Applications are now OPEN through October 15th!
SPA Dissertation and Research Grants will be evaluated on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) on the following domains:
- Overall Quality of the Proposal
- Proposal is clear and well-written
- Proposal provides a clear rationale for the project with appropriate citations
- The method described in the proposal is clear and appropriate for the proposed project
- Feasibility of the Project
- The project is feasible based on the timeline and budget provided
- Potential to Contribute to the Field of Personality Assessment
- The proposed project will significantly contribute to the field of personality assessment and/or advance the field of personality assessment
A successful proposal will be well-written, provide a clear and compelling rationale for the project, the methods described are clear and appropriate for the proposed project, the project is feasible within the time and budget proposed, and the project has the potential to significantly contribute to and/or advance the field of personality assessment.
Dissertation Grant
The Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) will be making grants to support dissertation research in the area of personality assessment. These awards of up to $800 must have an approved dissertation proposal before applying for the grant. Although not required at time of application, to receive the grant, the student must hold an active student membership for the 2022 calendar year. It is expected that the findings of the dissertation will be presented at the forthcoming Annual Convention of SPA.
Student Research Grant
The Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) will be making grants to support all types of student research in the area of personality assessment. These awards of up to $500 are open to undergraduate or graduate students in psychology or related fields. Although not required at time of application, to receive the grant, the student must hold an active student membership for the 2022 calendar year. It is expected that the findings of this research will be presented at the forthcoming Annual Convention of SPA.
Please reach out to info@spaonline.org with any questions.
Paula Floyd
Paula Floyd is a fifth-year student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at The University of Southern Mississippi. Her research focuses broadly on justice-involved youth and those who are at-risk for becoming justice-involved. More specifically, she is interested in evaluating community-based interventions that aim to improve institutional adjustment and reduce juvenile recidivism. After obtaining her doctoral degree, she plans to pursue a career that incorporates program outcome research and evidence-based clinical practice in a juvenile forensic setting.
Alana Fondren
Alana Fondren is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the University of North Texas. Her research interests include psychological assessment considerations among marginalized populations. Alana is honored and humbled to accept SPA's Dissertation Award, which will help fund her dissertation project entitled, "Queer Resilience: LGBTQ+ Community Connectedness, Positive Identity, and Mental Health Outcomes in Sexual Minority Emerging Adults". Alana identifies as a "scientist-practitioner-advocate" and is passionate about incorporating activism into her research.
Tessa Long
Tessa Long is a 5th year doctoral candidate at Sam Houston State University working under the mentorship of Dr. Jaime Anderson. Her research interests primarily focus on culturally and linguistically responsive personality measurements and dimensional models of personality pathology. She proposed her dissertation, “A Psychometric Examination of the US Spanish MMPI-3: Reliability, Validity, and Comparability to the English Form” in July 2020 and aims to defend this coming summer. Clinically, she is interested in culturally responsive treatments for personality pathology and empirically-supported treatments such as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
Callie Jowers
My name is Callie Jowers, and I am a fourth-year clinical psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Detroit Mercy. I am originally from Augusta, Georgia and moved to Detroit, Michigan for my doctorate in 2017. I received a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia and later attended Augusta University for a master’s of science degree in psychology with a focus in clinical psychology. As an undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral student, I have been involved in several areas of research spanning the subfields of neuroscience to personality and psychotherapy research. Broadly speaking, my current areas of research interest include Blatt's two polarities model of personality development and psychopathology, multi-method personality assessment, personality disorders, and the intersection of personality and psychotherapy research. Embedded in these interests is also the role of unconscious processes in shaping personality structure and interpersonal functioning. I recently finalized my second-year project where I examined prototype convergence across various prototype models of personality disorders and their association with pathological traits. I am currently exploring the relationship between defensive functioning and the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD). Aside from my academic work, I am completing my second external practicum at a long-term inpatient facility, and I work part-time as a therapist in private practice and assist with forensic evaluations and therapeutic assessment. I currently serve as a member-at-large in SPAGS and am involved in the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders Student Committee. In my free time, I enjoy socializing with my friends and colleagues, traveling, trying new coffee shops and restaurants around the metro Detroit area, and karate.
Courtney Mason
Courtney is a second-year graduate student in the Mississippi State University Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program and works in Dr. Hilary DeShong's Personality, Emotion, and Treatment Laboratory. Courtney's research primarily focuses on the assessment and treatment of personality psychopathology, variances of repetitive negative thinking (e.g., worry, rumination, catastrophizing), emotion dysregulation, and maladaptive behaviors. Furthermore, she is interested in utilizing dimensional models (such as the Five Factor Model) to further understand Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms, narcissism, and non-suicidal self-injury.
Jennie Min
Jiwon (Jennie) is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology at Oklahoma State University under the mentorship of Dr. Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt. She received her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Oklahoma State University and B.A. in psychology and pre-health from the University of Notre Dame. Her current research interest is focused on multi-method, multi-informant assessment of personality pathology and mobile treatment of related maladaptive behaviors. Specifically, she is interested in using advanced quantitative methods (e.g. HLM, IRT) to better understand personality pathology.