August 15, 2006
The 13th European Conference on Personality, Athens 2006
Between 22 July and 26 July took place in Athens the 13th European Conference on Personality Psychology took place at the premises of Harokopio University. Harokopio University is the newest Higher Education establishment in Greece. It has three departments: Home Economics and Ecology (since 1993), Nutrition (since 1994) and Geography (since 2000). It is a small University Campus, close to the center of Athens, with technologically advanced facilities and a beautiful garden surrounding it.
Photo 1 Harokopos University
The estate belonged to Panagis Harokopos and to his brother Spyridon Harokopos, both interested in the training of young people in the area of Home Economics. They, therefore, founded in 1929 and financed the “Higher School of Harokopos”. This school came through their will to the state and in 1990, after being renovated and expanded; it started operating as a Public University.
The opening ceremony took place at the University of Athens from were the participants were able to see the center of Athens and have a gala dinner. Thus, the conference’s program has preceded at the Harokopio University- a natural green oasis and a Huge University Center. During the conferences’ days has proceed: Keynotes, Paper Sessions, Poster Sessions and Symposia.
Photo 2 Prof. Carver- keyspeaker
The keynote were approached by renowned psychologists from different countries: I. Deary- A Lifetime of Intelligence; G. Saucier-Toward a Cross-Culturally Generalizable Taxonomy of Personality Dispositions; A.S. Masten- Personality in Resilience Research; M. Mikulincer- The Experimental Study of Attachment Processes in Adult¬hood: A Contemporary Psycho¬dy¬namic Approach to Personality; D.P. Schmitt- On the Origins of Promiscuity: How Gender, Personality, and Culture Relate to the Adaptive Pursuit of Short-Term Mating Strategies; C.S. Carver- Affects Associated with Behavioral Approach: A Functional Analysis and A. Demetroiu- Mind, Personality, and Emotions: Deciphering their Relations.
The Symposias were organized by two co-convenors and consist of 4-6 papers. All symposia were allocated two hours time and the participants were from different countries: M.C. Whiteman and M.E. Vollrath- Personality and Health across the Life Span; R. Riemann and R. Krueger- Environmental Influences on Individual Differences; Measurement of New Constructs and their Correlates: P.C. Killonen and O. Wilhelm- Applications in Education and Industry; D.P. Schmitt and J.B. Asendorpf- Evolutionary Approaches to Personality.
The Paper Session took place approaching different subject of the Personality Field: Personality and Emotional Disorders, Personality in Cultural Context, Personality and Positive Psychology, Interface of Personality with Social Psychology, Personality Measurement I, Methodological Issues in Personality, Emotions at Work, Social and Motivational Aspects of Personality, Personality and Psychopathology, Personality in the Work Place, Personality Development across the Life Span, Dynamic Motivational Processes and Personality and Cognitive Processes.
The poster session was treated with high importance by the organizers. Poster presentations were an important and efficient means to, exchange ideas and results at any modern scientific conference. To increase the impact and quality of poster presentations the EAPP had announced special awards and a poster prize. In order to be situated at high standards, for the posters’ presentation were designated two rooms open all conference time for visitors. The main theses approached by posters presentation were: Development, Education, Behavior Genetics, Measurement, Motivation, Intelligence, Health, Emotion, Culture, Social Psychology, Psychopathology, Theories, Structure, Personality and work and Positive Psychology.
Photo 3 The Editorial Board meeting
The editorial board meeting took place on 24th July as panel discussion “State of the Art and Future of Personality Psychology”. A new feature during the ECP conference is represented by the organization of this panel discussion where five editors of journals devoted to the empirical study of the personality presented their thoughts about the State of the Art and the Future of Personality Psychology. The editorial board was represented by: J.B. Asendorpf (convenor), C.S.Carver, J. Henning, R.F. Krueger, and B. Woike. During the panel discussion of the editorial board were underlined the publishing conditions for the papers, researches and studies. There were encouraged for integration of different approaches (normal versus pathological variation) and for sophisticated quantitative methods the interdisciplinary, integrative and meta-analysis studies and researches. Furthermore, for the theory on biological bases and implicit processes were basically discouraged the self reports and narrow studies.
Photo 4 Prof. Frosso Motti
In the end of the conference took place the meeting of the European Association of the Personality Psychology. As a reward and gratitude for the warm welcome of the participants and the great preparation of the scientific and social programs according with the traditions of the previous European Conferences on Personality and Greek atmosphere, it was elected by secret vote the chair of the European Association of the Personality Psychology- Professor Frosso Motti- Stefanidi who was the Chair of the 13th European Conference on Personality.
As a reward and gratitude for the warm welcome of the participants and the great preparation of the scientific and social programs according with the traditions of the previous European Conferences on Personality and Greek atmosphere, it was elected by secret vote the chair of the European Association of the Personality Psychology- Professor Frosso Motti- Stefanidi who was the Chair of the 13th European Conference on Personality.
Presentation by Mihaela Popa Chraif