Abstract :
The 35th Annual Meeting of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists was held between April 20 and 23, 2006 at the Rydges Hotel, Manuka, Canberra. The range of topics, theoretical perspectives and methodological orientations represented here demonstrates the ongoing richness and health of social psychology in New Zealand and Australia. This diversity was further enriched by the presence of a number of international visitors.
The conference opened with postgraduate workshops held on Thursday the 20th April. Workshops included two methodological streams covering thematic analysis, and dealing with messy data, and a career-oriented workshop in the afternoon, capped by the postgraduate dinner on Thursday evening. We are very appreciative to those who made the Thursday program work so well: Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke, Michael Smithson, Winnifred Louis, Katherine Reynolds, Craig McGarty, Karen Douglas, Robbie Sutton, Joanne Smith, and Renata Bongiorno. Another notable feature of the program this year was the expanded poster session, held on Saturday evening. The buzz of discussion around the 30+ posters was encouraged by a good supply of drinks and finger foods. Special thanks goes to Léan O’Brien, Emina Subasic, and Luke Musgrove for their assistance in making the poster session so successful. The diverse range of verbal presentations were organised into 11 structured symposium streams, and 19 thematic sessions. Thanks to the symposium organisers, and to the academic program working group Michael Platow, Craig McGarty, and Kate Reynolds. Keynote addresses were presented by Professor William Maley, Director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National Univerity, and Professor Debbie Terry, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Queensland.
We acknoweldge the generous support of our sponsors, Thomson Learning, QSR International, Cambridge University Press, Pearson Education, Hodder-Arnold Journals, ExperimenTrak, and McGraw-Hill. Finally, we are very appreciative for help from the School of Psychology at ANU, and the enthusiastic team of students staffing crucial support roles during the conference.
We look forward to the 36th Annual Meeting, to be held in Brisbane in 2007.
