Theme Programs

The APS 21st Annual Convention will feature three special theme programs addressing important issues in the field of psychological science. Each program will incorporate a variety of invited guest speakers, a roundtable discussion, and posters relating to the theme.

• Emotional Ups and Downs: Experiencing, Self-Regulating, and Capitalizing On Affect
• Gene-Environment Interplay in Stress and Health
• The Architecture of the Mind

Emotional Ups and Downs: Experiencing, Self-Regulating, and Capitalizing On Affect

Emotions shape nearly every aspect of human life, from individual to group experiences; from behavior to physiology; from risk to resilience and health. Scientists on the forefront of diverse areas of psychology are not only interested in research on affect – how emotions are experienced – but also the beneficial elements of managing emotions. Speakers will present cutting-edge research from social, organizational, cognitive, neural, and developmental perspectives underscoring the role of emotions in the human experience.

Fredda Blanchard-Fields
Georgia Institute of Technology
Emotion Regulation as We Grow Older: Gains and Costs

Stéphane Côté
University of Toronto
Emotion Regulation Abilities and Career Success

Alicia Grandey
Pennsylvania State University
Emotional Labor in the 21st Century: What Do We Know and Where Should We Go?

Ann Kring
University of California, Berkeley
When Emotions Go Awry: Unpacking the Time Course of Emotion Deficits in Psychopathology

Nalini Ambady
Tufts University
Affect and Interpersonal Perception

Jennifer Beer
University of Texas at Austin
Emotional Influences on the 'Default' Self

Gene-Environment Interplay in Stress and Health

Genes and environmental stressors influence one another in complex and subtle ways to affect health and behavior. In the past few years, scientists have made great strides in understanding the many forms of gene-environment interplay across psychology and neuroscience. The speakers will present cutting edge-research on gene-environment interactions, gene expression, and gene-environment correlations in health, personality, and psychopathology.

Steve Cole
University of California Los Angeles
Social Regulation of Human Gene Expression

Cornelius Gross
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Modeling Gene-By-Environment Risk Factors for Mental Traits In Mice

Ahmad Hariri
University of Pittsburgh
Predictive Markers of Individual Differences in Behavior and Risk for Psychiatric Disease

Julia Kim-Cohen
Yale University
Gene-Environment Interplay in the Development of Psychopathology and Resilience

 

The Architecture of the Mind

Scientists have long tackled the problem of the framework and function of the mind, and recently there have been dramatic breakthroughs in this area. Modern research techniques coupled with theoretical advances have brought us much closer to a blueprint for the architecture of the mind. In this program, a diverse set of speakers representing psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology will address the state of the science, discussing their work on emotional and social development, language and concept formation, and executive function in order to reveal how mind and behavior are structured and how this architecture is acquired over time.

Dan Fessler
University of California Los Angeles
Hard Adaptationism Meets Soft Emotions

Dario Maestripieri
University of Chicago
The Role of Nature and Nurture in Social Development: A Comparative Perspective

Akira Miyake
University of Colorado
(Individual differences in executive function and their origins)

Ellen Markman
Stanford University
Categories, Induction, and Word Learning as Windows into the Architecture of the Mind

Jay McClelland
Stanford University
Semantic Knowledge: Its Nature, Its Development, and Its Neural Basis

Arthur Glenberg
Arizona State University
Embodiment as a Unifying Approach to Psychology