Thursday, October 29, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
New Holy Cross Blog
Community news:
As Holy Cross grow, as does the was in which one could learn about our community. The newest addition to this is the CrossWaves Blog.
Psychology news:
This academic year we will be pushing forward with more activities in the Pscyh Club. This means the students can look forward to have support from our members across the campus in events such as, student orientation, movie nights, information sessions, and the like. This is also a double edged sword, as we push forward as a school and major, we move out of the grasp of Psi Beta but do not quite reach the requirements for Psi Chi. Therefore, any potential funding is extinguished from the undergraduate community. However, there are other grants available via APS and APA, so not all is lost.
Additionally, the author has volunteered to be the Regional Campus Repetitiveness for the Midwest in the APSSC.
As Holy Cross grow, as does the was in which one could learn about our community. The newest addition to this is the CrossWaves Blog.
Psychology news:
This academic year we will be pushing forward with more activities in the Pscyh Club. This means the students can look forward to have support from our members across the campus in events such as, student orientation, movie nights, information sessions, and the like. This is also a double edged sword, as we push forward as a school and major, we move out of the grasp of Psi Beta but do not quite reach the requirements for Psi Chi. Therefore, any potential funding is extinguished from the undergraduate community. However, there are other grants available via APS and APA, so not all is lost.
Additionally, the author has volunteered to be the Regional Campus Repetitiveness for the Midwest in the APSSC.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Psych 498 Updates
Well everyone, now starts phase two of the Psychology International Experience and Conference with novel research. All last semester we had been preparing documents to synthesize and then design an experiment around that information. Now we are not required to make some "earth-shattering" discovery by our study; if we do, that is all the better.
Anyway, I have decided to do an interesting paradigm, ego-depletion and morality. At this moment I am choosing not to release any more information regarding the experiment. Needless to say, alongside some help with Dr. Van Auken we hammered out the methodology pretty quickly refined the rationale.
Anyway, I have decided to do an interesting paradigm, ego-depletion and morality. At this moment I am choosing not to release any more information regarding the experiment. Needless to say, alongside some help with Dr. Van Auken we hammered out the methodology pretty quickly refined the rationale.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Berlin--The Journal
Nathaniel Ring
Psychology 497
Journal
Thursday/Friday:
Traveling to Berlin was a trip in and of its self. The day started for me at 8:00 AM with a final run down of my packed items. Afterward it was a trip to the bank, then to Holy Cross to meet up with the Van Auken’s. Leaving from South Bend was without any major incident and afforded a good opportunity to discuss a broad spectrum of topics with Dr. Doris Van Auken. O’Hare, on the other hand, was a bit less smooth. The Van Auken family, Greg Wright, and I arrived at the airport a few hours before we picked up our tickets. The other members arrived with one coming at the last minute. When we got through the terminal it occurred to us all that we were both hungry, and we were about to spend 13 hours on a plane. Dr. Hugh took one of his suns and got us pizza to hold us over until we had our in-flight meal. I initially had mixed feelings to flying as I had never flown before, but as soon as we lifted off it was quite thrilling to fly.
The plane ride was as far as I could tell, as typical as one could expect. The food was decent, seat was comfortable, blanket was nice, and company was good all, which made the ride fairly enjoyable even though I didn’t get any real sleep. When we landed in London I was still quite energized just to be heading to Germany. In my excitement to get through the metal detectors I ended up dropping my carry-on bag that contained my laptop sustained quite a deal of damage to a corner. Upon later inspection it was all superficial damage. While at Heathrow one of the Van Auken’s children (Hugh) accompanied me and walked through the duty free shops stopping at various shops to peruse the merchandise. Outside of a Ferrari and the Audi right out of the turn styles the airport was very similar to a high-class mall in America with a couple of differences here and there (mostly the booze). The time at the airport passed quite quickly and before I knew it we were on British Airlines flying to Tegel and I was seated next to a couple of British photographers. I spent almost the entire time talking with the couple enjoying the flight completely.
Up to this point the traveling had been only had minor hiccups, but when we landed one of my fellow students lost her luggage. Apparently, the baggers at Heathrow left her luggage there and she was stuck without the bulk of her clothes. A few tears and a few hours later she arranged to have her lost luggage delivered to the hotel later that evening. At this point I was starting to notice I was a bit tired while waiting for the car rental but not exhausted yet. When we finally got on the road I was overwhelmed with joy to see any and everything Germany. I was especially excited when we passed through Tiergarten heading to Potsdamer Platz. This was so exciting that I actually forgot I was tired until we got to the hotel and started to settle in, then a sheer wave of exhaustion washed over me and it was as though I was dead on my feet. Alas, this was not the end of my day yet I still had dinner with the entire group.
A few hours later we set of on the U-Bahn to Georgbræu to sample some authentic Berlin food. Along the way I was so exhausted I ended up falling asleep on the train standing up. At this point I had not slept since 8:00 the day before and it was about 7:00 PM in Germany. After a quick ride and a quick walk we arrived at the Brauhaus Georgbræu for dinner. Following the meal a number of us decided on the train we would go for a quick walk to the mall after returning to the hotel for the evening. Upon arriving at the mall we realized the mall was closing so we went back to the hotel to swim. Finally exhausted from a very long day, I went to bed.
Saturday:
Awaking quite early Greg and I enjoyed the complementary coffee in the lobby to be followed by the rest of the group as we prepared to head to our first stop—Buchenwald. After a bit of waiting we were on the road and before long on the autobahn. A few hours into the drive we stopped to get lunch at a rest stop. After lunch we were back on the road and moving through the beautiful countryside seeing windmills, hills, sporadic rain, and the occasional sunflower field. It was very exciting for me to see the countryside of Germany as well as ride on the Autobahn.
Arriving at Buchenwald was somewhat abrupt because the surroundings changed from mountainside to camp almost instantly. First passing the train rails, past the barracks, to the gate with the words "Jedem Das Seine" (meaning: to each his own) inscribed with iron bars of the gate. Experiencing first hand the enormity of the concentration/work camp was both terrifying and surreal. I walked the grounds of where the prisoners called home with Greg and Dr. Hugh aghast when we passed a particular barracks where the relatives some of the prisoners left pebbles as small tombstones for their relative. After a few minutes of moving through the camp Greg, Dr. Hugh, and I walked through the crematorium and a new level of terror swept over me. As I walked through the building from the courtyard to the autopsy room, to the crematorium, past the ovens, down to the storage room, then out the back door. Both the intense realization others spent their last moments where I was standing but also this was a place where extreme forms of hatred were aloud to run free.
After that deeply emotional and history saturated environment the three of us walked outside of the gated area and to the left we could see the Zoo built for the SS and their children. We walked down the rocky path toward the depot to meet up with the rest of the group to get ready to go to our next destination. When the two groups met up just outside of the depot we suggested they walk through the crematorium and then go to our next destination. When everyone exited they seemed to look as astonished as I felt while walking through it the first time although the second time through, I noticed more details in the oven rooms (broken slats, ash drawers, ignition systems); and also in the stables. Upon exiting the exhibit Dr. Doris and Dr. Hugh noted we did not see the prison. We made a quick detour to at least see that.
After a few hours at Buchenwald we were on our way to Mittelbau-Dora, which was suppose to be a fairly easy trip, but turned out to be a little bit more complicated than expected. Along the way a road was closed so we had to take a 30 minute jaunt in the opposite direction. In spite of the detour the scenery was amazing! We passed through a number of wooded areas, small villages, beautiful hilly passes, and hops farms. A few hours later we arrived at KZ Mittelbau-Dora just outside of Nordhausen.
Unlike the experience at Buchenwald, this had a feeling of sterility to it initially because it was entirely enclosed in a hilltop. Upon arriving we realize we were a little over an hour late for our appointment so we were unsure if we could get the tour. After a quick conversation at the information building a very funny and informative tour guide agreed to take us. While watching the video that same sterility and benign was quickly swept away and replaced by grim fact this was a place that was another hell on earth. Looking for a photo opportunity I took a couple shots of the hills that the factory was built in although later I discovered they did not turn out very good.
A quick walk down the road, past our cars, and to the entrance of the factory--a hole in the hill--it was somewhat eerie. Our guide explained to us that it was going to be relativity cold in the tunnels, indeed, very chilly. We walked along the dark passage stopping along the way to hear about the construction time, living conditions, formal use, post-war use, and the many attempts to destroy the tunnels. Because of the many attempts to destroy the tunnels and the lack of water pumps a very large portion of the tunnels were inaccessible to the public so we only went to a few of the passages. When comparing the two sites, I enjoyed the tunnels more just because we had a very good tour guide.
Finally done at the tour of concentration camps we were off to Goslar for dinner. Although the trip did not have any detours it did feel the longest. When we finally arrived at Goslar we discovered very quickly that this was a very old city. The roads were barely wide enough for cars and parking was at a premium making it very difficult both find the restaurant and park. After a couple minutes of driving through the streets we found the restaurant (Worthmühle), parked, and seated (a bit late) at our reserved table. Ready to eat we haphazardly picked our meals. Before too long we were presented with our meal. Most of us pleased with our orders except for the meat-gelatin, which turned into the dinner joke. Full we took a stroll around the city and we all concluded we would have loved to arrive there earlier to really engage the city more. We walked around the streets for a couple minutes admiring the architecture and finally found ourselves at the center of town with the very large Glockenspiel. After walking around the town for a couple minutes everyone piled into the cars and we were on our way back to the hotel. Exhausted I started to fall asleep until I noticed we were driving on the train tracks. Dr. Hugh turned a little to sharply and we found ourselves needing to back up on the one-way to get onto the other side of the autobahn. Although, after that drive back seemed to fly past since I fell asleep--neglecting my navigators duties--to wake up at the gas station where Dr. Hugh got more coffee to finish the trip awake. Once we got back to Berlin I went straight to sleep.
Sunday:
Because we had the day off I slept in a slight (e.g., I woke up at 9:00). When I finished a brisk swim I changed and got ready for the day. I headed down to the lobby to meet up with Dr. Hugh and Dr. Doris to see what we had planned if we were all going to meet for lunch at any point. After a bit of confusion we were told we could do what were free to do as we pleased so the other students and I went to the mall to shop. When we arrived other people were walking around, but nothing was open. We stood by a food vendor for a few hours only to realize that all of the shops are closed on Sunday’s. Frustrated, headed back to the hotel to sleep, call our family, or find something to eat, but Dana, Hugh, and I went to Gemäldegalerie to see the art. Along the way we saw a number of the embassies. I was amazed at how easy the city was to navigate and how close things seemed. After we finished at the gallery we decided to head back to the hotel to see if anyone was ready to go out. I met up with Greg, still in the hotel recovering from the long flight, and we ran into everyone in the lobby. After discussing what we want to do for the evening we decided to grab a bite to eat then we would meet up for drinks in a bit.
That evening we went to the Mexican restaurant across the street from the hotel and had a few drinks and a bite to eat. Then we went on a brisk walk around the block and back to the hotel. Not quite tired I went back to my room and got ready for a swim and maybe a brief workout in the gym. Greg and I went down to the pool, after a bit we were tired so we went to bed.
Monday:
Day one of the conference was similar to what I remember APS being like at the very first. It had its ups and downs that I expected for the first day. The ups included: interesting symposiums, posters, and people. The downs included very large venue, initially overwhelming amount of items to pick from, and registering for the conference. In spite of the downs, I still had a very productive day. I missed a symposium at 8:00 because registering on-site was not as easy as it seemed but I made it up by attending ½ of one invited address (PA-001) where I planned out my day. During the invited address I struck a conversation with a German woman and we ended up having a bulk of the same interests in presentations. After leaving the address I saw the name of a guy who I spent a good deal of time with at APS Stewart Madon and found his paper session. He was part of a session regarding psychophysics (FP-012). Next I attempted to see the topic with Philip Zimbardo (S-037) as the lead disscuant, although the room was so full people were sitting 30 feet outside the door. On the way out I ran into the girl I met in the first invited address, Inga Groußmann, we both had a second choice to see “Tolerance for Ambiguity, creativity and personality (IS-008)” and sat through that presentation. Fortunately, that was an interesting session so it seemed my choices were getting better. After a cup of coffee down the road we decided to attend the “Ethic behavior and Trust II (FP-047).” The paper was not quite what I expected and ended up being mostly about I/O psychology and was not very interesting. Halfway through at the break, we both went our way for the day and I went off to attend something that I was hoping would be more informative “Psychological Disorders—starting with Emotional changes and paranoia: an experience sampling study (FP-049).” On the way I saw a few of the posters. Although, the topic sounded quite interesting on paper it was hardly enjoyable. Dredging through that symposium I felt a bit hungry but thought it might be a good idea to get one more symposium through before I grabbed something. Finding each symposium was no easy task. Often I found myself asking where the rooms were. It did not help that the convention hall was also packed with thousands of people each with their own destinations. My final symposium for the day was “Why people care about justice (and why they sometimes don’t) (IS-021).” This was by far the most exciting symposium of the day. I had been looking forward to hearing John Jost speak again since I last saw him at APS.
That was my final topic for the day, and exhausted I headed toward the exit to find something to eat. On the way I ran into Dr. Doris and Hugh and we scheduled a time to grab something to eat. After another enjoyable but highly unique meal—kangaroo steak—relaxing was the only thing on my mind. I went back to the hotel went for a swim and sit in the sauna. After a few hours at the pool I went to bed.
Tuesday:
I woke up nice and early to grab the free coffee at the hotel to get ready for another symposium filled day. Before Dr. Doris, Hugh, and I took the train to Kiserdammstraße, we grabbed a bite to eat at the surprisingly good bagel store by the U-Bahn station. Because Dr. Doris and I were going to the same symposium we walked together to the (FP-075) “Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination” paper sessions. The room was quite uncomfortable stuffy, small, and seemed to be filling with more people as the day continued. After an interesting couple papers (especially Steven Stern) I was stuck in a dilemma of having to choose between two addresses “Environmental Perception and Cognition 1 (FP-097)” or “How to detect lies with statistics (IA-022),” both of which would be very useful for future classes. After a few minutes of walking through the vendors I decided to see (FP-097) because it would bear relevance later in the course with Dr. Verges.
While attending the paper session I thought would be highly interesting, it turned into a highly technical and obscurities topic. Sadly, the only thing I took from the session was a slightly better understanding affect and valance. Excited for my next symposium I grabbed a cup of coffee from the bar and ran up to “Self-regulatory strength and Ego Depletion: a Decade Later (S-094).” I was especially excited to see this symposium since during the summer I had been up on this particular literature and attempting to conceptualize ego depletion with pro-environmental behavior. In addition one of the speakers was someone I met at APS in the summer, Kathleen Vohs, and was highly interested in her research at University of Minnesota. This symposium was much more useful for me than the John Jost presentation in that she had a citation dense and very concise speech. Looking around the room I notice there was a number of faces that was also present in Chicago at APS.
After this symposium I decided it was time to look at the posters and then grab a bite to eat. I went down to the lobby area and picked up a quick bite, sat down with my laptop, and worked on the blog post. After viewing a number of posters on cognition; language, reading, and communication; research methods and statistics; and finally human development, I headed to the controversial debate. Although because the speech had moved, I found myself sitting in on the last half of another address called “The Cultural psychology of globalization (IA-008).” Uninterested in the topic but occasionally listening into the method and results it seemed to bear little relevance to anything until later reflection. After 20 minutes of sitting through the topic, the hall started to fill with people waiting to see the controversial debate. I found Dr. Doris and Dr. Hugh easily and saved a seat for them near the front. After gathering a great volume of citations to use later, we arrived at the discussion. Very quickly I noticed some of the people attending the symposium thought by discussion they were also suppose to include their thoughts in on the matter. After the two members of the audience finished, finally someone asked a question rather than spouting off some tid-bit of “wisdom” to the matter. Interesting as the individuals offering some insight may have been, they were highly irritating at the time because they never asked a question regarding the debate so they seemed to be wasting time others could have been using to ask questions. I noticed very quickly Dr. Hugh felt the same way as he expressed his gratitude for the first individual with a question by a very obvious clapping (quite funny at the time because he was the only one clapping). Finally done for the day I went back with Dr. Hugh and Doris discussing impressions convention, symposiums attended, and finally dinner plans. I forgot to eat during the day so I was quite hungry.
When we got back to the hotel we split up for an hour or so to change and get ready to go out. I called the other rooms to see if anyone else wanted to get dinner, but I couldn’t reach of the other students on their room phones so I ended up eating out with the Van Auken family (minus Chase). After dinner we walked around the city to Check Point Charley along the way seeing the opera house, Fredrickstraße, and a Buggatti Veryon in the VW dealership. We passed a number of historic buildings were you could still see the scars of World War II in the marble and concrete. We also stopped at a number of shops where we found a wonderful selection of souvenirs, but because my pocket was a bit tight I decided to hold off on buying anything. When we arrived back at the hotel we met up with two other conference attendees’ (Rob and Kerri) and we went out again. We went to a part of Berlin that was apparently a 3km stretch of bars, street performers, and prostitutes. After a few hours out we finished our drinks and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the next day.
Wednesday:
I decided to wake up a bit later because I was still a little tired from all of the walking and the two days of non-stop conferencing. At about 9:00 I arrived at the conference center and sat down for the Zimbardo lecture. When I arrived the other students were already there with seats reserved for everyone. While I waited in the auditorium I sat through the “History of applied psychology in different countries (IUSpsyS-007)” which was, needless to say, not remotely entertaining or interesting. About 30 minutes after I arrived people started to pile in to the lecture hall, quickly filling all of the seats. Before long I could see Dr. Zimbardo on the stage getting everything ready talking with a number of people.
Finally, Zimbardo started his lecture and unlike the other presentations thus far, he was very comfortable on stage. He was a very powerful speaker and his presentation was exciting, informative, and engaging. The pictures he showed of the conditions at Abu Graib were incredible. I had seen some of them before in his book, but I have not seen any of them in color or that volume. We were all so impressed he received a sanding ovation from the crowd.
Much like the presentation people were waiting in line hours ahead of time. Waiting in line was quite dull until a gentleman asked me where I was from—he noticed I was not waiting with anyone. After a couple minutes of talking, more of his friends arrived and we ended up talking up to the point when we got our books signed. After the signing my new friends and I decided we were hungry. We walked down to the Italian restaurant I seemed to keep finding myself at and we ordered pizzas. Little did I know, I was about to find myself in a fiasco. When I asked the waiter if they accepted credit cards he said yes on Monday but when I got up to take the bill the same waiter said they do not take credit cards. Frustrated, and without any cash I looked to my new friends baffled at how I would pay for my pizza and coffee. Corrina Horbach stated she would take up my bill, “no problem.” After eating we ended sitting at that restaurant till my next event.
After lunch I went back to the convention hall to see more posters specifically Language, reading and communication; human development; and educational psychology. PS-Wed-am-220 & PS-Wed-am-233 were by far the most interesting. Along the way I ran into the girl from Monday, Inga, again and we both wanted to check out the free massages, African meat, coffee. After spending a bit of time in the vendor’s area the second session of the posters started so I went to see some more posters and work on my blog posts until I was off to “Cognition in the Business world (FP-219)” at 15:00. That particular paper session was actually very interesting. I wanted to use that particular session to see if they would discuss anything regarding decision-making processes of executives, which Tanja Wranik did.
My last symposium of the day was “Innovative psychological interventions for recurrent headache (S-124).” I agreed to see this symposium the night before because Rob Nicholson asked if we would attend his speech. I was surprised by how recent his particular field was developed because it seemed liked a natural thing for psychologists to study. Done for the day I took the train back to the hotel with Kerri, Dana, and Dr. Hugh.
Thursday:
After 4 days of non-stop convention attendance, I decided it was time I could sleep in. Waking up at a comfortable 9:00 I decided to go for a swim, workout, swim, sauna, swim routine. I went to the convention to see more posters to finish out my requirements. I finished my 3:00 symposium I went to the poster sessions focusing on the Attention and perception, cognition, and social psychology posters. There I spent a good deal of time talking with a student in the cognition section about her studies at Stanford and her experience with Albert Bandura.
My final symposium for the day was “Ethics, psychology, torture: conflicts of interest (S-212).” In spite of it being interesting, I was burned out of attending symposiums, so I barely retained consciousness and left halfway through it. I called Connie and discovered they were at the conference center and were planning on doing some well needed shopping. I then hopped on the train and toured Berlin with Connie and Katja, we ended up spending a good deal of the night shopping. I finally found the Birkenstocks I had been looking for since I arrived and lucky me they were on sale! The girls were amazed that a guy would be so excited by shoes and we all got a number of laughs out of it.
While we were out we ran into the rest of my traveling companions as they were out touring Berlin as well. The Van Auken’s were taking them to Check Point Charley while I was heading off to see more of Alexanderplatz. We walked around for a couple hours until the Congress Party. From there we traveled all over Berlin looking for the RAW temple. After three different trains and a 2km walk we arrived at the party but it was nothing like what we expected. The party consisted of a rather small tent in the back of what looked like drug dealers house. We questioned how much fun this place would be and decided it looked skeptical so we left in quest of something to do. After traveling to the other side of Berlin we found ourselves at a small restaurant eating more pizza. We were later joined by a couple other people my friend Connie had made earlier in the week. Once we all had a couple drinks and something to eat we ended up staying out as late as possible but because trains shut down at 01:00 we had to leave at 12:30 to make it on time. When I got home I went to bed straight away.
Friday:
Unlike the previous days, this was a rather uneventful day. I had met my quota for attending the symposium at this point, so I decided I would spend my day trying to see more of the city. I talked with Greg and Ryan about seeing KaDaWe and we all agreed to check that out. We hopped on the U-2 and road down to KaDaWe but we split up there because I wanted to look at a couple small shops to see if they had any more Birkenstocks or decent priced clothes. I also wanted to see the zoo. We scheduled a time to meet but I couldn’t find them so I grabbed a bite to eat and then walked around the city looking at the various shops. After a few hours of shopping I went to the convention center to say farewell to my new friends, exchange email addresses, and other contact information. I then went back to the hotel to meet up with everyone for the last night meal. I got back to the hotel at 7:00 to meet with everyone for dinner and waited in the lobby for 20 minutes but no one was there. I tried calling everyone to see if anyone was back but everyone was still out. So I headed over to the restaurant in the hotel and had a very delightful chicken salad with quite possibly the best check presentation I have ever seen.
I decided to check out the Sony center again, this time walking around and exploring more shops. While I waiting for everyone else to arrive I sat down and had a conversation with a German family and their American cousins. I went back to the hotel to start packing and get everything ready for the flight back since at that point I had destroyed the room with all of my clothes and such. Before long Greg came in the room and we talked about the conference to that point. I decide a last work-out, swim, and sauna would be nice. I ended up working out until about 12:00 trying to exhaust myself so I would sleep.
Saturday:
I woke up at a bright 4:00 to get everything ready and to organize myself for another 13 hours in a plane. This time I decided to not carry my laptop and other excessive luggage as carry-on. Walking downstairs packed, I was ready to head home. Before too long everyone else started to trickle down the elevators into the lobby. When Dr. Hugh came down he went to check out—but he seemed to be lingering there for a good deal of time. After about 20 minutes he walked up to us and explained what had taken him so long. We racked up a massive phone bill. Dumbfounded by this news everyone was silent until we got into the taxies. No one had anything to say but “Holy shit. How did we do that?! I thought the phone cards worked?” I felt highly embarrassed by this mostly because it seemed to make logical sense to me after the fact. I had spent a year working in telecommunications and I have seen charges like this before, but not with calling cards.
We piled into the taxies, and got to the airport. The flight to Berlin seemed to be quite enjoyable in comparison now that we were heading back to the states with a crippling debt to pay off. Sleep did not come at all for the whole trip home.
Sunday:
Drove home, and finally slept again.
Psychology 497
Journal
Thursday/Friday:
Traveling to Berlin was a trip in and of its self. The day started for me at 8:00 AM with a final run down of my packed items. Afterward it was a trip to the bank, then to Holy Cross to meet up with the Van Auken’s. Leaving from South Bend was without any major incident and afforded a good opportunity to discuss a broad spectrum of topics with Dr. Doris Van Auken. O’Hare, on the other hand, was a bit less smooth. The Van Auken family, Greg Wright, and I arrived at the airport a few hours before we picked up our tickets. The other members arrived with one coming at the last minute. When we got through the terminal it occurred to us all that we were both hungry, and we were about to spend 13 hours on a plane. Dr. Hugh took one of his suns and got us pizza to hold us over until we had our in-flight meal. I initially had mixed feelings to flying as I had never flown before, but as soon as we lifted off it was quite thrilling to fly.
The plane ride was as far as I could tell, as typical as one could expect. The food was decent, seat was comfortable, blanket was nice, and company was good all, which made the ride fairly enjoyable even though I didn’t get any real sleep. When we landed in London I was still quite energized just to be heading to Germany. In my excitement to get through the metal detectors I ended up dropping my carry-on bag that contained my laptop sustained quite a deal of damage to a corner. Upon later inspection it was all superficial damage. While at Heathrow one of the Van Auken’s children (Hugh) accompanied me and walked through the duty free shops stopping at various shops to peruse the merchandise. Outside of a Ferrari and the Audi right out of the turn styles the airport was very similar to a high-class mall in America with a couple of differences here and there (mostly the booze). The time at the airport passed quite quickly and before I knew it we were on British Airlines flying to Tegel and I was seated next to a couple of British photographers. I spent almost the entire time talking with the couple enjoying the flight completely.
Up to this point the traveling had been only had minor hiccups, but when we landed one of my fellow students lost her luggage. Apparently, the baggers at Heathrow left her luggage there and she was stuck without the bulk of her clothes. A few tears and a few hours later she arranged to have her lost luggage delivered to the hotel later that evening. At this point I was starting to notice I was a bit tired while waiting for the car rental but not exhausted yet. When we finally got on the road I was overwhelmed with joy to see any and everything Germany. I was especially excited when we passed through Tiergarten heading to Potsdamer Platz. This was so exciting that I actually forgot I was tired until we got to the hotel and started to settle in, then a sheer wave of exhaustion washed over me and it was as though I was dead on my feet. Alas, this was not the end of my day yet I still had dinner with the entire group.
A few hours later we set of on the U-Bahn to Georgbræu to sample some authentic Berlin food. Along the way I was so exhausted I ended up falling asleep on the train standing up. At this point I had not slept since 8:00 the day before and it was about 7:00 PM in Germany. After a quick ride and a quick walk we arrived at the Brauhaus Georgbræu for dinner. Following the meal a number of us decided on the train we would go for a quick walk to the mall after returning to the hotel for the evening. Upon arriving at the mall we realized the mall was closing so we went back to the hotel to swim. Finally exhausted from a very long day, I went to bed.
Saturday:
Awaking quite early Greg and I enjoyed the complementary coffee in the lobby to be followed by the rest of the group as we prepared to head to our first stop—Buchenwald. After a bit of waiting we were on the road and before long on the autobahn. A few hours into the drive we stopped to get lunch at a rest stop. After lunch we were back on the road and moving through the beautiful countryside seeing windmills, hills, sporadic rain, and the occasional sunflower field. It was very exciting for me to see the countryside of Germany as well as ride on the Autobahn.
Arriving at Buchenwald was somewhat abrupt because the surroundings changed from mountainside to camp almost instantly. First passing the train rails, past the barracks, to the gate with the words "Jedem Das Seine" (meaning: to each his own) inscribed with iron bars of the gate. Experiencing first hand the enormity of the concentration/work camp was both terrifying and surreal. I walked the grounds of where the prisoners called home with Greg and Dr. Hugh aghast when we passed a particular barracks where the relatives some of the prisoners left pebbles as small tombstones for their relative. After a few minutes of moving through the camp Greg, Dr. Hugh, and I walked through the crematorium and a new level of terror swept over me. As I walked through the building from the courtyard to the autopsy room, to the crematorium, past the ovens, down to the storage room, then out the back door. Both the intense realization others spent their last moments where I was standing but also this was a place where extreme forms of hatred were aloud to run free.
After that deeply emotional and history saturated environment the three of us walked outside of the gated area and to the left we could see the Zoo built for the SS and their children. We walked down the rocky path toward the depot to meet up with the rest of the group to get ready to go to our next destination. When the two groups met up just outside of the depot we suggested they walk through the crematorium and then go to our next destination. When everyone exited they seemed to look as astonished as I felt while walking through it the first time although the second time through, I noticed more details in the oven rooms (broken slats, ash drawers, ignition systems); and also in the stables. Upon exiting the exhibit Dr. Doris and Dr. Hugh noted we did not see the prison. We made a quick detour to at least see that.
After a few hours at Buchenwald we were on our way to Mittelbau-Dora, which was suppose to be a fairly easy trip, but turned out to be a little bit more complicated than expected. Along the way a road was closed so we had to take a 30 minute jaunt in the opposite direction. In spite of the detour the scenery was amazing! We passed through a number of wooded areas, small villages, beautiful hilly passes, and hops farms. A few hours later we arrived at KZ Mittelbau-Dora just outside of Nordhausen.
Unlike the experience at Buchenwald, this had a feeling of sterility to it initially because it was entirely enclosed in a hilltop. Upon arriving we realize we were a little over an hour late for our appointment so we were unsure if we could get the tour. After a quick conversation at the information building a very funny and informative tour guide agreed to take us. While watching the video that same sterility and benign was quickly swept away and replaced by grim fact this was a place that was another hell on earth. Looking for a photo opportunity I took a couple shots of the hills that the factory was built in although later I discovered they did not turn out very good.
A quick walk down the road, past our cars, and to the entrance of the factory--a hole in the hill--it was somewhat eerie. Our guide explained to us that it was going to be relativity cold in the tunnels, indeed, very chilly. We walked along the dark passage stopping along the way to hear about the construction time, living conditions, formal use, post-war use, and the many attempts to destroy the tunnels. Because of the many attempts to destroy the tunnels and the lack of water pumps a very large portion of the tunnels were inaccessible to the public so we only went to a few of the passages. When comparing the two sites, I enjoyed the tunnels more just because we had a very good tour guide.
Finally done at the tour of concentration camps we were off to Goslar for dinner. Although the trip did not have any detours it did feel the longest. When we finally arrived at Goslar we discovered very quickly that this was a very old city. The roads were barely wide enough for cars and parking was at a premium making it very difficult both find the restaurant and park. After a couple minutes of driving through the streets we found the restaurant (Worthmühle), parked, and seated (a bit late) at our reserved table. Ready to eat we haphazardly picked our meals. Before too long we were presented with our meal. Most of us pleased with our orders except for the meat-gelatin, which turned into the dinner joke. Full we took a stroll around the city and we all concluded we would have loved to arrive there earlier to really engage the city more. We walked around the streets for a couple minutes admiring the architecture and finally found ourselves at the center of town with the very large Glockenspiel. After walking around the town for a couple minutes everyone piled into the cars and we were on our way back to the hotel. Exhausted I started to fall asleep until I noticed we were driving on the train tracks. Dr. Hugh turned a little to sharply and we found ourselves needing to back up on the one-way to get onto the other side of the autobahn. Although, after that drive back seemed to fly past since I fell asleep--neglecting my navigators duties--to wake up at the gas station where Dr. Hugh got more coffee to finish the trip awake. Once we got back to Berlin I went straight to sleep.
Sunday:
Because we had the day off I slept in a slight (e.g., I woke up at 9:00). When I finished a brisk swim I changed and got ready for the day. I headed down to the lobby to meet up with Dr. Hugh and Dr. Doris to see what we had planned if we were all going to meet for lunch at any point. After a bit of confusion we were told we could do what were free to do as we pleased so the other students and I went to the mall to shop. When we arrived other people were walking around, but nothing was open. We stood by a food vendor for a few hours only to realize that all of the shops are closed on Sunday’s. Frustrated, headed back to the hotel to sleep, call our family, or find something to eat, but Dana, Hugh, and I went to Gemäldegalerie to see the art. Along the way we saw a number of the embassies. I was amazed at how easy the city was to navigate and how close things seemed. After we finished at the gallery we decided to head back to the hotel to see if anyone was ready to go out. I met up with Greg, still in the hotel recovering from the long flight, and we ran into everyone in the lobby. After discussing what we want to do for the evening we decided to grab a bite to eat then we would meet up for drinks in a bit.
That evening we went to the Mexican restaurant across the street from the hotel and had a few drinks and a bite to eat. Then we went on a brisk walk around the block and back to the hotel. Not quite tired I went back to my room and got ready for a swim and maybe a brief workout in the gym. Greg and I went down to the pool, after a bit we were tired so we went to bed.
Monday:
Day one of the conference was similar to what I remember APS being like at the very first. It had its ups and downs that I expected for the first day. The ups included: interesting symposiums, posters, and people. The downs included very large venue, initially overwhelming amount of items to pick from, and registering for the conference. In spite of the downs, I still had a very productive day. I missed a symposium at 8:00 because registering on-site was not as easy as it seemed but I made it up by attending ½ of one invited address (PA-001) where I planned out my day. During the invited address I struck a conversation with a German woman and we ended up having a bulk of the same interests in presentations. After leaving the address I saw the name of a guy who I spent a good deal of time with at APS Stewart Madon and found his paper session. He was part of a session regarding psychophysics (FP-012). Next I attempted to see the topic with Philip Zimbardo (S-037) as the lead disscuant, although the room was so full people were sitting 30 feet outside the door. On the way out I ran into the girl I met in the first invited address, Inga Groußmann, we both had a second choice to see “Tolerance for Ambiguity, creativity and personality (IS-008)” and sat through that presentation. Fortunately, that was an interesting session so it seemed my choices were getting better. After a cup of coffee down the road we decided to attend the “Ethic behavior and Trust II (FP-047).” The paper was not quite what I expected and ended up being mostly about I/O psychology and was not very interesting. Halfway through at the break, we both went our way for the day and I went off to attend something that I was hoping would be more informative “Psychological Disorders—starting with Emotional changes and paranoia: an experience sampling study (FP-049).” On the way I saw a few of the posters. Although, the topic sounded quite interesting on paper it was hardly enjoyable. Dredging through that symposium I felt a bit hungry but thought it might be a good idea to get one more symposium through before I grabbed something. Finding each symposium was no easy task. Often I found myself asking where the rooms were. It did not help that the convention hall was also packed with thousands of people each with their own destinations. My final symposium for the day was “Why people care about justice (and why they sometimes don’t) (IS-021).” This was by far the most exciting symposium of the day. I had been looking forward to hearing John Jost speak again since I last saw him at APS.
That was my final topic for the day, and exhausted I headed toward the exit to find something to eat. On the way I ran into Dr. Doris and Hugh and we scheduled a time to grab something to eat. After another enjoyable but highly unique meal—kangaroo steak—relaxing was the only thing on my mind. I went back to the hotel went for a swim and sit in the sauna. After a few hours at the pool I went to bed.
Tuesday:
I woke up nice and early to grab the free coffee at the hotel to get ready for another symposium filled day. Before Dr. Doris, Hugh, and I took the train to Kiserdammstraße, we grabbed a bite to eat at the surprisingly good bagel store by the U-Bahn station. Because Dr. Doris and I were going to the same symposium we walked together to the (FP-075) “Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination” paper sessions. The room was quite uncomfortable stuffy, small, and seemed to be filling with more people as the day continued. After an interesting couple papers (especially Steven Stern) I was stuck in a dilemma of having to choose between two addresses “Environmental Perception and Cognition 1 (FP-097)” or “How to detect lies with statistics (IA-022),” both of which would be very useful for future classes. After a few minutes of walking through the vendors I decided to see (FP-097) because it would bear relevance later in the course with Dr. Verges.
While attending the paper session I thought would be highly interesting, it turned into a highly technical and obscurities topic. Sadly, the only thing I took from the session was a slightly better understanding affect and valance. Excited for my next symposium I grabbed a cup of coffee from the bar and ran up to “Self-regulatory strength and Ego Depletion: a Decade Later (S-094).” I was especially excited to see this symposium since during the summer I had been up on this particular literature and attempting to conceptualize ego depletion with pro-environmental behavior. In addition one of the speakers was someone I met at APS in the summer, Kathleen Vohs, and was highly interested in her research at University of Minnesota. This symposium was much more useful for me than the John Jost presentation in that she had a citation dense and very concise speech. Looking around the room I notice there was a number of faces that was also present in Chicago at APS.
After this symposium I decided it was time to look at the posters and then grab a bite to eat. I went down to the lobby area and picked up a quick bite, sat down with my laptop, and worked on the blog post. After viewing a number of posters on cognition; language, reading, and communication; research methods and statistics; and finally human development, I headed to the controversial debate. Although because the speech had moved, I found myself sitting in on the last half of another address called “The Cultural psychology of globalization (IA-008).” Uninterested in the topic but occasionally listening into the method and results it seemed to bear little relevance to anything until later reflection. After 20 minutes of sitting through the topic, the hall started to fill with people waiting to see the controversial debate. I found Dr. Doris and Dr. Hugh easily and saved a seat for them near the front. After gathering a great volume of citations to use later, we arrived at the discussion. Very quickly I noticed some of the people attending the symposium thought by discussion they were also suppose to include their thoughts in on the matter. After the two members of the audience finished, finally someone asked a question rather than spouting off some tid-bit of “wisdom” to the matter. Interesting as the individuals offering some insight may have been, they were highly irritating at the time because they never asked a question regarding the debate so they seemed to be wasting time others could have been using to ask questions. I noticed very quickly Dr. Hugh felt the same way as he expressed his gratitude for the first individual with a question by a very obvious clapping (quite funny at the time because he was the only one clapping). Finally done for the day I went back with Dr. Hugh and Doris discussing impressions convention, symposiums attended, and finally dinner plans. I forgot to eat during the day so I was quite hungry.
When we got back to the hotel we split up for an hour or so to change and get ready to go out. I called the other rooms to see if anyone else wanted to get dinner, but I couldn’t reach of the other students on their room phones so I ended up eating out with the Van Auken family (minus Chase). After dinner we walked around the city to Check Point Charley along the way seeing the opera house, Fredrickstraße, and a Buggatti Veryon in the VW dealership. We passed a number of historic buildings were you could still see the scars of World War II in the marble and concrete. We also stopped at a number of shops where we found a wonderful selection of souvenirs, but because my pocket was a bit tight I decided to hold off on buying anything. When we arrived back at the hotel we met up with two other conference attendees’ (Rob and Kerri) and we went out again. We went to a part of Berlin that was apparently a 3km stretch of bars, street performers, and prostitutes. After a few hours out we finished our drinks and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the next day.
Wednesday:
I decided to wake up a bit later because I was still a little tired from all of the walking and the two days of non-stop conferencing. At about 9:00 I arrived at the conference center and sat down for the Zimbardo lecture. When I arrived the other students were already there with seats reserved for everyone. While I waited in the auditorium I sat through the “History of applied psychology in different countries (IUSpsyS-007)” which was, needless to say, not remotely entertaining or interesting. About 30 minutes after I arrived people started to pile in to the lecture hall, quickly filling all of the seats. Before long I could see Dr. Zimbardo on the stage getting everything ready talking with a number of people.
Finally, Zimbardo started his lecture and unlike the other presentations thus far, he was very comfortable on stage. He was a very powerful speaker and his presentation was exciting, informative, and engaging. The pictures he showed of the conditions at Abu Graib were incredible. I had seen some of them before in his book, but I have not seen any of them in color or that volume. We were all so impressed he received a sanding ovation from the crowd.
Much like the presentation people were waiting in line hours ahead of time. Waiting in line was quite dull until a gentleman asked me where I was from—he noticed I was not waiting with anyone. After a couple minutes of talking, more of his friends arrived and we ended up talking up to the point when we got our books signed. After the signing my new friends and I decided we were hungry. We walked down to the Italian restaurant I seemed to keep finding myself at and we ordered pizzas. Little did I know, I was about to find myself in a fiasco. When I asked the waiter if they accepted credit cards he said yes on Monday but when I got up to take the bill the same waiter said they do not take credit cards. Frustrated, and without any cash I looked to my new friends baffled at how I would pay for my pizza and coffee. Corrina Horbach stated she would take up my bill, “no problem.” After eating we ended sitting at that restaurant till my next event.
After lunch I went back to the convention hall to see more posters specifically Language, reading and communication; human development; and educational psychology. PS-Wed-am-220 & PS-Wed-am-233 were by far the most interesting. Along the way I ran into the girl from Monday, Inga, again and we both wanted to check out the free massages, African meat, coffee. After spending a bit of time in the vendor’s area the second session of the posters started so I went to see some more posters and work on my blog posts until I was off to “Cognition in the Business world (FP-219)” at 15:00. That particular paper session was actually very interesting. I wanted to use that particular session to see if they would discuss anything regarding decision-making processes of executives, which Tanja Wranik did.
My last symposium of the day was “Innovative psychological interventions for recurrent headache (S-124).” I agreed to see this symposium the night before because Rob Nicholson asked if we would attend his speech. I was surprised by how recent his particular field was developed because it seemed liked a natural thing for psychologists to study. Done for the day I took the train back to the hotel with Kerri, Dana, and Dr. Hugh.
Thursday:
After 4 days of non-stop convention attendance, I decided it was time I could sleep in. Waking up at a comfortable 9:00 I decided to go for a swim, workout, swim, sauna, swim routine. I went to the convention to see more posters to finish out my requirements. I finished my 3:00 symposium I went to the poster sessions focusing on the Attention and perception, cognition, and social psychology posters. There I spent a good deal of time talking with a student in the cognition section about her studies at Stanford and her experience with Albert Bandura.
My final symposium for the day was “Ethics, psychology, torture: conflicts of interest (S-212).” In spite of it being interesting, I was burned out of attending symposiums, so I barely retained consciousness and left halfway through it. I called Connie and discovered they were at the conference center and were planning on doing some well needed shopping. I then hopped on the train and toured Berlin with Connie and Katja, we ended up spending a good deal of the night shopping. I finally found the Birkenstocks I had been looking for since I arrived and lucky me they were on sale! The girls were amazed that a guy would be so excited by shoes and we all got a number of laughs out of it.
While we were out we ran into the rest of my traveling companions as they were out touring Berlin as well. The Van Auken’s were taking them to Check Point Charley while I was heading off to see more of Alexanderplatz. We walked around for a couple hours until the Congress Party. From there we traveled all over Berlin looking for the RAW temple. After three different trains and a 2km walk we arrived at the party but it was nothing like what we expected. The party consisted of a rather small tent in the back of what looked like drug dealers house. We questioned how much fun this place would be and decided it looked skeptical so we left in quest of something to do. After traveling to the other side of Berlin we found ourselves at a small restaurant eating more pizza. We were later joined by a couple other people my friend Connie had made earlier in the week. Once we all had a couple drinks and something to eat we ended up staying out as late as possible but because trains shut down at 01:00 we had to leave at 12:30 to make it on time. When I got home I went to bed straight away.
Friday:
Unlike the previous days, this was a rather uneventful day. I had met my quota for attending the symposium at this point, so I decided I would spend my day trying to see more of the city. I talked with Greg and Ryan about seeing KaDaWe and we all agreed to check that out. We hopped on the U-2 and road down to KaDaWe but we split up there because I wanted to look at a couple small shops to see if they had any more Birkenstocks or decent priced clothes. I also wanted to see the zoo. We scheduled a time to meet but I couldn’t find them so I grabbed a bite to eat and then walked around the city looking at the various shops. After a few hours of shopping I went to the convention center to say farewell to my new friends, exchange email addresses, and other contact information. I then went back to the hotel to meet up with everyone for the last night meal. I got back to the hotel at 7:00 to meet with everyone for dinner and waited in the lobby for 20 minutes but no one was there. I tried calling everyone to see if anyone was back but everyone was still out. So I headed over to the restaurant in the hotel and had a very delightful chicken salad with quite possibly the best check presentation I have ever seen.
I decided to check out the Sony center again, this time walking around and exploring more shops. While I waiting for everyone else to arrive I sat down and had a conversation with a German family and their American cousins. I went back to the hotel to start packing and get everything ready for the flight back since at that point I had destroyed the room with all of my clothes and such. Before long Greg came in the room and we talked about the conference to that point. I decide a last work-out, swim, and sauna would be nice. I ended up working out until about 12:00 trying to exhaust myself so I would sleep.
Saturday:
I woke up at a bright 4:00 to get everything ready and to organize myself for another 13 hours in a plane. This time I decided to not carry my laptop and other excessive luggage as carry-on. Walking downstairs packed, I was ready to head home. Before too long everyone else started to trickle down the elevators into the lobby. When Dr. Hugh came down he went to check out—but he seemed to be lingering there for a good deal of time. After about 20 minutes he walked up to us and explained what had taken him so long. We racked up a massive phone bill. Dumbfounded by this news everyone was silent until we got into the taxies. No one had anything to say but “Holy shit. How did we do that?! I thought the phone cards worked?” I felt highly embarrassed by this mostly because it seemed to make logical sense to me after the fact. I had spent a year working in telecommunications and I have seen charges like this before, but not with calling cards.
We piled into the taxies, and got to the airport. The flight to Berlin seemed to be quite enjoyable in comparison now that we were heading back to the states with a crippling debt to pay off. Sleep did not come at all for the whole trip home.
Sunday:
Drove home, and finally slept again.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Tuesday
Well Tuesdays symposium went quite a bit smoother. I started off the day attending a symposium that was centered around Stereotypes, prejudice, with Dr. Doris Van Auken and actually I ended up meeting the first presenter at a lot of lectures later. He even was taking the same plane from Germany to Heathrow that I was. So that was a great experience. Needless to say I didn't really think to much about the stereotypes I have about people who can't speak. Very interesting topic and very interesting presenter. After that I went to the "Internet access" zone of the conference and posted that first post. Walked around the posters for a bit, nothing there was outstanding but a few were interesting. I was a bit unnerved by the lack of print outs so I had to memorize or take notes on their posters which of course made me feel like a doofus. After a conversation with Dr. Van Auken well after the conference she stated that some of the posters were well below what she expected to see. Unbelievably, one person merely printed out their research paper and just slapped that on the wall!
But lets talk about some of the stuff I saw that was worth while and get off this negative subject.
I had to attend the symposium entitled, "Self-regulatory strenght and ego depletion: a decade later" with Alex Bertrams (Germany), Braqndong Schmeichel (USA), Alexander Unger (Germany), and Kathleen Vohs (USA). I was not actually aware of the topic before going in, but after leaving I still felt motivated to learn more about these two phenomena. Each one of the presenters was quite good.
During the symposium I felt kind of like a jerk. I got there a good 20 minutes early, and everyone else showed up 10 minutes before it started, and needless to say the room was PACKED!! two of the presenters even sat on the floor.
After that I was on my way to the Invited address, "Social Learning of Fear" when I ran into a fella I met the night before while attending Josh Jost's discussion. That's him in between some of the other Berliner students. So we ended up talking for a good hour and getting lunch. Ahhh the German people are quite wonderful to chat with. Once I realized the time I darted back to the conference to get good seats for the Controversial Debate which as I was told would be packed...and indeed it was.
Needless to say I got there right in the middle of the invited address scheduled before the debate and I must say...it was quite interesting. The topic was called, " The cultural psychology of globalization." Essentially if you are primed with information about your culture, then another persons culture, then asked to describe another persons culture they become more their-own culture and you become your own culture. My guess is that I was the only person in that room who was both American and Awake the whole time. I suppose it was not very interesting to the two other Americans in the room.
Finally the controversial debate! And this we have pictures of thanks to the CPO Hanser Service GmbH.
So as you can see Dr. Van Auken was quite engaged on this particular topic, as were we all! This was hands down the most interesting topic of the day.
The debate was ushured in by Elsbeth Stern (Switzerland) giving a fantastic overview of the topic and the presenters and including a bit of her own research in there as well.
This brings to Dr. Van Aukens "Pensive Picture." I didn't take this shot but its quite good if you ask me and a fairly good illustration of how engaging this topic actually was. Starting with the American, Camilla Benbow, describing her population and the caveats of educational psychology in the first place. Mind you her population is the top 1% in terms of IQ (e.g., the sons and daughters of the sons and daughters of Yale for generations). In any case her point was well made and indeed she left on quite the high note by saying, "You know, it all depends."
The next presenter did not really chime with me nearly as smoothly as Camilla Benbow, although, she too had her points that appeared to be valid. (I am not going to get into the specifics in this post for the sake of brevity.
Now I'm sure some of you are wondering why exactly my face looks like I'm quite irritated and yet interested. Well there is a grand reason for that and the words from Dr. Hugh's mouth described them best which without a direct quote was something to the effect of, "Typically when there is a debate and the mic is offered to the floor, the person with the mic asks a question. They don't typically give their research and data as a rebuttle." So I'm sure you can figure out what happened exactly. The presenters opened the floor to the attendee's and 2 of 5 actually asked a question! Mind you when the last person actually got up he stated right away, "I have a question" which was followed by nearby applause. Now I don't want to sound negative about this. I'm just stating I feel it was inappropriate to pick up the mic on a Q&A and not actually follow the premise.
Aside from that the day was by far the most interesting up to the point (easy considering it was merely the second day) and was by far the most conference intensive day I had. It always surprises me the sheer number of people who are willing to strike up a conversation at the drop of a hat if they merely have one thing in common such as attending this type of conference. I think it is that (and my basic knowledge of psychology) that really makes going to conferences worth while. I'm going to move onto Wednesday in the next post.
But lets talk about some of the stuff I saw that was worth while and get off this negative subject.
I had to attend the symposium entitled, "Self-regulatory strenght and ego depletion: a decade later" with Alex Bertrams (Germany), Braqndong Schmeichel (USA), Alexander Unger (Germany), and Kathleen Vohs (USA). I was not actually aware of the topic before going in, but after leaving I still felt motivated to learn more about these two phenomena. Each one of the presenters was quite good.
During the symposium I felt kind of like a jerk. I got there a good 20 minutes early, and everyone else showed up 10 minutes before it started, and needless to say the room was PACKED!! two of the presenters even sat on the floor.
After that I was on my way to the Invited address, "Social Learning of Fear" when I ran into a fella I met the night before while attending Josh Jost's discussion. That's him in between some of the other Berliner students. So we ended up talking for a good hour and getting lunch. Ahhh the German people are quite wonderful to chat with. Once I realized the time I darted back to the conference to get good seats for the Controversial Debate which as I was told would be packed...and indeed it was.Needless to say I got there right in the middle of the invited address scheduled before the debate and I must say...it was quite interesting. The topic was called, " The cultural psychology of globalization." Essentially if you are primed with information about your culture, then another persons culture, then asked to describe another persons culture they become more their-own culture and you become your own culture. My guess is that I was the only person in that room who was both American and Awake the whole time. I suppose it was not very interesting to the two other Americans in the room.
Finally the controversial debate! And this we have pictures of thanks to the CPO Hanser Service GmbH.
So as you can see Dr. Van Auken was quite engaged on this particular topic, as were we all! This was hands down the most interesting topic of the day.The debate was ushured in by Elsbeth Stern (Switzerland) giving a fantastic overview of the topic and the presenters and including a bit of her own research in there as well.
This brings to Dr. Van Aukens "Pensive Picture." I didn't take this shot but its quite good if you ask me and a fairly good illustration of how engaging this topic actually was. Starting with the American, Camilla Benbow, describing her population and the caveats of educational psychology in the first place. Mind you her population is the top 1% in terms of IQ (e.g., the sons and daughters of the sons and daughters of Yale for generations). In any case her point was well made and indeed she left on quite the high note by saying, "You know, it all depends."
The next presenter did not really chime with me nearly as smoothly as Camilla Benbow, although, she too had her points that appeared to be valid. (I am not going to get into the specifics in this post for the sake of brevity.
Now I'm sure some of you are wondering why exactly my face looks like I'm quite irritated and yet interested. Well there is a grand reason for that and the words from Dr. Hugh's mouth described them best which without a direct quote was something to the effect of, "Typically when there is a debate and the mic is offered to the floor, the person with the mic asks a question. They don't typically give their research and data as a rebuttle." So I'm sure you can figure out what happened exactly. The presenters opened the floor to the attendee's and 2 of 5 actually asked a question! Mind you when the last person actually got up he stated right away, "I have a question" which was followed by nearby applause. Now I don't want to sound negative about this. I'm just stating I feel it was inappropriate to pick up the mic on a Q&A and not actually follow the premise.Aside from that the day was by far the most interesting up to the point (easy considering it was merely the second day) and was by far the most conference intensive day I had. It always surprises me the sheer number of people who are willing to strike up a conversation at the drop of a hat if they merely have one thing in common such as attending this type of conference. I think it is that (and my basic knowledge of psychology) that really makes going to conferences worth while. I'm going to move onto Wednesday in the next post.
Conference
Now that I'm back in the States, I can finally write about the conference and this particular aspect of my time in Berlin!
I owe a great deal of gratitude to Dr. Hugh and Dr. Doris Van Auken for putting up with us for 10 days and for taking us to this eye-opening experience. In addition I would like to thank Holy Cross College for offering this opportunity to us and essentially "fronting" the bill to what would have been otherwise an impossible venture across the Atlantic.
I suppose it is a good idea to talk about the symposia, paper sessions, and the like that I attended first, but I'm going to talk about about my observations about the presenters first. It is quite amazing the difference between presenters. Take for example the folks from the Ukraine. I was utterly amazed on the studies they were presenting one in specific about the schizophrenic population there. Most of the information they were talking about seemed to be years behind the studies of the western influenced countries like UK and Germany. The lady was talking about how they have developed a stigma toward that population in their midsts. Although we all well know that any "disorder" group like schizophrenics tend to be stigmatized by the population due to a multitude of different reasons: media, experience, and lack of education on that particular population. Moreover their presentation was so robotic and it seemed as though they were reading there speeches off of a script. With that in mind I while attending some of the US or German presenters they were quite animated and enjoyable to listen to. I don't mean to pick on the Ukraine in specific but that was the first symposia that came to mind.
After that note I'll walk you guys Day by Day in a very brief run through of my time at the conference.
Monday: We arrived at the congress by the U2 in Kaiserdamm and got to the conference by 8:00. After registering for the conference (which too too long if you ask me) we could finally get into the symposia (an hour later!) After sitting in a lecture titled "Motives: measures, mechanisms, management (part 1)" I started hammering out the next 5 days of lectures. I attened a lecture on "Psychophysics" which was actually quite interesting. Essentially the topic covered the Fechners "inner pscyhophysics" concepts and the relationship between the phsyical, phisological, psychological. It was especially interesting to me because a friend of mine Stewart Madon from Canada was presenting and he and I met at APS in May so I had a great deal of insite on his topic. Later I attened a symposium entitled "Tolerance for ambiguity, creativity, and personality." This is where I discovered that some speakers were really quite boring. Tons of information, zero personality. To sum that up pending on the individuals predisposition to ambigous enviroments would determine their ability to work with new ambigious material. After a quick jog across the ICC attempting to see a Zimbardo lecture I discovered I wasn't the only one who wanted to see that particular address. So I ended up hanging out with a German gal who was in the elevator with me and who happened to be interested in the same topic, so we jogged over to another address entitled, "Conceptural and methodoligal issues in logitudina studies of job performance." Sounds interesting right? Not even close. I was so bored and hot in that lecture that I think I forgot how to even run a logitudinal study! After 50 minutes of that wasted time I poped over to see something I thought would be facinating, "Ethic behavior and trust." I had no idea it was about business ethics and job performace! Ugh. Who would have thought I would pick two I/O psychology lectures. So tired from that boring stuff, I had to have a cup of coffee.
If anyone tells you "yeah most places in Berlin take a visa" they are liars! HORRIBLE LIARS! I just wanted a cup of coffee to get my head back into some form of thinking. I go to pay and the man is like, "we don't take visa" (but image it was in very poor English...). So I ended up buming 3 euro from the gal I grabbed a cup of coffee with (gal from Switzerland).
Because I was having such bad luck with finding addresses that were engaging I decided lets see what the psychopathologist symposium would be like. I sat down about midway through the "Psychological disorders II" lecture and was stunned into a stupor. This gal went on and on about paranoia and essentially came to the conclusion that its a maladaptive coping process. So I asked her, "Do you think the people in your study developed this from experience, that is from their parents and peer groups; or do you think feature of your study group (Netherlands)." Her study group was rather small, 39. She kinda looked at me and said, "I think it is a maladaptive coping technique that is escaerbated by sleep deprevation..." After that I didn't want to bother asking any more questions.
I tried to get into the "research in fields of enviromentally relevant behavior" talk but that was jam-packed so I had to find something else to do. More coffee.
I finally ended up at a symposium that was worth the days loss of time. John Jost. He's a professor out of NYU and was exceptionally interesting, but I wasn't the only one who thought that. People were actually filling every possible spot just to see this topic, "Why people care about justice (and sometimes they don't)." By some luck I sit next to a fella and when I leaned over to share my thoughts on the topic he spoke back in clean and clear Englisht. Surprized because I had yet to find anyone that spoke with that kind of clarity I looked down at his name tag and he was from Germany. So I asked him where he learned English and he actually studied a year in America. He actually studied for a year in a city that is right down the road from where I live and we even knew the same people! Small world!
Between the symposiums I attened the two poster sessions which was either a hit or miss presention. One was stand out interesting. "The influence of IQ on early mortality is explained by SES: National logitudinal study of youth. Markus Jokela (Finland)." His presentation was solid, as was his methodology it also helped he really knew his topic.
After a day of learning some quite esoteric information it was time to eat. I ended up going out to eat with the Van Auken's, then going for a swim in our wonderful hotel--the Marriott.
For the sake of making this readable in bites I'll end this post with a simple retrospecitve observation. Read the abstracts before attending symposiums!
I owe a great deal of gratitude to Dr. Hugh and Dr. Doris Van Auken for putting up with us for 10 days and for taking us to this eye-opening experience. In addition I would like to thank Holy Cross College for offering this opportunity to us and essentially "fronting" the bill to what would have been otherwise an impossible venture across the Atlantic.
I suppose it is a good idea to talk about the symposia, paper sessions, and the like that I attended first, but I'm going to talk about about my observations about the presenters first. It is quite amazing the difference between presenters. Take for example the folks from the Ukraine. I was utterly amazed on the studies they were presenting one in specific about the schizophrenic population there. Most of the information they were talking about seemed to be years behind the studies of the western influenced countries like UK and Germany. The lady was talking about how they have developed a stigma toward that population in their midsts. Although we all well know that any "disorder" group like schizophrenics tend to be stigmatized by the population due to a multitude of different reasons: media, experience, and lack of education on that particular population. Moreover their presentation was so robotic and it seemed as though they were reading there speeches off of a script. With that in mind I while attending some of the US or German presenters they were quite animated and enjoyable to listen to. I don't mean to pick on the Ukraine in specific but that was the first symposia that came to mind.
After that note I'll walk you guys Day by Day in a very brief run through of my time at the conference.
Monday: We arrived at the congress by the U2 in Kaiserdamm and got to the conference by 8:00. After registering for the conference (which too too long if you ask me) we could finally get into the symposia (an hour later!) After sitting in a lecture titled "Motives: measures, mechanisms, management (part 1)" I started hammering out the next 5 days of lectures. I attened a lecture on "Psychophysics" which was actually quite interesting. Essentially the topic covered the Fechners "inner pscyhophysics" concepts and the relationship between the phsyical, phisological, psychological. It was especially interesting to me because a friend of mine Stewart Madon from Canada was presenting and he and I met at APS in May so I had a great deal of insite on his topic. Later I attened a symposium entitled "Tolerance for ambiguity, creativity, and personality." This is where I discovered that some speakers were really quite boring. Tons of information, zero personality. To sum that up pending on the individuals predisposition to ambigous enviroments would determine their ability to work with new ambigious material. After a quick jog across the ICC attempting to see a Zimbardo lecture I discovered I wasn't the only one who wanted to see that particular address. So I ended up hanging out with a German gal who was in the elevator with me and who happened to be interested in the same topic, so we jogged over to another address entitled, "Conceptural and methodoligal issues in logitudina studies of job performance." Sounds interesting right? Not even close. I was so bored and hot in that lecture that I think I forgot how to even run a logitudinal study! After 50 minutes of that wasted time I poped over to see something I thought would be facinating, "Ethic behavior and trust." I had no idea it was about business ethics and job performace! Ugh. Who would have thought I would pick two I/O psychology lectures. So tired from that boring stuff, I had to have a cup of coffee.
If anyone tells you "yeah most places in Berlin take a visa" they are liars! HORRIBLE LIARS! I just wanted a cup of coffee to get my head back into some form of thinking. I go to pay and the man is like, "we don't take visa" (but image it was in very poor English...). So I ended up buming 3 euro from the gal I grabbed a cup of coffee with (gal from Switzerland).
Because I was having such bad luck with finding addresses that were engaging I decided lets see what the psychopathologist symposium would be like. I sat down about midway through the "Psychological disorders II" lecture and was stunned into a stupor. This gal went on and on about paranoia and essentially came to the conclusion that its a maladaptive coping process. So I asked her, "Do you think the people in your study developed this from experience, that is from their parents and peer groups; or do you think feature of your study group (Netherlands)." Her study group was rather small, 39. She kinda looked at me and said, "I think it is a maladaptive coping technique that is escaerbated by sleep deprevation..." After that I didn't want to bother asking any more questions.
I tried to get into the "research in fields of enviromentally relevant behavior" talk but that was jam-packed so I had to find something else to do. More coffee.
I finally ended up at a symposium that was worth the days loss of time. John Jost. He's a professor out of NYU and was exceptionally interesting, but I wasn't the only one who thought that. People were actually filling every possible spot just to see this topic, "Why people care about justice (and sometimes they don't)." By some luck I sit next to a fella and when I leaned over to share my thoughts on the topic he spoke back in clean and clear Englisht. Surprized because I had yet to find anyone that spoke with that kind of clarity I looked down at his name tag and he was from Germany. So I asked him where he learned English and he actually studied a year in America. He actually studied for a year in a city that is right down the road from where I live and we even knew the same people! Small world!
Between the symposiums I attened the two poster sessions which was either a hit or miss presention. One was stand out interesting. "The influence of IQ on early mortality is explained by SES: National logitudinal study of youth. Markus Jokela (Finland)." His presentation was solid, as was his methodology it also helped he really knew his topic.
After a day of learning some quite esoteric information it was time to eat. I ended up going out to eat with the Van Auken's, then going for a swim in our wonderful hotel--the Marriott.
For the sake of making this readable in bites I'll end this post with a simple retrospecitve observation. Read the abstracts before attending symposiums!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Let's Hear from one of the students: Greg Wright
During our many travels around Deutchland the V.A. (Van Aukens) and I decided it would be a good idea to get a blog from each of the students regarding the conference. As much as this is my blog, it is our experience so let me present to you guys Greg Wright; Holy Cross College Psi Beta President.
(P.S. This will be the last update that is not in sequence. As I stated before they will all be reorganized and re-edited upon return when I can access the internet for more than 20 minutes at a time! Expect a full revision and update 7-30-2008. Until then Enjoy! and Tschüs)
07.08
International Congress Of Psychology: DAY 1
Hello all from Berlin! Our experience here thus far has been very busy and exciting. Even with the jetlag and the seemingly endless driving across the German countryside, we were able to squeeze in many culturally and historically defining moments. After four days of travel, learning, fun, and excitement, we reached the “second stage” of our journey to Berlin: The 29th International Congress of Psychology. Time to show the large psychology world what the mighty psych majors of Holy Cross are made of!
It was an early morning to start, awaking at 0600 Berlin time. The eight of us attending the congress met in the lobby at 0700 looking sharp and professional, journals and business cards in hand, along with the much needed coffee and tea. We hopped on the U-Bahn around 0730 and arrived at the conference around 0750. Upon arrival we had to register and we all received official nametags for the week (and we’re hanging on to them with our life because replacement costs 50€!). We were able to start taking part in the symposiums around 0830. At this point, we all went our own ways, finding whatever topics being presented fitted our interests.
Sammie, Dana, and myself attended a few lectures relating to childhood psychology and schools. Then we met up with Chase, Ryan, and Dr. Doris in the poster session hall. There we were able to witness a large variety of presentations, and we were able to ask questions and learn what each study was about. If there were handouts/outlines available at a station, we took them for our own reference. Dr. Hugh was off and about right off the start, attending many lectures. Chase had to make multiple coffee runs for his much-needing father. Nate was off and about also, surely running from one end of the conference to the other attending as much as he could.
Overall, the first day was a bit hectic, as we were all gaining our footing for what the week was to hold for us at the conference. We were able to get some of our requirements completed. The next few days of the conference should go smoother as we have been planning the rest of our week out and we know the layout of the conference building much better. One exciting highlight of the day was meeting Philip Zimbardo!! We received and autograph from the Stanford University psychology king, and some of us even received a Polaroid with him!! That will be one to hang on the wall!
Most of us are pretty tired tonight, so we are going to get some rest and be ready to go tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a successful, fun, and educational day! We will be following up on the upcoming day’s events soon!
-Greg Wright
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Guten Tag London, Guten Tag Berlin!
Hello everyone, I am posting from Berlin! Amazing as it my sound, but getting here was no “walk in the park” if you permit me a small pun. Because this is my story lets walk through my day-to-day-to-day events. It started at a lovely 8:00 of restless sleeping (e.g., I finally fell asleep at 4:00), followed by a trek to the bank. Mind you I can get ready in 15 minutes or less, pending on the condition of my hair (yikes). After two attempts of finding an open bank I decided snack food for the plane would be a brilliant idea (thanks Bflat), which was just as much of a pain in the butt meaning I ended up going to the gas station. After that I spent the better part of that morning just trying to double, triple, quadruple check everything I was brining to make sure I didn’t forget anything.
For Reference to what I packed:
2 books—Lucifer Effect; Godel, Escher, Bach
1 Nikon D40X, Nikkor 18-135mm telephoto lens
2 Nikon 1.19 aWh batteries
1 Powerbook G4, power, mouse, iPod etc,
3 pants
3 short pants
3 dress shirts
3 ties
3 polo shirts
4 tee-shirts
1 toiletry set (thanks Bflat)
Ok, I can’t remember it all, but in any case it was a very selected bit of my “important” items.
At this point I ended up waiting around for Dr. Doris and Hugh Van Auken while sitting around at Holy Cross. It was kind of interesting to watch all of the summer students roam the halls oblivious to my presence unlike the professors who knew I was a psychology student or have heard about the trip from others. They on the other hand would come up to me and ask if I was excited, gave kudos, and expressed a great deal of pride that we were sending students to this conference. I guess it's more amusing than it is interesting.
About 12:00 the Van Auken’s showed up, we loaded up the cars then headed off to the wonderful Chicago O’Hare Airport; or as I have dubbed it: (extemporaneously deleted) on Earth. Needless to say I have never felt so stupid, smart, dirty, clean, and a plethora of other oxymoron’s at the exact same time. On one hand I would smell some dirty foreigners walk by rank of vodka and cigarettes (making me feel quite clean) but the instant I had to take my shoes off at the security check I felt so god-awfully disgusting! I have noticed that I’m quite anxious around airport folk. I seem to be hyper-vigilant and a terrified worried I’m going to appear as a tourist in spite of the fact I am one! All of those complex emotions aside, it was pretty smooth touring through there, in spite of the aforementioned things.
While boarding the plane I had a sudden rush of fear for my first flight but once I was seated next to Sammi and Greg it was a grand relief. During take-off that fear went into a complete opposite direction toward that of exhilaration. But the flight itself outside of those things was terribly boring. The corner stone flight movies followed by the reported typical airline foods. I guess I should mention that I only dozed off a bit because the seats were quite uncomfortable and very close to the person to the right or left (even though I was isle-seated).
When we landed in Heathrow it was a totally different experience. Needless to say I was more rushed and confused than I have been in quite some time. Doing the check in process at Heathrow was kind of like going to a dentist you know is about to pull out your teeth, but when you get there he trips you and you end up busting half of your teeth out. This parralles my experience there quite nicely actually. I knew I was going to get checked and assumed SOMETHING I own would set off an alarm. Actually, nothing did although I did end up dropping my bag which cracked the case. So now I'm typing on a very ugly looking computer :-(. Next came my luggage in general.
Getting my luggage to move from London to Berlin was quite the event. The folks at Virgin Air tore the luggage numbers off and so the concierge at British Air had to track down my luggage by name which is apparently a feat. Then the security was just so rushed and almost haphazard that it barely seemed worth it until I passed that and looked to the left. This was something I’ve wanted to see for a long time in person. A Ferrari F430. Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful. What a great welcome to London England! As I toured the Heathrow “mall” which is as it sounds a mall complete with cafés, duty free shops, a bar, some designer clothing shops, oh and an apple store. Well not a full sized apple store like the one in Chicago or Indy but it did happen to have all of the typical mac stuff on display so it was fun all the same.
After we boarded our planes to finally fly to Berlin via British Airways, I actually happen to sit next to this English couple that are professional photographers. What a fun couple of hours. Needless to say, that particular flight was pretty straightforward: jump on plane, get off plane. Outside of that the flight to Berlin was a breeze compared to the 7.10 hour flight from Chicago to London (well the seats were quite a bit nicer). That is until we landed. It wouldn’t be traveling if someone didn’t loose luggage.
Once they finally found her luggage (still in London) they were going to have it delivered to her, but our day was just beginning. Oh yes. This is around the 15th hour that I’ve been up and active. I would have considered sleeping on British Airways but the people next to me were just so interesting. Would have slept on Virgin Atlantic, if it was not for the aforementioned reasons). And now we have to trek across town to the Hotel and then the Bier Garden at 7:00 at night! Holy Hell. After that it put me well into the 26th or 27th hour of no sleep.
OK. I think it’s a good idea to talk about this whole “no sleep” deal. Why? Well I think its quite amusing to see a metro full of Americans who are having the most ridiculous time trying to get tickets to board this damn thing, then trying to stay awake. Pfft. No way. I slept on the u-bahn—standing. Not very comfortable but it at least gave me the umph to keep moving for the next couple hours.
The Bier Garden. My definition: a reason to come to Germany for incredible beer and the incredible food. Braughtwurst never tasted so good, as was the kolslaw, potatoes, and red cabbage. I honestly could write an entire blog on merely the food experience. The beer was unbelievable. At first I took a drink and thought, “well this isn’t any—HOLY COW!! This is amazing.” It was actually good enough for me to want to savor the beer with the meal as it was some sort of symbiotic and recursively amplifying relationship. In any fashion, Germany was absolutely validated by that meal alone.
When we finally finished at the Bier garden a small group of us decided to go head on down to the mall since it was right off the train station at Potsdamer Platz near our hotel. (Yeah, we’re young, we can handle ourselves in the mall not to mention we are all exhausted) For once I am not with out some smart ass comment about how we totally fell on our face. Ha Ha, we conquered the mall! We didn’t buy anything but we actually went to all 3 stories in less than under 30 minutes. There I finally found them. Birkenstocks! If I may liken this to the moment in Wayne’s World where he describes the white Fender Stratocaster, “it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.” Mission 1 accomplished 50% accomplished. Now I just have to wait a day to buy them because we will be doing a tour of the countryside tomorrow.
Finally returning to our hotel after way to many hours out and about (getting back at roughly 9) a number of us decide to go swimming. One would think we’d all be dead in our shoes with all of this stuff, but apparently we needed to swim to get to sleep even though I fell asleep on the train ride to (Kiserstrasse). Obviously we enjoyed the many comforts of our luxery hotel, (e.g., sona, pool, and bath robes.) After all of this we finally called it a night, and went to bed.
Gute nacht Berlin, und gute nacht Nate.
(Sorry for the lack of pictures, I will have to post those up later :-(
For Reference to what I packed:
2 books—Lucifer Effect; Godel, Escher, Bach
1 Nikon D40X, Nikkor 18-135mm telephoto lens
2 Nikon 1.19 aWh batteries
1 Powerbook G4, power, mouse, iPod etc,
3 pants
3 short pants
3 dress shirts
3 ties
3 polo shirts
4 tee-shirts
1 toiletry set (thanks Bflat)
Ok, I can’t remember it all, but in any case it was a very selected bit of my “important” items.
At this point I ended up waiting around for Dr. Doris and Hugh Van Auken while sitting around at Holy Cross. It was kind of interesting to watch all of the summer students roam the halls oblivious to my presence unlike the professors who knew I was a psychology student or have heard about the trip from others. They on the other hand would come up to me and ask if I was excited, gave kudos, and expressed a great deal of pride that we were sending students to this conference. I guess it's more amusing than it is interesting.
About 12:00 the Van Auken’s showed up, we loaded up the cars then headed off to the wonderful Chicago O’Hare Airport; or as I have dubbed it: (extemporaneously deleted) on Earth. Needless to say I have never felt so stupid, smart, dirty, clean, and a plethora of other oxymoron’s at the exact same time. On one hand I would smell some dirty foreigners walk by rank of vodka and cigarettes (making me feel quite clean) but the instant I had to take my shoes off at the security check I felt so god-awfully disgusting! I have noticed that I’m quite anxious around airport folk. I seem to be hyper-vigilant and a terrified worried I’m going to appear as a tourist in spite of the fact I am one! All of those complex emotions aside, it was pretty smooth touring through there, in spite of the aforementioned things.
While boarding the plane I had a sudden rush of fear for my first flight but once I was seated next to Sammi and Greg it was a grand relief. During take-off that fear went into a complete opposite direction toward that of exhilaration. But the flight itself outside of those things was terribly boring. The corner stone flight movies followed by the reported typical airline foods. I guess I should mention that I only dozed off a bit because the seats were quite uncomfortable and very close to the person to the right or left (even though I was isle-seated).
When we landed in Heathrow it was a totally different experience. Needless to say I was more rushed and confused than I have been in quite some time. Doing the check in process at Heathrow was kind of like going to a dentist you know is about to pull out your teeth, but when you get there he trips you and you end up busting half of your teeth out. This parralles my experience there quite nicely actually. I knew I was going to get checked and assumed SOMETHING I own would set off an alarm. Actually, nothing did although I did end up dropping my bag which cracked the case. So now I'm typing on a very ugly looking computer :-(. Next came my luggage in general.
Getting my luggage to move from London to Berlin was quite the event. The folks at Virgin Air tore the luggage numbers off and so the concierge at British Air had to track down my luggage by name which is apparently a feat. Then the security was just so rushed and almost haphazard that it barely seemed worth it until I passed that and looked to the left. This was something I’ve wanted to see for a long time in person. A Ferrari F430. Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful. What a great welcome to London England! As I toured the Heathrow “mall” which is as it sounds a mall complete with cafés, duty free shops, a bar, some designer clothing shops, oh and an apple store. Well not a full sized apple store like the one in Chicago or Indy but it did happen to have all of the typical mac stuff on display so it was fun all the same.
After we boarded our planes to finally fly to Berlin via British Airways, I actually happen to sit next to this English couple that are professional photographers. What a fun couple of hours. Needless to say, that particular flight was pretty straightforward: jump on plane, get off plane. Outside of that the flight to Berlin was a breeze compared to the 7.10 hour flight from Chicago to London (well the seats were quite a bit nicer). That is until we landed. It wouldn’t be traveling if someone didn’t loose luggage.
Once they finally found her luggage (still in London) they were going to have it delivered to her, but our day was just beginning. Oh yes. This is around the 15th hour that I’ve been up and active. I would have considered sleeping on British Airways but the people next to me were just so interesting. Would have slept on Virgin Atlantic, if it was not for the aforementioned reasons). And now we have to trek across town to the Hotel and then the Bier Garden at 7:00 at night! Holy Hell. After that it put me well into the 26th or 27th hour of no sleep.
OK. I think it’s a good idea to talk about this whole “no sleep” deal. Why? Well I think its quite amusing to see a metro full of Americans who are having the most ridiculous time trying to get tickets to board this damn thing, then trying to stay awake. Pfft. No way. I slept on the u-bahn—standing. Not very comfortable but it at least gave me the umph to keep moving for the next couple hours.
The Bier Garden. My definition: a reason to come to Germany for incredible beer and the incredible food. Braughtwurst never tasted so good, as was the kolslaw, potatoes, and red cabbage. I honestly could write an entire blog on merely the food experience. The beer was unbelievable. At first I took a drink and thought, “well this isn’t any—HOLY COW!! This is amazing.” It was actually good enough for me to want to savor the beer with the meal as it was some sort of symbiotic and recursively amplifying relationship. In any fashion, Germany was absolutely validated by that meal alone.
When we finally finished at the Bier garden a small group of us decided to go head on down to the mall since it was right off the train station at Potsdamer Platz near our hotel. (Yeah, we’re young, we can handle ourselves in the mall not to mention we are all exhausted) For once I am not with out some smart ass comment about how we totally fell on our face. Ha Ha, we conquered the mall! We didn’t buy anything but we actually went to all 3 stories in less than under 30 minutes. There I finally found them. Birkenstocks! If I may liken this to the moment in Wayne’s World where he describes the white Fender Stratocaster, “it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.” Mission 1 accomplished 50% accomplished. Now I just have to wait a day to buy them because we will be doing a tour of the countryside tomorrow.
Finally returning to our hotel after way to many hours out and about (getting back at roughly 9) a number of us decide to go swimming. One would think we’d all be dead in our shoes with all of this stuff, but apparently we needed to swim to get to sleep even though I fell asleep on the train ride to (Kiserstrasse). Obviously we enjoyed the many comforts of our luxery hotel, (e.g., sona, pool, and bath robes.) After all of this we finally called it a night, and went to bed.
Gute nacht Berlin, und gute nacht Nate.
(Sorry for the lack of pictures, I will have to post those up later :-(
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Guten Tag
Hello everyone. I have to inform you that I will not be posting as frequently as I planned. Please return to the page 7-25-08 for all of the updates with back-dated blogs.
Also to let you all know we got here fine with only a single person loosing their extra luggage so it was no biggie, and they ended up delievering the luggage at the hotel later that day.
Also to let you all know we got here fine with only a single person loosing their extra luggage so it was no biggie, and they ended up delievering the luggage at the hotel later that day.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
5 Day Count Down: 1
We'll looks like I'm rounding the home stretch to liftoff! As mentioned yesterday, I guess I'm a little terrified to fly, yet quite excited. In any case I thought I'd show off the area in which we will be staying! This is Potsdamer Platz:
The white building on the far left is actually the hotel in that I will be staying in! That big building in the center is the Sony Center which looks like this at night!
Quite amazing huh! Potsdamer Platz is really quite an amazing area. Anyway, lets take a look at the next couple days schedule!
DAY SIX: Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Twenty-ninth International Congress in Psychology!
Congress activities. Travel to the Congress. Attend the programs you have selected.
TODAY’S CONTROVERSIAL DEBATES
Managing diversity at school: Should students be grouped by their ability?
Differences in students’ cognitive capabilities affect schooling outcomes from the very beginning and set challenges in
providing appropriate learning environments for the entire achievement spectrum. While some countries have a system of
comprehensive schools for the first ten years, others have implemented tracking systems after grade 4. There is an
ongoing debate about whether students’ needs can be better met in homogeneous learning groups, or whether
heterogeneity stimulates learning. A related question concerns whether it is better to integrate or separate students from
the extremes of the achievement distribution: Should gifted students and students with learning difficulties stay in regular
classrooms or not?
Tuesday, 22 July, 15.00 – 16.30 h, Hall 6
Moderator
Elsbeth Stern, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Debaters
Camilla Benbow, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA
Zemira Mevarech, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Do evidence-based psychotherapy and education require randomized trials?
The clash between researchers and practitioners is a matter of concern in numerous fields. Many experimenters believe that randomized trials are the sole means of obtaining knowledge about efficient treatments. Yet in health
care, evidence-based medicine routinely conflicts with competing interests, and many doctors do not deliver evidence-based treatments. Should psychotherapists always base treatments on the results of experimental studies (randomized trials)? Should educational policy makers always rely on this “gold standard“ or instead on quasi-experiments or other methods,
and if so, on which? What if a practitioner’s gut feelings conflict with evidence from randomized trials?
Tuesday, 22 July, 15.00 – 16.30 h, Roof Garden
Moderator
Gerd Gigerenzer, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
Debaters
Alan Kazdin, Yale University, New Haven, USA
Barbara Schneider, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA
Return to the hotel. As a group, we will select a fun group activity for tonight!
DAY SEVEN: Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Twenty-ninth International Congress in Psychology!
Congress activities. Travel to the Congress. Attend the programs you have selected.
Remember to attend the Phillip Zimbardo lecture today! This is a required program!
THERE IS NO CONTROVERSIAL DEBATE TODAY!
Return to the hotel. Wednesday night is on your own!
Well thats it for now
Auf Wiersein
The white building on the far left is actually the hotel in that I will be staying in! That big building in the center is the Sony Center which looks like this at night!
Quite amazing huh! Potsdamer Platz is really quite an amazing area. Anyway, lets take a look at the next couple days schedule!
DAY SIX: Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Twenty-ninth International Congress in Psychology!
Congress activities. Travel to the Congress. Attend the programs you have selected.
TODAY’S CONTROVERSIAL DEBATES
Managing diversity at school: Should students be grouped by their ability?
Differences in students’ cognitive capabilities affect schooling outcomes from the very beginning and set challenges in
providing appropriate learning environments for the entire achievement spectrum. While some countries have a system of
comprehensive schools for the first ten years, others have implemented tracking systems after grade 4. There is an
ongoing debate about whether students’ needs can be better met in homogeneous learning groups, or whether
heterogeneity stimulates learning. A related question concerns whether it is better to integrate or separate students from
the extremes of the achievement distribution: Should gifted students and students with learning difficulties stay in regular
classrooms or not?
Tuesday, 22 July, 15.00 – 16.30 h, Hall 6
Moderator
Elsbeth Stern, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Debaters
Camilla Benbow, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA
Zemira Mevarech, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Do evidence-based psychotherapy and education require randomized trials?
The clash between researchers and practitioners is a matter of concern in numerous fields. Many experimenters believe that randomized trials are the sole means of obtaining knowledge about efficient treatments. Yet in health
care, evidence-based medicine routinely conflicts with competing interests, and many doctors do not deliver evidence-based treatments. Should psychotherapists always base treatments on the results of experimental studies (randomized trials)? Should educational policy makers always rely on this “gold standard“ or instead on quasi-experiments or other methods,
and if so, on which? What if a practitioner’s gut feelings conflict with evidence from randomized trials?
Tuesday, 22 July, 15.00 – 16.30 h, Roof Garden
Moderator
Gerd Gigerenzer, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
Debaters
Alan Kazdin, Yale University, New Haven, USA
Barbara Schneider, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA
Return to the hotel. As a group, we will select a fun group activity for tonight!
DAY SEVEN: Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Twenty-ninth International Congress in Psychology!
Congress activities. Travel to the Congress. Attend the programs you have selected.
Remember to attend the Phillip Zimbardo lecture today! This is a required program!
THERE IS NO CONTROVERSIAL DEBATE TODAY!
Return to the hotel. Wednesday night is on your own!
Well thats it for now
Auf Wiersein
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
5 Day Count Down: 2
As I sit around writing all of these lovely posts, I kind of occurred to me, "WAIT, I'M DOING WHAT?!" That's right. I'm boarding a plane, with my professors, flying to Europe, sharing a room with colleagues, playing the game I like to call "I-totally-understand-everything-you-just-said" with people I don't know, and leaving everything I'm familiar with to do it! What do I think about all of this?
I love it! I couldn't be more elated.
This whole trip is kind of like a good classically composed movie soundtrack. Every note purposeful, planned, proper, and leaves a lasting impression. I doubt anyone will be able to deny recognizing the Star Wars soundtrack. If they don't its most likely they live under a rock somewhere. Somewhere where the masses don't go, and people still consider rocks as technology. In any case as promised yesterday, lets see what I'm doing.
Considering my focus in psychology at Holy Cross College is research in some hyper-obscurified field a great deal of my attention is focused around my chosen area.
You'll have to forgive me for the white space that was wasted there, but it was quite the challenge to get the body of text there in the way I needed to.
I love it! I couldn't be more elated.
This whole trip is kind of like a good classically composed movie soundtrack. Every note purposeful, planned, proper, and leaves a lasting impression. I doubt anyone will be able to deny recognizing the Star Wars soundtrack. If they don't its most likely they live under a rock somewhere. Somewhere where the masses don't go, and people still consider rocks as technology. In any case as promised yesterday, lets see what I'm doing.
Considering my focus in psychology at Holy Cross College is research in some hyper-obscurified field a great deal of my attention is focused around my chosen area.
You'll have to forgive me for the white space that was wasted there, but it was quite the challenge to get the body of text there in the way I needed to.
On the home page!
Yesterday, Holy Cross College posted this (link) page up on the home page. But let me borrow the direct quote from Dr. D. Van Auken in regard to her thoughts on the trip,
Also, in addition there was a request I made earlier in the year in regard to our way to identify ourselves to our colleagues at the conferences, business cards! What a simple but powerful thing to use as a growing college. That was my one and specific observation while attending APS Chicago 2008. So this afternoon Dr. H. Van Auken informed us that we would indeed have business cards! Fantastic news.
“this is a rare opportunity for our students to learn from some of the most internationally respected and renown experts in the field of psychology as well as making acquaintances in their field including potential employment and/or graduate school contacts. At Holy Cross we try to incorporate experiential learning opportunities into our classes whenever possible.”Glad to hear the college is very interested in our trip and what an outstanding opportunity this is for us as students.
Also, in addition there was a request I made earlier in the year in regard to our way to identify ourselves to our colleagues at the conferences, business cards! What a simple but powerful thing to use as a growing college. That was my one and specific observation while attending APS Chicago 2008. So this afternoon Dr. H. Van Auken informed us that we would indeed have business cards! Fantastic news.
Monday, July 14, 2008
5 Day Count Down: 3
Count downs are truly fun are they not? 1, I can write them in a matter of minutes; 2, it provides a theme; 3, I can create theme's of the day and yet hold a continued overall theme of the segment; 4, they are just fun to do! So because I'm a man who loves his white space, this one's theme is simplicity.
Itinerary:
DAY FOUR: Sunday, July 20, 2008
Today, we spend some time recovering from our busy Saturday travels. No events are scheduled in the early morning. You may wish to sleep-in, take a walk, or get a bite to eat.
o Sunday morning options…
o Sleep-in.
o Have breakfast/brunch at a neighborhood café or restaurant
o Mass at St-Hedwigskathedrale, Bebelplatz near Unter den Linden
o Sunday Afternoon
o City touring
o Topographie des Terrors, Checkpoint Charlie
o Holocaust Denkmal
o KaDeWe
This is a fairly free form day. There are any number of things we can do. We’ll talk more about this when we arrive in Germany.
DAY FIVE: Monday, July 21, 2008
Welcome to the Twenty-ninth International Congress in Psychology!
o We will awaken early, about 0600. Get ready and head over to the conference. Remember to bring your journal book. (for me a handy dandy moleskin pocket book that I have held with me everywhere I go to keep my thoughts...)
o We will gather in the hotel lobby at about 0715. We’ll need to take the U-Bahn (U2 Line) to the Congress Center. While Dr. H and Dr. D are already registered for the Congress, due to the complexity of registering multiple students, we will be registering each of you on site, early in the morning. Remember: BRING YOUR STUDENT ID CARDS to assure that you will receive the sizable student discount rate for attending the conference.
o Review the Congress agenda and select the programs you wish to attend! Remember, this agenda is already online at www.icp2008.de. Attend the programs you select and have fun!
o PLEASE REMEMBER: For each symposium, poster session, or lecture you attend, pick up a copy of the written outline of the program. Most presenters will have a written document or abstract about their program. This will document your attendance and help you with your research project.
o LUNCH is on your own. There are a number of restaurants in the local neighborhood or grab a bite at the Congress center.
o In the afternoon, consider taking in a poster session – you need five of these through the week, a symposium, or other event.
o TODAY’S CONTROVERSIAL DEBATE
Functional neuroimaging has already told us a lot about cognition: Yes or No?
Methods of functional neuroimaging are used in a steadily increasing number of scientific studies in psychology, the neurosciences, or economics. While these studies have, without doubt, helped develop our knowledge about brain functions, the issue addressed in this debate is to what extent they also have contributed to a better understanding of cognition.
Monday, 21 July, 15.00 – 16.30 h,
Hall 6
Moderator
Arno Villringer, Berlin Neuroimaging Center, Germany
Debaters
Max Coltheart, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Sydney, Australia
Karl Friston, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, London, United Kingdom
o Return to the hotel at your leisure. Remember, try to travel in a group or at least in twos.
o Monday Night: On your own! Do what you like. Take in a movie at the Sony Center (40 screens including an IMAX), several neighborhood restaurants, etc.
OK. after my experiences at the 20th Association for Psychological Science convention, this is a really weak demand. I attended 20 symposiums, stayed on site for literally 15 hours a day. I feel confident I will be able to hammer out the requirements (minus Professor Philip Zimbardo's: The Lucifer Effect; for more information about my interests in this professor return to my parent page.) Outside of Dr. Zimbardo, I am exceptionally excited to see Claude Steele again. His talk on social psychology at APS was amazing. I look forward to seeing him with just as much anticipation as I do Dr. Zimbardo. Another key swinger at this congress will be Dr. Albert Bandura; as in the BoBo Doll--or vicarious learning--psychologist. The instant I saw his name on the roster for attendance, I screamed like that prototypical little girl who just got that pink pony and the unicorn to boot!
One can not image the powerful minds that will be wondering the halls of the convention. Life-long psychologists, winners of the William James, Nobel, or other various internationally recognized honors. In any case, This prepares you for tomorrow. It is MY itinerary of events while attending--rather merely the abstracts
Itinerary:
DAY FOUR: Sunday, July 20, 2008
Today, we spend some time recovering from our busy Saturday travels. No events are scheduled in the early morning. You may wish to sleep-in, take a walk, or get a bite to eat.
o Sunday morning options…
o Sleep-in.
o Have breakfast/brunch at a neighborhood café or restaurant
o Mass at St-Hedwigskathedrale, Bebelplatz near Unter den Linden
o Sunday Afternoon
o City touring
o Topographie des Terrors, Checkpoint Charlie
o Holocaust Denkmal
o KaDeWe
This is a fairly free form day. There are any number of things we can do. We’ll talk more about this when we arrive in Germany.
DAY FIVE: Monday, July 21, 2008
Welcome to the Twenty-ninth International Congress in Psychology!
o We will awaken early, about 0600. Get ready and head over to the conference. Remember to bring your journal book. (for me a handy dandy moleskin pocket book that I have held with me everywhere I go to keep my thoughts...)
o We will gather in the hotel lobby at about 0715. We’ll need to take the U-Bahn (U2 Line) to the Congress Center. While Dr. H and Dr. D are already registered for the Congress, due to the complexity of registering multiple students, we will be registering each of you on site, early in the morning. Remember: BRING YOUR STUDENT ID CARDS to assure that you will receive the sizable student discount rate for attending the conference.
o Review the Congress agenda and select the programs you wish to attend! Remember, this agenda is already online at www.icp2008.de. Attend the programs you select and have fun!
o PLEASE REMEMBER: For each symposium, poster session, or lecture you attend, pick up a copy of the written outline of the program. Most presenters will have a written document or abstract about their program. This will document your attendance and help you with your research project.
o LUNCH is on your own. There are a number of restaurants in the local neighborhood or grab a bite at the Congress center.
o In the afternoon, consider taking in a poster session – you need five of these through the week, a symposium, or other event.
o TODAY’S CONTROVERSIAL DEBATE
Functional neuroimaging has already told us a lot about cognition: Yes or No?
Methods of functional neuroimaging are used in a steadily increasing number of scientific studies in psychology, the neurosciences, or economics. While these studies have, without doubt, helped develop our knowledge about brain functions, the issue addressed in this debate is to what extent they also have contributed to a better understanding of cognition.
Monday, 21 July, 15.00 – 16.30 h,
Hall 6
Moderator
Arno Villringer, Berlin Neuroimaging Center, Germany
Debaters
Max Coltheart, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Sydney, Australia
Karl Friston, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, London, United Kingdom
o Return to the hotel at your leisure. Remember, try to travel in a group or at least in twos.
o Monday Night: On your own! Do what you like. Take in a movie at the Sony Center (40 screens including an IMAX), several neighborhood restaurants, etc.
OK. after my experiences at the 20th Association for Psychological Science convention, this is a really weak demand. I attended 20 symposiums, stayed on site for literally 15 hours a day. I feel confident I will be able to hammer out the requirements (minus Professor Philip Zimbardo's: The Lucifer Effect; for more information about my interests in this professor return to my parent page.) Outside of Dr. Zimbardo, I am exceptionally excited to see Claude Steele again. His talk on social psychology at APS was amazing. I look forward to seeing him with just as much anticipation as I do Dr. Zimbardo. Another key swinger at this congress will be Dr. Albert Bandura; as in the BoBo Doll--or vicarious learning--psychologist. The instant I saw his name on the roster for attendance, I screamed like that prototypical little girl who just got that pink pony and the unicorn to boot!
One can not image the powerful minds that will be wondering the halls of the convention. Life-long psychologists, winners of the William James, Nobel, or other various internationally recognized honors. In any case, This prepares you for tomorrow. It is MY itinerary of events while attending--rather merely the abstracts
Sunday, July 13, 2008
5 Day Count Down: 4
As the previous post stated, I am doing a count down to liftoff! To keep the theme of activities rolling, lets cover day 3. At this point I'm preparing my mind for an intense semesters lectures to be crammed in a mere 5 days, in addition to reaping every bit of superfluous information about my major from Dr. H. and Dr. D. Van Auken. But I feel compelled to talk about why exactly that is my goal from this journey. (whats life without a little validation :-D, and this is not to brown nose...seeing as they do read this). It seems I've been talking with people a lot lately about how to succeed as a psychology student in spite of my long journey ahead of me. But I keep saying the same thing over and over. Find your discipline, then study all the ones related. Taste all of the cherries on this tree, and find ways to make your cherry pie. For me it was a intimate course on research when everything clicked. I discovered I'm pretty good at thinking about how to think about research. Since then my attitudes about this thing we call education and how to do it have changed completely. Needless to say, I went from a horrible student only attempting to achieve (and to leave it at that) a mere Associates of Arts degree from Holy Cross. Now I feel confident about my ability to achieve much greater--eyes on a Ph.D.
But since all of that is pretty boring stuff, but I'm sure someone's bound to find it interesting. Lets move back to the events of the jouney. Therefore yet another post from the infamous Dr. H. and D. Van Auken.
DAY THREE ITINERARY: SATURDAY, JULY 19, 2008 As you know, Holy Cross College requires that all students participating in international trips experience the "culture" of the country they visit. Today is our longest and busiest day. We will travel via car and van to several historic sites in Germany. This requires that we awaken and leave early. Fortunately, we will be traveling on a Saturday morning with less rush hour traffic in Berlin. 1. Awaken at 0600. Hopefully, you will have slept well after our dinner in Nikolaiveritel the prior evening. 2. Gather in hotel lobby If you require more than about an hour to get dressed, make-up, etc., consider awakening earlier than 0600. Remember, tomorrow, Sunday morning, is a sleep-in morning (no events planned until the afternoon). Please dress conservatively. Jeans are OK but no shorts, flashy, bright, or gaudy clothing. 3. Depart hotel Don't forget your journals and cameras. Drive approximately 270 km to Buchenwald Concentration Camp just outside of Weimar. We will stop along the way at an autobahn rest stop. Sleeping on the drive is an option for you as your humble professors will be fully caffeinated and READY TO ROLL! 4. Arrive Buchenwald Concentration Camp Tours of the camp begin at 1000am. There is a background movie (German with English subtitles) and a walking tour of the camp. For many visitors, this is an emotional experience. 4. Depart Buchenwald Drive approximately 90 km across rural Germany countryside to KZ Dora-Mittelbau just outside of Nordhausen. Lunch "on the run" between Buchenwald and Dora. 5. Arrive KZ Dora-Mittelbau The Dora tunnels are a significant historical site. Ms. Gabrielle Knabe of the Buchenwald Visitors Center has arranged a 2-hour English-language tour of the tunnels for our group beginning at 1400 hr. These tunnels, where the Nazis built the ME 262 jet fighter as well as the V1 and V2 missles that were launched at London and Antwerp, were dug out by slave laborers. 5. Depart Dora Drive approximately 60 km through the Harz Mountain national park to Goslar, Germany. This city has the largest collection of medieval timber frame buildings in the world and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. 6. Arrive Goslar We have a dinner reservation at the Worthmuhle. This is a former mill about 100 meters from the city center. This should be a good place to wind down after a long day. Herr Michael Randolff has confirmed our reservation and forwarded a lovely, interesting, and somewhat humorous menu from the restaurant (think piggies playing with beach balls on the farm - I kid you not!) This restaurant features Harz Mountain specialties including local game (think boar and deer), farm products (pork, chicken, and beef), and the Goslar bier. 7. Depart Goslar Drive via autobahn to Berlin. Arrive back at the Marriott Berlin by 2345. Have a good night. We will have had many lifetime memories from the day. A late wake-up tomorrow and much to do around Berlin on Sunday. City tours, museums, Unter den Linden. Take care. More to follow. Oh, please sent me an email indicating that you have received this. Just want to make sure than you are receiving these messages.
But since all of that is pretty boring stuff, but I'm sure someone's bound to find it interesting. Lets move back to the events of the jouney. Therefore yet another post from the infamous Dr. H. and D. Van Auken.
DAY THREE ITINERARY: SATURDAY, JULY 19, 2008
Dr. Hugh
At this point, I must ask...What did you do with YOUR summers?!
At this point, I must ask...What did you do with YOUR summers?!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
5 Day Count Down: 5
In five days I depart with this wonderful country to head to another wonderful country to attend the XXIX Annual International Congress of Psychology. So at this time I'm going to lay out my plans and pray there is no-one in this world stupid enough to stalk me all the way in Germany! This is written as only the infamous Dr. H. Van Auken and Dr. D. Van Auken would arrange it and my notes to add some livelyness to them. In any case, one can not express how excited they are when this is the first overseas travel they have done. For those of you not in the know, I have NEVER flown in my life. As the family moto goes: do it right, or just don't do it; and apparently this is my idea of "doing it right."
Seriously, this will be a wonderful experience. As a note about how all of that is arranged, I removed times and such just in case someone feels like stalking us...They will return post Germany as an accurate account of my actions overseas.
Auf Wiedersehen
DAY ONE ITINERARY: THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2008
1. Depart Holy Cross College
2. Arrive O'Hare Airport
3. CHECK-IN at Virgin Atlantic in the International Terminal
4. Bum around O'Hare until departure--TIME FOR AIRPORT FUN TIME 1.
5. Flight: Virgin Atlantic
6. Enjoy: The on-board meal and video entertainment at your seat...Dr. Hugh will challenge you all to a game of trivia on the inflight entertainment system! (am I excited for this....YES! I'm damn good at trivia)
OVERNIGHT FLIGHT TO LONDON HEATHROW, (that really means I sit there and play games with myself attempting to figure out who would marry the balding, snoring, reeking man two rows ahead)
DAY TWO: FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2008
1. Arrive London Heathrow
2. Depart: London Heathrow for Berlin Tegel on British Airways
3. Arrive: Berlin Tegel Now in CET time
4. Via Rental Car: Berlin Tegel to Berlin Marriott Hotel at Potsdammer Platz
5. GET CHECKED-IN AT HOTEL. CHECK OUT THE SURROUNDINGS OR RELAX IN YOUR ROOMS. (Priority 1, FIND BURKENSTOCKS; priorty 2, find bench and coffee; priority 3 have coffee with someone I've never met before purely out of of discovering another culture.
6. GATHER IN LOBBY OF HOTEL--college briefing on expectations
7. Travel via U2 subway line to Nickolaiveritel medieval neighorhood in east Berlin. PHOTO OP TIME!
8. GROUP DINNER: at riverside restaurant/beirgarten Brauhaus Georgbrau
9. RETURN TO HOTEL for the evening.
10. Get some sleep...Saturday, July 19 will be very busy with trips outside of Berlin
More to come shortly!
Seriously, this will be a wonderful experience. As a note about how all of that is arranged, I removed times and such just in case someone feels like stalking us...They will return post Germany as an accurate account of my actions overseas.
Auf Wiedersehen
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Finding The Germany Equipment
Well as many of you know, the Germany Trip is finally coming around. So I'm hunting down all of the esoteric equipment I plan on using during this fabled convention.
Let's start with the photography stuff.
I'm going to be shooting with a Nikon D40x, 2 Nikon Li-Ion batteries, 2x 2Gb San Disk SD card, a AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 G IF-ED lens, (e.g., a wide-angle zoom Nikon lens with auto focus), a Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Tele-Macro (1:2), and a crappy Quantaray 28-90mm f/3.5-5.6 macro lens. Mind you that is a nice pile of crap to take. So now I'm looking for a bag to carry all of that in, along with 2 books, and a laptop in a two strap backpack. Sounds tricky, or even impossible to find. Nay, sayith B&H Photo Video.com . They have one! (this is the link to the bag) How cool!
Now that I have that covered, I'm on a hunt for good shoes. When I find those. I'll let you all know.
Guter Tag mein Freund
Let's start with the photography stuff.
I'm going to be shooting with a Nikon D40x, 2 Nikon Li-Ion batteries, 2x 2Gb San Disk SD card, a AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 G IF-ED lens, (e.g., a wide-angle zoom Nikon lens with auto focus), a Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Tele-Macro (1:2), and a crappy Quantaray 28-90mm f/3.5-5.6 macro lens. Mind you that is a nice pile of crap to take. So now I'm looking for a bag to carry all of that in, along with 2 books, and a laptop in a two strap backpack. Sounds tricky, or even impossible to find. Nay, sayith B&H Photo Video.com . They have one! (this is the link to the bag) How cool!
Now that I have that covered, I'm on a hunt for good shoes. When I find those. I'll let you all know.
Guter Tag mein Freund
(The following post is also located on the parent blog page.)
Part I
Part II
Dr. Verges' APS Blogpost
Part III
Well, I think it is time I wrap up this 3 part blog post. It has gone on too long for most readers, and that is quite discouraging.
So after the B.R. adventure the APS 20th Anniversary Reception (featuring the best hors d'oeuvres and open bar I've had), occupied the end of the 3rd day. So after having a couple glasses of wine with Dr. Duffy and Dr. Verges, discussing the events we attended. At this point it actually became pretty clear that I intend on doing a ton of research, and it would be ideal if I had grants to help supplement my income. That is, replace having a "job" and R.A., which would put me in the lab concentrating for 20 hours a week. More about that stuff later.
Well after the reception, I darted off to the train for another 50 minute journey.
Sunday, and the last day at the convention! I decided since my hostess pretty much put me up for free, it would be appropriate to repay her in some fashion. So I invited her to join me for the final day and enjoy the Festschrift for Elliot Aronson. For those of you not aware of what a Festschrift is, it is a honoring of someones lifetime achievements while the individual is still alive retiring or nearing death.
Elliot Aronson is officially going to be on my book shelfs due to the nature of his work. It was quite amazing what this man did for the community of psychology. I was awe-stuck to be in the room with him after even a few moments as they discussed his contributions. It was definitely one of those moments I wish I had my Nikon on hand. I'm not familiar with all of Aronson's work, but over the next few months I plan on becoming an expert seeing as his work is applicable to my research goals.
Well, it is about time I draw up some conclusions about the experience as a whole.
The day to day experience was well worth the time, effort, and cost (physical cost of not sleeping) to attend. When I attend next year's APS convention in San Francisco I will have a hotel at the convention hall. In terms of introducing myself, it is by far the most degrading thing to introduce myself by proxy to N.D. (e.g., "Hi, I'm Nate Ring from Holy Cross College Indiana." they always ask, "where is that again?" I respond, "Do you know where N.D. is?" they always say, "YEAH! you go to ND?" I say, "No, I'm across the street...")
So I decided that it would be a brilliant idea to carry a card identifying (business card) myself as a unique and special college, not as some institution in the shadow of a giant. Finally, I am indeed there as an educated individual, and everyone is actually there under the same pretense. Unlike a gathering of MBA's, the psychology community is by far less intra-competitive, and more or less, collaborative.
It was a BRILLIANT time. I learned a ton of things, and it really helped me reaffirm my drive to be a psychologist.
Part I
Part II
Dr. Verges' APS Blogpost
Part III
Well, I think it is time I wrap up this 3 part blog post. It has gone on too long for most readers, and that is quite discouraging.
So after the B.R. adventure the APS 20th Anniversary Reception (featuring the best hors d'oeuvres and open bar I've had), occupied the end of the 3rd day. So after having a couple glasses of wine with Dr. Duffy and Dr. Verges, discussing the events we attended. At this point it actually became pretty clear that I intend on doing a ton of research, and it would be ideal if I had grants to help supplement my income. That is, replace having a "job" and R.A., which would put me in the lab concentrating for 20 hours a week. More about that stuff later.
Well after the reception, I darted off to the train for another 50 minute journey.
Sunday, and the last day at the convention! I decided since my hostess pretty much put me up for free, it would be appropriate to repay her in some fashion. So I invited her to join me for the final day and enjoy the Festschrift for Elliot Aronson. For those of you not aware of what a Festschrift is, it is a honoring of someones lifetime achievements while the individual is still alive retiring or nearing death.Elliot Aronson is officially going to be on my book shelfs due to the nature of his work. It was quite amazing what this man did for the community of psychology. I was awe-stuck to be in the room with him after even a few moments as they discussed his contributions. It was definitely one of those moments I wish I had my Nikon on hand. I'm not familiar with all of Aronson's work, but over the next few months I plan on becoming an expert seeing as his work is applicable to my research goals.
Well, it is about time I draw up some conclusions about the experience as a whole.
The day to day experience was well worth the time, effort, and cost (physical cost of not sleeping) to attend. When I attend next year's APS convention in San Francisco I will have a hotel at the convention hall. In terms of introducing myself, it is by far the most degrading thing to introduce myself by proxy to N.D. (e.g., "Hi, I'm Nate Ring from Holy Cross College Indiana." they always ask, "where is that again?" I respond, "Do you know where N.D. is?" they always say, "YEAH! you go to ND?" I say, "No, I'm across the street...")
So I decided that it would be a brilliant idea to carry a card identifying (business card) myself as a unique and special college, not as some institution in the shadow of a giant. Finally, I am indeed there as an educated individual, and everyone is actually there under the same pretense. Unlike a gathering of MBA's, the psychology community is by far less intra-competitive, and more or less, collaborative.
It was a BRILLIANT time. I learned a ton of things, and it really helped me reaffirm my drive to be a psychologist.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
APS Convention: Part Deux
(The following post is also located on the parent blog page.)
Well I ended on the midpoint of Day 2 but I have to jump back to day 1 to mention Shelley Taylor's address and discussion about her research.
As the day was wrapping up (day 1, my mistake), there was the presidential address (not the U.S.A. president, it was the APS president.) Needless to say, during that particular address I learned more about the cortisone levels in developmental psychology (also life-span psychology) than I have in a month by Shelley Taylor. I'd go into great detail about that, but I'm not really quite prepared to cite her work at the moment nor am I willing to even summarize it.
The end of day two actually there was a symposium entitled, "Psychology as a Hub Science." Truly a facinating discussion from Daniel Kahneman Princeton University, Claude Steele Stanford University, and Richard F. Thompson University of Southern California--GIANTS in the field of psychology. While sitting through the symposium a real sense of satisfaction swept through me mostly because I could understand everything those men were discussing. Moreover, if I was to sit down and discuss the issues they presented I could have meaningful interactions with them, but that never happened.
Day 3
Well this day didn't go as smooth as the other two, considering I woke up 10 minutes late and missed the 6:00 train. So I had to wait for the 7:45 train, which made me very late. But when I got there I stumbled into Dr. Verges and Dr. Duffy again during the poster sessions.
Because I keep talking about poster sessions, let me briefly explain what they are. Undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral, and professors all do research which they summarize into a poster and then present it during these sessions.
After this poster I attended some more symposiums and invited talks. I kind of embarrassed myself by sitting in on the Psi Beta workshop for teaching physiology. Mind you this particular thing was for TEACHING, not to teach... My logic was, "Hey! Psi Beta, not too many of those events going on....ever...I'll go to that!" Not even close. Oops!
Well after that I attended the invited symposium entitled, "Diverse Approaches to the Study of Religiosity," where Gary Bertson, The Ohio State University; Nick Epley, The University of Chicago; Howard C. Nusbaum, The University of Chicago; Lynda Powell, Rush University Medical Center; and Louise C. Hawkly, The University of Chicago; all spoke. Why did I list each of these people...well that's actually for me when I go back and reference this when looking at grad schools :-P.
I'm still kind of kicking myself for not attending more of these talks and symposiums, although I was just so beat from the traveling that it almost took the glisten off of the whole day. Then I had a cup of coffee! Wow oh Wow did that pump me up! Back to the poster sessions I went. Needless to say, I ended up talking with one of the fellows I met there about his research for just under an hour. We picked each others brains, and it was a wonderful thing. Shortly thereafter I attended David E. Meyers' address. Although, after his address I had to go shopping. The pants I wore that day were quite uncomfortable, so I took a jog over to Banana Republic and found THESE! (because I'm a nerd, I D/L'd the images, so Front | Back).
Ok, Lets make this the end of Part Deux
Well I ended on the midpoint of Day 2 but I have to jump back to day 1 to mention Shelley Taylor's address and discussion about her research.
As the day was wrapping up (day 1, my mistake), there was the presidential address (not the U.S.A. president, it was the APS president.) Needless to say, during that particular address I learned more about the cortisone levels in developmental psychology (also life-span psychology) than I have in a month by Shelley Taylor. I'd go into great detail about that, but I'm not really quite prepared to cite her work at the moment nor am I willing to even summarize it.
The end of day two actually there was a symposium entitled, "Psychology as a Hub Science." Truly a facinating discussion from Daniel Kahneman Princeton University, Claude Steele Stanford University, and Richard F. Thompson University of Southern California--GIANTS in the field of psychology. While sitting through the symposium a real sense of satisfaction swept through me mostly because I could understand everything those men were discussing. Moreover, if I was to sit down and discuss the issues they presented I could have meaningful interactions with them, but that never happened.
Day 3
Well this day didn't go as smooth as the other two, considering I woke up 10 minutes late and missed the 6:00 train. So I had to wait for the 7:45 train, which made me very late. But when I got there I stumbled into Dr. Verges and Dr. Duffy again during the poster sessions.
Because I keep talking about poster sessions, let me briefly explain what they are. Undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral, and professors all do research which they summarize into a poster and then present it during these sessions.
After this poster I attended some more symposiums and invited talks. I kind of embarrassed myself by sitting in on the Psi Beta workshop for teaching physiology. Mind you this particular thing was for TEACHING, not to teach... My logic was, "Hey! Psi Beta, not too many of those events going on....ever...I'll go to that!" Not even close. Oops!
Well after that I attended the invited symposium entitled, "Diverse Approaches to the Study of Religiosity," where Gary Bertson, The Ohio State University; Nick Epley, The University of Chicago; Howard C. Nusbaum, The University of Chicago; Lynda Powell, Rush University Medical Center; and Louise C. Hawkly, The University of Chicago; all spoke. Why did I list each of these people...well that's actually for me when I go back and reference this when looking at grad schools :-P.
I'm still kind of kicking myself for not attending more of these talks and symposiums, although I was just so beat from the traveling that it almost took the glisten off of the whole day. Then I had a cup of coffee! Wow oh Wow did that pump me up! Back to the poster sessions I went. Needless to say, I ended up talking with one of the fellows I met there about his research for just under an hour. We picked each others brains, and it was a wonderful thing. Shortly thereafter I attended David E. Meyers' address. Although, after his address I had to go shopping. The pants I wore that day were quite uncomfortable, so I took a jog over to Banana Republic and found THESE! (because I'm a nerd, I D/L'd the images, so Front | Back).
Ok, Lets make this the end of Part Deux
APS Convention: Part 1;
(The following post is also located at the parent blog page.)
OK. Well after my first convention and real exposure to the world scientific psychology I am truly exited to pursue a Ph.D later in the future. I'm not going to talk about the symposiums at first, but I will talk about the super fun I had in the city walking around, having drinks, eating, living the life!
OK. Well after my first convention and real exposure to the world scientific psychology I am truly exited to pursue a Ph.D later in the future. I'm not going to talk about the symposiums at first, but I will talk about the super fun I had in the city walking around, having drinks, eating, living the life!
So, I get to the train station at around 5:00 on Thursday morning after a hour long drive and realize that I have another hour! So I sit there, ruing in my victory and efficient timing. After about 20 minutes the train rolls up. I didn't know earlier that there was two train times. Anyway, I boarded and a sense of satisfaction swept over me, "finally I was going to attend this convention.
The first day at the convention was kind of a boring day though, mostly because I didn't pay for the teaching institute sessions which comprised a large portion of the first days activities, but the APSSC student kick off was that night. Needless to say it was a blast. I met some really energetic Canadians who were already drunk, but a hell of a lot of fun. I actually heard on of the girls say, "eh."! I laughed my ass off at her, and later had to explain myself. She thought it was strange I didn't have an accent.
During the conference it was my running line to introduce myself, and then say "I'm from Holy Cross College," and then the people would look at me with a blank stare. So I'd have to say after that, "A college located in South Bend. We are just starting the psychology major." More blank stares. "H.C.C. is across the street from Notre Dame...." At that then they'd talk about someone they know who went there and blah blah blah. That is really quite annoying to have to constantly identify yourself by N.D.
So after the kick off, I owe a friend of mine a huge debt of gratitude for letting me stay at her home--K. Higgins. She lives in a nearby area and saved me a pile of money. So K. if you read this, thanks again!
Back to my events. Day 2!
Well Day 2 started at 5:00 with me stumbling into the bathroom to take a shower to wake up. Getting up Friday and staying up wasn't bad at all. I expected to have a really rough time the day after that long drive, train ride, and being on my feet all day. So I hopped on the train, and scooted to Chicago again. I got in and meandered around for a little while and then attended the poster sessions. More N.D. identifying, but some highly amusing posters at this point.
I finally stumbled into Dr. Verges and Dr. Duffy during one of the posters and went out for lunch with them. I also meet some of Dr. Duffy's undergraduate students who were presenting at the conference. We all went to this little calzone place, it was AMAZING! I don't remember what it was called, but thats quite O.K. I could find it if I wanted to later.
After lunch the APSSC symposiums started up, and needless to say I learned a ton from those in regard to getting into graduate school, how to find the right graduate school, and what to do while I'm there. It actually changed my outlook on the whole process from being an application-acceptance to a investigation-application-interview-level of fitness-acceptance process. HCC has not prepared me for that. Maybe I just haven't been paying attention to something in class....
After that I attended one of the most interesting, and insightful invited talks, The Deadly 13th Grade: diagnosing and treating. (or something to that effect). Anyway, it really reminded me of how the transition from high school to the university was very difficult due to expectations of professors. A lot of information I was not prepared for thanks to the, "just get them through high school" attitude that is the major function of the SBCSC (South Bend Community School Corporation). I honestly don't know of a single general ed. teacher in high school who says, "you'll need this for college, and maybe you should try these things," or ,"college is different in these ways, it is time you learn how to do that." Strange they do not prep for college, but they teach to the test (something I have been working on for the past month as a post so bare with me on that).
To make sure this isn't overwhelming I'm going to break it up here!
Read the next post
The first day at the convention was kind of a boring day though, mostly because I didn't pay for the teaching institute sessions which comprised a large portion of the first days activities, but the APSSC student kick off was that night. Needless to say it was a blast. I met some really energetic Canadians who were already drunk, but a hell of a lot of fun. I actually heard on of the girls say, "eh."! I laughed my ass off at her, and later had to explain myself. She thought it was strange I didn't have an accent.
During the conference it was my running line to introduce myself, and then say "I'm from Holy Cross College," and then the people would look at me with a blank stare. So I'd have to say after that, "A college located in South Bend. We are just starting the psychology major." More blank stares. "H.C.C. is across the street from Notre Dame...." At that then they'd talk about someone they know who went there and blah blah blah. That is really quite annoying to have to constantly identify yourself by N.D.
So after the kick off, I owe a friend of mine a huge debt of gratitude for letting me stay at her home--K. Higgins. She lives in a nearby area and saved me a pile of money. So K. if you read this, thanks again!
Back to my events. Day 2!
Well Day 2 started at 5:00 with me stumbling into the bathroom to take a shower to wake up. Getting up Friday and staying up wasn't bad at all. I expected to have a really rough time the day after that long drive, train ride, and being on my feet all day. So I hopped on the train, and scooted to Chicago again. I got in and meandered around for a little while and then attended the poster sessions. More N.D. identifying, but some highly amusing posters at this point.
I finally stumbled into Dr. Verges and Dr. Duffy during one of the posters and went out for lunch with them. I also meet some of Dr. Duffy's undergraduate students who were presenting at the conference. We all went to this little calzone place, it was AMAZING! I don't remember what it was called, but thats quite O.K. I could find it if I wanted to later.
After lunch the APSSC symposiums started up, and needless to say I learned a ton from those in regard to getting into graduate school, how to find the right graduate school, and what to do while I'm there. It actually changed my outlook on the whole process from being an application-acceptance to a investigation-application-interview-level of fitness-acceptance process. HCC has not prepared me for that. Maybe I just haven't been paying attention to something in class....
After that I attended one of the most interesting, and insightful invited talks, The Deadly 13th Grade: diagnosing and treating. (or something to that effect). Anyway, it really reminded me of how the transition from high school to the university was very difficult due to expectations of professors. A lot of information I was not prepared for thanks to the, "just get them through high school" attitude that is the major function of the SBCSC (South Bend Community School Corporation). I honestly don't know of a single general ed. teacher in high school who says, "you'll need this for college, and maybe you should try these things," or ,"college is different in these ways, it is time you learn how to do that." Strange they do not prep for college, but they teach to the test (something I have been working on for the past month as a post so bare with me on that).
To make sure this isn't overwhelming I'm going to break it up here!
Read the next post
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