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Bridging Social & Organizational Psychology: Interdisciplinary Research and Practical Applications

Semester

Semester 2, 2024-2025

Type of course

Methodological and Practical Courses

Date

February 21, 2025

Location

Utrecht University

Duration

1 day

Maximum number of participants

20

ECTS

0.5 EC will be appointed for participation in the complete course

Staff

Erdem O. Meral (UvA), Rabia I. Kodapanakkal (Algemene Rekenkamer)

Content

During the workshop ‘’ Bridging Social & Organizational Psychology: Interdisciplinary Research and Practical Applications’, we will address the perks and perils of utilizing psychological knowledge in the context of interdisciplinary research and in practical applications outside of academic settings. We will do so by critically thinking about how psychology can be used in conjunction with other disciplines and in practical applications to address a problem. 

This is an active workshop. This implies that students’ contribution is crucial and teaching staff will act as discussants rather than lecturers. We will begin the workshop with challenges from our own experiences in interdisciplinary research and practice. Based on challenges submitted by students, we will then discuss strategies in various stages of interdisciplinary and/or applied research projects and possibly other collaborations inside and outside academia to see what works and what can be improved. Our aim is to create a platform for exchanging information and insights concerning bridging social and organizational psychology with other fields and with practice. To make this work, we need some input from students prior to the workshop.

Students will be asked to send a short description of a (potential) challenge that they face in relation to extending social or organizational psychology into other domains or practice. The submitted challenges will then be used to create groups for discussion. Groups will be made around certain sub-themes within two broad themes 1) applying psychology in interdisciplinary research and, 2) using psychology in practical applications. Sub-themes, for example, may also involve similarities and differences in challenges/solutions across the two broad themes. The groups will then be tasked to elaborate on these challenges and come up with tips and tricks for other researchers to deal with similar challenges in the future. Each group will get to present their challenge(s) and solutions during the meeting. Students will be provided with the tips and tricks developed in the previous edition of the course and will be asked to extend on these challenges to keep building a toolbox that can help researchers who wish to bridge social and organizational psychology into other disciplines or practice.

Students will be asked to send us challenge descriptions that are as concrete and specific as possible at least 2 weeks before the course. This will give us sufficient time for creating groups and outline the best possible schedule.

Preliminary program

10.00 – 10.15                Walk-in and coffee

10.15 – 10.30                Introduction

10.30 – 11.30                Teaching staff - experiences and challenges 

11.30 – 12.30                Group formation and discussion

12.30 – 13.30                Lunch

13.30 – 14.30                Presentation preparation

14.30 – 16.00                Presentations and discussion

Learning Goals

  • Recognize and exemplify perks and perils of bridging social psychology and other disciplines and practical applications.
  • Generate potential solutions for the identified challenges of bridging social psychology with other disciplines and practical applications.
  • Apply generated solutions to ongoing or future projects that bridge social psychological research to other disciplines and practice.

Literature

The listed journal articles and opinion articles are not mandatory but can be used by students to help them think about potential challenges. Of course, students are free to send challenge descriptions not mentioned in the articles below. 

Journal articles

  • Lewis Jr, N. A. (2023). Cultivating Equal Minds: Laws and Policies as (De) biasing Social Interventions. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 19.
  • Daniel, K. L., McConnell, M., Schuchardt, A., & Peffer, M. E. (2022). Challenges facing interdisciplinary researchers: Findings from a professional development workshop. PLoS ONE, 17(4), e0267234.

Applied research

  • Alexander Haslam, S. (2014). Making good theory practical: Five lessons for an applied social identity approach to challenges of organizational, health, and clinical psychology. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53(1), 1-20
  • Kieser, A., & Leiner, L. (2012). Collaborate with practitioners: But beware of collaborative research. Journal of Management Inquiry, 21(1), 14-28.
  • Shani, A. B., & Coghlan, D. (2014). Collaborate with practitioners: an alternative perspective a rejoinder to Kieser and Leiner (2012). Journal of Management Inquiry, 23(4), 433-437.
  • Di Benedetto, C. A., Lindgreen, A., Storgaard, M., & Clarke, A. H. (2019). How to collaborate really well with practitioners. Industrial Marketing Management, 82, 1-8.

Opinion posts

https://paulspector.com/how-to-bridge-the-academic-practice-divide/

https://www.methodspace.com/blog/our-future-will-demand-interdisciplinary-collaboration-how-do-we-prepare-faculty-and-students-for-that-emerging-world

https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2015/04/interdisciplinary-research 

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2021/11/important-but-not-easy-interdisciplinary-research