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Beyond Grades and Deadlines: The Power of Christmas Cards in Academia
If there are any clear signs of what this time of year stands for, it’s the cold gusts of wind blowing through tree branches with no leaves, the frost painted across windows during early mornings, and… the distant sound of Mariah Carey’s whistled notes signalling that “it’s tiiiiiiiiiime”. For many, listening to Mariah Carey’s song on repeat is an established Christmas tradition, but I’d like to remind you of another important one: exchanging Christmas cards. In our current era of booming digital technology — where GiFs, group chats, and instant messaging prevail — exchanging Christmas cards has shifted toward digital alternatives. However, this tradition remains a symbol of acknowledgement, appreciation,…
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Why Undergraduate Research Matters – Even if you do not Want a PhD
When students hear “undergraduate research,” many immediately picture PhD applications, or careers in academia. It’s true, research experience is a golden ticket for those paths. But here is the thing: undergraduate research is not just for aspiring academics. Even if you are planning a career in business, healthcare, policy, or something completely outside the ivory tower, research can still be one of the most valuable experiences of your degree. Why? Because research does not just teach you about your discipline. It teaches you how to think, solve problems, and work in ways that are highly transferable to nearly any career. Think of research as a professional boot camp: it challenges…
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My First Conference: Tips I Wish I Knew Before
I still remember the feeling of walking into my first academic conference in 2023: the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP) conference in Katowice. My stomach was doing gymnastics, my hands were clammy, and I felt like everyone around me had already published three books and solved all the great mysteries of psychology, while I was still struggling to figure out how to design half-decent PowerPoint slides. Fast forward two years later, I found myself at the Academy of Management (AOM) conference in Copenhagen. You would think by then I would be a pro, strolling in with the confidence of someone who has “been there, done that.” Spoiler:…
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Siblings
Dear RP friends, We continue our blog articles on the Psychology of Close Relationships, the official Research Programme Theme for 2025/2026. In this review, we delve deeper into sibling relationships. In our announcement of the Research Program 2025/2026 (Hugs and Hypotheses: Psychology of Close Relationships), we noted that birth order can influence relationships, making it an important issue to discuss with clients on the couch and to examine scientifically. Alfred Adler was one of the first theorists to connect birth order with client understanding. Adler highlighted psychological birth order, focusing on children’s perceptions of their family roles over their ordinal positions. He stated, “It is not the child’s number in…
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2025/2026 Research Programme Supervisors Open Call
Attention psychology professors, PhDs and PostDoc Researchers! The EFPSA Research Programme is excited to announce the search for the Research Programme Supervisors of 2025/2026! Who: PhD Candidates, PhDs, Professors or PostDoc researchers in Psychology! What: To become a Supervisor at EFPSA’s Research Programme and work on a year-long research on the topic of your choice with student researchers from all over Europe! When & Where: 13th of July 2025 to 20th of July 2025 in Viseu, Portugal Number of supervisors: 6 experts, each guiding a group of 6-8 students Duration: 12 months (including fully-covered 7 days of Research Summer School with a travel reimbursement up to 100€) Application Deadline: 9th of May…
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December webinar: The Complex Ring of Jingle Bells
Dear RP friends, Research Office webinar season continues! The December webinar on the 19th was on The Complex Ring of Jingle Bells, with our speaker, Maximilian Primbs. Maximilian Primbs is a fourth-year PhD candidate at the Behavioural Science Institute of Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He is also the Assistant Director for Translation and Cultural Diversity at the Psychological Science Accelerator. His research interests include implicit bias, prejudice reduction, stereotypes and visual perception, statistics and meta-science, and open science. He is interested in how social and cultural environments shape attitudes and beliefs. Primbs discussed findings from his recent research endeavour in the study called The Complex Ring of Jingle…
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November webinar: Men and psychotherapy
Dear RP friends, Research Office webinar season continues! The November webinar, which took place on 26th November, explored the theme of Men and psychotherapy with our wonderful speaker Fredric E. Rabinowitz, Ph.D. Dr. Rabinowitz has been actively involved in the academic study and clinical practice of masculinity and psychotherapy with men for the past 40 years, working with other psychologists from the American Psychological Association (APA) to bridge the gap between psychological theory and applied clinical practice of the same topic. Dr. Rabinowitz has been a professor of psychology at the University of Redlands in California since 1984, writing many articles, book chapters and five books about working within this…
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Theories of love
Dear RP friends, We continue our blog articles on the Psychology of Close Relationships as an official Research Programme Theme for 2025/2026. “Relationships with others are central to the human experience: we are born into them, live through them, and their impact continues even after we die, influencing the lives of those who remain.” (Berscheid, 1999, as cited in Finkel et al., 2017). In this review, we delve deeper into the main theories of relationship science, focusing on romantic relationships as a topic of interest. In our theme announcement of Research Programme 2025/2026 (Hugs and Hypotheses: Psychology of Close Relationships), we mentioned that the three most influential theoretical frameworks are…
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How to: Academic Writing
Do you remember the first time you had to write an academic article? Or is your first academic article still waiting ahead for you? How do you feel about writing it? Nervous? Excited? Insecure? Don’t worry! JEPS has got you covered! This blog will give you a few tools and things to be mindful of during your next writing session. First things first: what is academic writing? Think of an informal text you’ve read and then about a research article that you’ve read, what are the first differences that pop up in your head? Writing style? References? Structure? Exactly! Aspects like these distinguish a formal, academic paper from an informal…
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Research Programme 2025/2026 Theme Announcement: Hugs and Hypotheses: Psychology of Close Relationships
Dear Psychology Students and Academic Workers, We are pleased to inform you of the theme for the 2025/2026 Research Programme – Hugs and Hypotheses: Psychology of Close Relationships. Research Programme 2025/2026 Theme: Hugs and Hypotheses: Psychology of Close Relationships The research of close relationships is a broad and rich field in psychology. The development of a unified science focused on understanding human relationships only began in the 1980s. Today, relationship science is an interdisciplinary field that uses various empirical methods to explore how interpersonal relationships begin, develop, are maintained, and eventually dissolve. It examines the structure and progression of relationships, the dynamics of how they function, and how individual characteristics…
