The Forward’s International Focus

In the winter newsletter, we initiated a new focus for the Forward highlighting the activities and interests of international SPSSI members, those living and working outside North America. The current newsletter continues in this direction our efforts to celebrate the diverse characteristics and interests of SPSSI members.

The special section that highlights the work of our colleagues outside of North America contains three interesting pieces about the policy related work of our colleagues in areas as different as Chile and Australia. First, Robert Gonzalez and Escuela de Psicologia from Universidad Católica de Chile report on their work, which employs basic theory in social psychology to study intergroup identity formation and emotions as it shapes the attitudes and behaviors of political parties in Chile.

Next, Winnifred Louis from the University of Queensland discusses his and his colleague’s work examining the role of research in prejudice and conflict in health care in Australia.

Rounding out the international section is Nick Haslam’s (University of Melbourne) analysis of the experience of refugees seeking asylum in Australia and the ways in which their experiences are similar and different to other refuges seeking asylum in other parts of the world.

In addition to these international features, this newsletter contains the usual reports of the society’s executive officers, notices of new initiatives, upcoming conferences, including the schedule of SPSSI programming at the 2008 APA Convention in Boston, publications, and several calls for papers.

I hope that you enjoy the newsletter. Please send any comments or suggestions that you have to either Rich Wiener (rwiener2@unl.edu) or my graduate assistant for the newsletter, Erin Richter (erichte1@bigred.unl.edu).

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