Professional Development

• APA Office of Testing and Assessment
• Information for Early Career Quantitative Psychologists
• International Test Commission
• Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology's Qualitative Consultant Listings

"As a graduate student, I took a course on the general use of metaphor in science. It struck me that drawing such parallels among things that exist in nature, or “kinds,” the precise terms created to capture the essence of the “kinds,” and the imprecise (but rich-by-analogy) metaphors used to represent the relations between them, might be beneficial in my teaching. One clearly runs the risk of imprecision and, but with rare exception, all good metaphors eventually fall apart. However, a good metaphor or analogy taps existing knowledge structures about how a set of things relate, thereby aiding in learning the precise “term” for the “kind” and the relational nature among the “terms” for the “kinds.”"

- Todd Little, APA Div. 5

"I personally believe that we are all latent scientists of sorts, if only at an informal level. We each go about making hypotheses about everyday events and situations, based on more or less formal theories. We then collect evidence for or against these hypotheses and make conclusions and future predications based on our findings. When this process is formalized and validated in well-supported environments, the opportunity for a major contribution by a well-informed individual becomes much more likely. Further, this is accompanied by a deeply felt sense of satisfaction and reward. That has certainly been my experience."

- Lisa Harlow, APA Div. 5
Cohen Teaching Award Winner

"Instead of memorizing formulas, strive to understand the important concepts and think about ways that the concepts can be applied. In what situations is a particular statistic useful? How is the statistic interpreted? What assumptions must be fulfilled to interpret the statistic? When you read about an experiment in your field, consider how you would have designed it and how you would have analyzed the data. And check out your ideas by talking about them with your professor."

- Roger Kirk, APA Div. 5
Cohen Teaching Award Winner