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New research reveals that devotion to selfless values can help people feel more confident and less hostile in stressful circumstances.

“Selfless values can be like life vests that buoy a kind of higher power and resilience, freeing us from worry and defensiveness,” said Ian McGregor, professor of personality and social psychology at the University of Waterloo and the study’s lead author. “Focusing on a greater good beyond themselves had the paradoxical effect of making participants’ psychologically stronger and more reasonable.”

Beck and his graduate student, Arden Flow, collected data from a sample of 94 full-time working adults who either had or had not contracted COVID-19 at least one month prior to the study. Their study shows individuals who had contracted COVID-19 reported significantly more cognitive failures at work. “Relative to the group who had never had COVID-19, the group who had contracted COVID-19 reported more cognitive failures at work, which are defined as problems with memory, attention, and action,” Beck said.

This year, three members of the Department of Psychology have been recognized in ALL THREE of the UW Arts Awards categories:

Katherine White is the recipient of the 2022 Arts Award for Excellence in Research. This award recognizes the quantity and quality of Katherine’s research contributions and the disciplinary/interdisciplinary impact of her work.

“Our study confirms that Canada’s menthol cigarette ban led to substantial public health benefits,” said Geoffrey T. Fong, professor of psychology and public health sciences at the University of Waterloo and lead author of the study. “Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death and disease in Canada, the United States, and globally. ” Fong is also senior investigator at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and principal investigator of the ITC Project.

A substantial number of Canadian smokers, vapers, and recent ex-smokers support innovative policies that could help drive further declines in overall smoking rates, according to a new report from UW Psych Professor, Dr. Geoffrey Fong and the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Project at the University of Waterloo.

Click here to access the full report

Congrats to UW Psychology Grad student McLennon Wilson for receiving the 2021 Warren Ober Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Grad Student within the Faculty of Arts at UW. McLennon- this is a true testament to the outstanding quality of your teaching, talent and dedication. Excellent work.

Congratulations to Dr. Marjory Phillips on being named this year’s recipient of the Canadian Council of Professional Psychology Programs (CCPPP) Award for Excellence in Professional Training in the Academic Training category. This is a national award that recognizes a psychologist for his/her outstanding contributions to the professional training of graduate students/interns. This is among the highest awards for the Clinical Psychology profession in Canada.

In this episode of the "I am Mortal" podcast, UWaterloo Professor of Social Psychology Dr. Igor Grossmann, provides us with insight as to how our brain experiences time dependent on our life length, what is individualism and collectivism and how they might affect our perceptions of aging technologies, and if wisdom truly comes with age.

Check out the podcast here.

The ongoing crisis in Ukraine is putting added stress on families that are already dealing with a global pandemic and rising inflation. Children feel that stress too, experts say, and it’s important to address situations like the ones in Ukraine carefully. UW Psych Professor Dr. Dillon Browne, explains how to talk to your kids about the war in Ukraine.

Check out the full interview here.

On April 6, 2022, the University of Waterloo Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience (CTN), the Cognitive Science Program, and Faculty of Arts will proudly present the 14th annual Brain Day!