental trauma. “I hope my research will contribute to the growing understanding of the wide-spread consequences of developmental trauma, including and beyond individual symptoms, and will serve to increase awareness about what individuals, families, communities, service providers, and policy makers can do to bolster their own and others’ ability to overcome adversity.”

Psychologically speaking, the inability to grasp the scope of human suffering may be something that's ingrained.

"Humans are evolutionarily disposed to care about and look after both ourselves and those to whom we are related," Ellard explains.

"I think those kinds of kinship-related responses probably go some way to accounting for why we might have more difficulty responding to news of thousands of people, including hundreds of young children, who drowned in the floods in Pakistan than we do the 31 people who were killed by Hurricane Fiona."

Congrats to Prof. Abby Scholer and Prof. Igor Grossmann, who have been named Fellows of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. This prestigious designation is conferred on individuals “who have made an extraordinary and distinctive contribution to the science of personality and social psychology.” Abby and Igor join 29 other international scholars on the list of 2022 Fellows, and are two of only 5 Canadians receiving the Fellow designation this year.

As lead author, Brady Roberts worked with his supervisors Myra Fernandes and Colin MacLeod, both UWaterloo professors in psychology, to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the past 60 years of research on the enactment effect. Meta-analyses chronicle what previous studies have shown and assess various factors in the studies including how study design influences the reliability of results.

The CACBT is a national organization by and for Canadian mental health practitioners involved in the practice and theory of cognitive behaviour therapy. The mandate includes: training, advancement of knowledge, advocacy, and accreditation in the practice of CBT. 

A well deserved congratulations to Dr. Purdon!

Big congratulations to UW Social Psychology CRC, Dr. Abby Scholer, on her election to the Executive Committee of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. This comes as no surprise given Abby's steadfast dedication to the advancement of social psychological research. The term of the appointment will run for two years.  

Does spending a lot of time on your phone affect your parenting skills? According to Jasmine Zhang's research, recently featured on BBC news, parents who consume a lot of digital media to relax are more likely to be more irritable, to shout more at their kids, and to generally engage in negative parenting practices.

Click here for the article 

Congratulations to Sophia Tran, Alyssa Smith, and Megan Kelly, who recently received awards for their presentations at CPA and CSBBCS!

Sophia Tran won the Peter Graf Award for Excellence in Brain and Cognitive Science Research for her talk entitled “Drawing Compared to Writing in a Diary Enhances Recall of Autobiographical Memories” at CPA in Calgary this June.

As a part of O’Neill’s seminar in a developmental psychology course, students worked on proposals for three different parks in the region that would allow students of all socio-economic statuses to take part in “playful learning” — using play to build skills.

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University of Waterloo Psychology ranked 5th in Canada and is in the top 100 Psychology Departments in the world, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)! This is once again a huge achievement and a wonderful testament to our world-class faculty and students... Have a scroll through here.