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EASP – European Association of Social Psychology

Extraordinary Grant Report by Kai J. Jonas

13.12.2015, by Sibylle Classen in grant report

University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Report on the visit of Mahidol University Bangkok, Thailand in November 2015

With the support of EASP I was able to visit my collaboration partners (Drs. Pimpawon Boonmongkon, Thomas Guadamuz) at Mahidol University Bangkok, Thailand.

Next to giving invited talks and guest lectures in a number of classes at Mahidol University, the primary aims of the visit were to write-up a NIH grant to support our future joint research interests and to develop our joint research further. These goals have been reached, and the grant will be submitted in the January 2016 round.

One of the practical goals was to ensure and execute the following time points of data gathering within the ASAP survey. The ASAP survey is a unique longitudinal survey on (motivational) determinants of sexual risk taking among MSM, that was started in 2015 prior (T1) and post (T2) of the Songkran festival. The Thai New Year has turned into one of the biggest circuit parties with more than 12.000 attendants, and is known for drug use and sexual risk taking. We prepared and started to run T3 during my visit, and planned the next two measurement T4 and T5 around Songkran festival 2016. Both collaboration partners, the Thai Red Cross and APCOM, a local NGO, are supporting this longitudinal survey again, financially and structurally. This should lead to a unique longitudinal dataset of determinants of sexual risk taking of MSM in Southeast Asia.

Finally, we were able to write up three manuscripts on the existing data from the survey. These manuscripts deliver first evidence on longitudinal development of counterfactual thoughts in the domain of sexual risk taking.

Furthermore, in the light of developing ties to our Asian colleagues, I was invited to give a colloquium talk at the University of Macao, Psychology program on counterfactuals and risk taking, and started to develop a collaboration with the Chinese University of Hong Kong on sexual risks.

I would like to thank EASP for supporting this research visit and unique experience.