June 12-14, 2013, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
EASP Small Group Meeting on Developing Diversity in EASP
Contact:christian.staerkle@unil.ch

Organisers: Steve Reicher (St. Andrews University), Ewa Drozda-Senkowska (Paris Descartes), Bernd Simon (University of Kiel), Christian Staerklé (University of Lausanne), Chiara Volpato (Milan Bicocca)

From its inception, EASP was committed to developing a social psychology which embraces all of Europe, which includes all sections of society and which is open to multiple intellectual traditions. In many ways, the Association has made remarkable strides forward in all of these respects, but equally, it is undeniable that we are still far from perfect, for example in terms of geographical diversity, gender equality and scientific recognition of different intellectual and methodological traditions. Moreover, it is arguable that the current economic crisis may have detrimental effects on our discipline. Funding cuts may affect the periphery more than affluent centres and increased competition privilege traditionally valued forms of research.

This small group meeting addresses these issues. It will have three aims: (1) to clarify the current state of affairs as concerns diversity in EASP; (2) to analyse the source of the problems; (3) to develop concrete plans for changes in the Association. The meeting will be structured in workshop format in order to maximize discussion and ensure that concrete outputs emerge from these debates. For each workshop participants will be asked to prepare position statements as a basis for discussion.

The meeting will be held at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, starting early afternoon on Wednesday, June, 12 until Friday, June, 14, 2013. We envisage a meeting of 20 – 25 people and priority will be put on ensuring diversity in terms of geographical location, gender, level of seniority and theoretical/methodological orientation. There are no participation fees and costs of accommodation and meals will be partially covered. Please contact the organizers for further information.

If you are interested in participating, please send an email with your contact details and a short position statement (200 – 400 words) concerning the views on diversity within the association and concrete ways to deal with it to Christian Staerklé (christian.staerkle@unil.ch) before 15th of January 2013.

June 17-18, 2013, Berlin, Germany
EASP Small Group Meeting on the Social Determinants and -Consequences of Threat
Contact:scheepersdt@fsw.leidenuniv.nl

Organizers: Daan Scheepers, Kai Sassenberg and Kai Jonas

As apparent from the media coverage of intergroup conflicts and rapid demographic, technological, and environmental changes, threat is a core psychological state in our modern society. Not surprisingly, threat is also a central motivational principle in a wide range of social psychological theories (e.g., terror management theory, social identity theory). Research in this area has been directed at exploring the different sources of threat (from material resources to self-esteem, belonging, meaning in life) as well as the different consequences of threat, ranging from information processing biases to prejudice against out-groups.

Despite the prominence of threat as an explanatory principle in social psychology, the concept of threat is complex, dynamic, and somewhat slippery. Different researchers have approached the topic in different ways (either as a contextual variable, or an emotional, motivational, or physiological state). Furthermore, the state of threat is difficult to capture using self-report measures due to defensive responding by research participants.

In order to bring more unity and clarity in the phenomenology, causes, and consequences of threat in social contexts, the current small group meeting aims to bring together a diverse group of researchers who have examined in their research the concept of threat in a variety of ways (e.g., cognitive processing, physiological responses) in a variety of domains (e.g., stereotyping and prejudice, group dynamics, attitudes, decision-making). The aim is an interactive meeting in order to stimulate theoretical unity and discuss methodological challenges.
We are planning to host the meeting at 17-18 June (arrival: June, 16, departure: June, 19) at the headquarters of the Leibniz Association located in the mid of Berlin. We are asking for indication of interest and/or submissions from both junior and senior researchers. If you are interested in participating, please send an email including an abstract (max. 250 words) and your contact details to Daan Scheepers (scheepersdt@fsw.leidenuniv.nl) before 15th of February 2013.

June 27-30, 2013, near Utrecht, The Netherlands
EASP Medium Size Meeting on Intergroup conflict: The cognitive, emotional, and behavioral consequences of communication
Contact:s.tauber@rug.nl

Organizers: Susanne Täuber, Ernestine Gordijn, Hedy Greijdanus, Tom Postmes, Bart de Vos, and Martijn van Zomeren (all University of Groningen, The Netherlands)

Key note speakers: Karen Douglas (School of Psychology, University of Kent, United Kingdom), Yoshihisa Kashima (Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, Australië), and John Dixon (The Open University, United Kingdom)

This meeting aims to bring together researchers who study the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral consequences of communication– crucial factors in (de-)escalating intergroup conflict. There is an emergent consensus that a multilevel perspective encompassing interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup communication is required to fully understand the association between communication and intergroup conflict. This multilevel approach carries with it considerable theoretical and empirical advancement in the field, for it necessitates us to focus on the dynamic that unfolds between the different levels of interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup communication.

We hope for this meeting to be a first step towards creating an overarching perspective on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effects of communication. We invite contributions to one of the three sub-themes of our meeting: Intergroup communication (subtheme 1), intragroup communication (subtheme 2), and challenges of predicting and investigating the links between communication and intergroup conflict in real-life (subtheme 3). Example questions involve: Which characteristics of communication between groups, their representatives, and between ingroup members can lead to intergroup conflict (de-)escalation (e.g., communication content, emotion expression or suppression, shared reality formation)? Which group characteristics moderate the effects of communication on intergroup cognition, emotion, and behavior (e.g. majority or minority, power, status, identification)? Which factors play a role in the interplay between intragroup and intergroup communication processes as it occurs in real life conflict settings (e.g., identity salience, polarization)? How does mixed inter- as well as intragroup communication influence intergroup conflict?

We invite submissions from senior and junior researchers from different disciplines ranging from cognitive to applied research. We will host a single session format with ample time for presentation and discussion in order to facilitate the exchange between researchers from different disciplines. In addition, we will provide room for eight brief communication presentations of 15 minutes each. The meeting will contribute to a better understanding of the role of communication in (de-)escalating intergroup conflict, thereby identifying strands for future research and multidisciplinary theorizing on this topic.

Applicants should submit a 250-word abstract to s.tauber@rug.nl before 5pm GMT on Wednesday, January 30th, 2013. Please include your name, affiliation, contact information, and EASP membership status.

Please visit our conference website for more information on this meeting: http://www.gmw.rug.nl/~conflictandcommunication

June 27-29, 2013, Kraków - Przegorzały, Poland
EASP Small Group Meeting on Motivational, affective, and cognitive sources of the knowledge-formation process: Implications for intrapersonal, interpersonal and intergroup phenomena
Contact:kasia.jot@gmail.com

Organizers: Małgorzata Kossowska, Arie W. Kruglanski, Arne Roets, Marcin Bukowski, Katarzyna Jaśko

The meeting has two general aims. The first aim is to bring together researchers who are interested in the role of epistemic motivation and cognitive processes in the knowledge formation process in both intrapersonal and intergroup settings. The second aim is to enable researchers to share novel findings about epistemic process, and work towards developing a common, multi-level approach that combines the neuroscience of intra- and interpersonal processes as well as group, intergroup and cultural processes. Given the seminal contributions of lay epistemic theory, the construction of new knowledge is a persistent human activity. For activities that range from the relatively simple and mundane to the highly complex, new knowledge is essential to ensure confident decisions and reasoned actions. Given the breadth of interest in knowledge formation, and the essential psychological relevance of the field to the generation of human thoughts, feelings and actions, an understanding of how knowledge is formed and changed has been recognized as a very important goal in psychology. Thus, the general purpose of the present meeting is to offer an opportunity to develop an integrative, unique approach to the epistemic process. This will afford a bird`s eye perspective on knowledge formation process, its motivational, affective, cognitive and neurocognitive underpinnings, and its ramifications for a broad variety of social psychological phenomena. These phenomena include intrapersonal processes (e.g., decision making, ideological, or religious beliefs), interpersonal processes (e.g., perspective taking), and intergroup processes (e.g., group centrism and outgroup derogation).

The meeting will take place on June 27-29 2013 in Kraków - Przegorzały, a charming city in the southern part of Poland.
Applicants should submit a 250-word abstract via www.sgmkrakow.eu before February 28th, 2013.

October 07-08, 2013, Schloss Reisenburg (near Ulm), Germany
EASP Small Group Meeting "Towards a multifaceted understanding of empathy: Integrating findings on physiological, affective, cognitive and behavioral underpinning"
Contact:claudia.sassenrath@uni-ulm.de, svenja.diefenbacher@uni-ulm.de

Organizers: Claudia Sassenrath, Svenja Diefenbacher, Johannes Keller

We are very happy to invite you to the EASP Small Group Meeting ‘Towards a multifaceted understanding of empathy: Integrating findings on physiological, affective, cognitive and
behavioral underpinnings’ to be held at 07./08.10.2013 at Schloss Reisensburg near Ulm, Germany.

Empathy is a key component of effective social functioning and its importance is reflected in innumerable findings obtained in different fields of psychology. Hence, it is time to attempt an integration of this growing body of empirical evidence and theoretical developments as it provides the opportunity to enhance our methodological skills and to deepen our understanding of what empathy as a concept entails. Accordingly, with this Small Group Meeting we wish to bring together researchers from different fields of social psychology but also from other psychological disciplines who investigate empathy. In this way, we want to provide empathy researchers at all stages of their career with a chance to benefit from their colleagues’ findings and to receive new impulses for their own research on empathy.

If you wish to participate,
1. Please contact the organizers and send a 250 word abstract of your oral presentation both to Claudia Sassenrath (claudia.sassenrath@uni-ulm.de) and to Svenja Diefenbacher
(svenja.diefenbacher@uni-ulm.de) by February 28th, 2013.
2. You will be notified about acceptance a few weeks later.

The meeting (and accommodation) will be located at Schloss Reisensburg in Günzburg near Ulm, Germany. Schloss Reisensburg has a tradition in catering scientific conferences and
meetings. For details of the venue, please see the website at: http://www.uni-ulm.de/reisensburg/home.html
All costs of accommodation and meals for the two days of the meeting will be fully covered. The conference will be supported by EASP and the University of Ulm. We expect
that there will not be a registration fee.

July 9-12, 2014, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
17th EASP General Meeting
Organizers: Agneta Fischer and Kai J. Jonas