Visibility in the Academic World: Public Relations

Lynn HasherUniversity of Toronto (with advice from)

Cindy LustigUniversity of Michigan

Cynthia MayCollege of Charleston

Richard RussoPulitzer Prize for Fiction 2002

• “In junior high school, I wasn’t fast, but I could put one foot in front of the other and keep going. …the willingness to endure discomfort was about as good training for a novelist as you could imagine.”

• the willingness to endure discomfort is also good training for women in psychology.

Sources of Discomfort

• Graduate School• Hiring process• Tenure/ Promotion processes• Research (start to finish)• Publication Process– Revise and resubmit is good news!– Rejections, especially rejections

• Grant writing and getting• And….being visible and valued

How to be visible?

• Do a good job in the classroom– (keep the + emails and letters)

• Do a good job as a citizen of your dept /community– (but be careful what committees you serve on!)

How to be visible?

• And as to research:• Attend meetings, give posters/presentations• Make friends in the field; make more friends• Invite senior people to speak• Organize symposia• Do interesting research and get it published• Do a lot of research and get it all published• AND, RUN YOUR OWN PR FIRM

Public Relations 101

• WEB PAGE – show off– What your questions/answers are– Who your collaborators are– Where your students are– Media presentations– Awards – Access to publications

Karl Healey wins an award at APA!

Inhibitory effects of emotion in memoryCan being reminded of some amusing kittens cause one to forget seeing some clowns? Sison and Mather's (2007) study indicates that remembering an emotional item can make it less likely that one will recall an item that evokes the same emotion. Click here for a summary of the study and here for a review chapter on how emotion can increase memory interference.

Web sites to look at

• Mara Mather• Laura Carstensen• Marcia Johnson• Cindy Lustig• Cynthia May• Lynn Hasher• Elizabeth Phelps• And many more…

Public Relations 101

• GET A MENTOR– Find awards/societies you are eligible for– ASK them to nominate you!– ASK department to nominate you!

• Apply for things…• Pick a good sabbatical spot• If on a social visit somewhere…ask to meet

people in the dept.

Public Relations 101

• MEET THE REAL PR PERSON– If you’ve got an interesting paper coming out– Let them know– Get a short press release ready– Get it posted to Eurekalerts (AP Reuters)– THEN IF YOU GET CALLED/EMAILED– Get back to reporter ASAP– We all read the NY Times, listen to NPR

Public Relations 101

• WRITE OP ED PIECES

Sorry, Strivers: Talent MattersDAVID Z. HAMBRICK and ELIZABETH J. MEINZ

New York TimesNovember 19, 2011

• HOW do people acquire high levels of skill in science, business, music, the arts and sports? …

• Research in recent decades has shown that a big part of the answer is simply practice — and a lot of it. In a pioneering study, the Florida State University psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues asked violin students at a music academy to estimate the amount of time they had devoted to practice since they started playing. By age 20, the students whom the faculty nominated as the “best” players had accumulated an average of over 10,000 hours, compared with just under 8,000 hours for the “good” players and not even 5,000 hours for the least skilled.

• ………….• But this isn’t quite the story that science tells. Research has shown that intellectual

ability matters for success in many fields — and not just up to a point.

I.Q. Points for Sale, CheapBy DAVID Z. HAMBRICK

New York TimesMay 5, 2012

•

• A STRIKING trend in today’s culture is the pursuit of rapid cognitive enhancement. The idea behind many popular video and online “brain-training” games is that practicing tasks that strengthen memory, attention and other mental processes will make you a smarter person.

• Nintendo markets its Brain Age game as a “treadmill for the mind.” Lumosity, …, says that its brain-training games offer “real-world cognitive benefits in individuals of all ages” ….

• Why the craze? …..

• Yet I and many other intelligence researchers are skeptical of this research. Before anyone spends any more time and money looking for a quick and easy way to boost intelligence, it’s important to explain why we’re not sold on the idea.

Who Writes OP Ed Pieces?

• NYT Wash P W St Jnl• women 22 19 17• men 78 81 83

• Visit http://www.theopedproject.org/

Public Relations 101

POD CAST• CHECK THESE OUT– Scientific American– Brainsciencepodcast.com– Sciencepodcasters.org/cognitive daily

• TED LECTURE – (Laura Carstensen; Sheena Iyengar)

Public Relations 101

• BLOG

– For Scientific American– For Slate– For blogspot– For Scientopia

The Inspiration Paradox: Your Best Creative Time Is Not When You Think

Morning people have more insights in the evening. Night owls have their breakthroughs in the morning

By Cindi May (in Scientific American)

A bus company in China has launched a new “safe driving” campaign by suspending bowls of water over their drivers. To avoid getting wet, drivers must drive gently….. You might imagine that this simple yet ingenious idea was conjured by someone functioning at their very best, that such “aha insights” come when innovators are at their peak.

Not so. A recent study by Mareike Wieth and Rose Zacks suggests that innovation and creativity are greatest when we are not at our best, at least with respect to our circadian rhythms. ….

Public Relations 101

• Toot your own horn (gently)

– To people in your department, your college, your field. • (if you win an award, chat with people in the hall, send an email

out – or put it on Facebook or LinkedIn and on your website).

– If you happen to sit next to the Chair, Dean, Provost, President on a plane or at a meeting or at a party• talk about your findings. Your accomplishments. They want to

know!

Public Relations 101

• WRITE A BOOK!

Public Relations 101

Public Relations 101

• The bottom line:

• DO NOT HIDE YOUR LIGHT UNDER A BUSHEL

Life: And most important of all

• Don’t count on public rewards – They are few and far between

– So, “put one foot in front of the other” and don’t be easily deterred.

– And have fun at your work and…

Read funny books!