Letter from the Editors
Erik Noftle and Jonathan Adler
Welcome to the Fall 2015 edition of P, the online newsletter for the Association for Research in Personality (ARP). We've got another great issue for you, full of exciting announcements, updates, and reflections from the leadership of ARP as well as liaisons from our two journals, JRP and SPPS, and representatives from two sibling organizations, SPSP and EAPP. Below we draw attention to some themes and specific sections.
New Developments and Transitions
Following transitions that took place over the last year, we hear from two new members of ARP's executive committee, Executive Officer Rebecca Shiner and Secretary-Treasurer Jennifer Tackett. We're very grateful to have their leadership and fresh perspectives. We also hear from ARP's graduate representative Kathryn Bollich, who reports from the Graduate Student and Postdoc Committee together with postdoc representative Michael Boudreaux. Their column includes a chance for grad students and postdoc to provide feedback on some new ideas and also announces a transition—Michael will be stepping down at the end of 2015. Michael has served ARP not only as the postdoc representative but previously as the graduate representative, and we're grateful for his efforts over the past years in sustaining connections with the newest generation of personality researchers. We also hear from President Dan Ozer, who will be transitioning to the role of Past President at the end of the year. During his tenure, he has helped to strengthen ties between ARP and both EAPP and the Personological Society, and has also overseen our official transition to a non-profit, a change that will benefit the association for years to come. We'd like to welcome his replacement, Dan McAdams, who begins his term as ARP President in 2016. Finally, we would like to take a chance to thank departing members-at-large Mike Furr and Rich Lucas for their service and welcome new members-at-large Katie Corker and Chris Soto who will begin their terms in 2016 as well. Be sure to check the ARP News section for more announcements.
Reproducibility and Building a Better Science
Many of the current columns touch on what has been labeled as a crisis over the last few years but also has clearly emerged as a fantastic opportunity for bettering our science. Both the Editor of JRP, Rich Lucas, and the Editor of SPPS, Simine Vazire, include what their journals are doing to face the issue of reproducibility. In addition, Dan Ozer's "farewell column" reflects on several relevant issues.
Recent and Upcoming Conferences
These days, personality psychology is fortunate to have many opportunities which allow meeting and disseminating research findings. Jennifer Tackett, one of the program chairs of the 2015 meeting of ARP, reflects upon the many successes of that conference. In addition, various people provide details about several upcoming 2016 conferences that are relevant to personality psychologists. In order, Jennifer Lodi-Smith and Erik Noftle announce the Lifespan Social-Personality Preconference directly preceding SPSP in San Diego, USA, in January, Boele De Raad and Claudio Hutz provide information about the 2nd World Conference on Personality in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in late March/early April, and Florin Sava provides information about the European Conference on Personality in Timisoara, Romania, in July. Finally, two presidents of associations sponsoring these conferences, Wendy Wood, the new president of SPSP, and Filip De Fruyt, president of EAPP, share what's new in their societies.
Award Winner Interviews
We feature two interviews of award winners, the 2014 winner of the Tanaka Award, John Rauthmann and the 2015 winner of the Block Award, David Watson. Nicolas Brown and Andrew Beer, respectively, conduct fascinating interviews of our award winners, helping to shed light on what motivates their work. We think you will find interviews both revealing and inspiring. We also wish to acknowledge here the 2014 winner of the Block Award, Mary Rothbart, and salute her many accomplishments and contributions to the field.
Teaching
We now have both contributed personality pedagogy pieces, Jon's on teaching personality to non-majors in last year's issue, and Erik's on strategies for teaching the Big Five in the current issue. With the next issue, we intend to resurrect the Teaching Psychology feature created by former editors Simine Vazire and Chris Soto--we'd like hear from YOU! Teaching Personality encourages ARP members to share their ideas for teaching students—undergraduate or graduate—about personality theories and research. If you have an activity or assignment that you'd like to share, please let us know. Email a description of your assignment or activity to arpnewsletter@gmail.com or us (enoftle@willamette.edu or jadler@olin.edu). Include a title, the type of course in which you use it (e.g., personality lecture course, advanced seminar), a description, and any supporting materials (e.g., handouts or lecture slides). We'll share these ideas in next year's issue.
Finally, thanks to Ben Johnson, a new member of ARP's web committee, and our newsletter publisher, for his skill and hard work in converting contributions into an online issue. Also, thanks to Hogan Assessment Systems for their ongoing sponsorship of the newsletter!
It is certainly an exciting time in the history of our field, with our core discipline coming together for regular meetings and debate and our connections to related disciplines growing stronger and stronger. We're delighted to present you with the collection of voices this newsletter brings together.
--Erik and Jon