MPA experiences

This weekend I am attending the Midwestern Psychological Association yearly convention at the Palmer House in Chicago. This is my first large conference that I have attended for psychology. I had my poster session yesterday afternoon and it went as many others at smaller conferences go...stand by your poster and answer a few questions. But most of my time was actually spent visiting with my new colleagues at Morningside (3 of the 4 were there). Unfortunately my poster topic was not of intrinsic interest to many people.

Overall my impressions are good. I went to the morning poster session and found many interesting studies that mostly students had done. It is also fun to just talk about the research with these people. This afternoon there is a talk that I am planning on attending and the social psych poster session.

I think that it would be a great experience to be an advising professor for a student who is presenting here. What a great chance to see growth especially in an undergraduate! Posters are pretty low-threat because all that you really need to do is 1) give a brief summary or 2) answer some questions. But the best part that I like is that you will often also get some insight from people looking at your poster for new ideas.

Tomorrow is the last day and I plan to go to at least the morning poster session. This conference seems to be a pretty collegial culture...at least in the limited experiences that I have had so far.