The GU Psych Society

Published: 6 October 2020

A welcome message and updates from GU Psych Society

Hello everyone and a big welcome from GU Psychology Society!
We are an academic and social society that welcomes everyone interested in Psychology.

Our main aims are:

To raise awareness about important psychology related issues.
To encourage learning and enjoyment of the subject beyond university courses.

This year will look a bit different for everyone, but we still have a huge range of events for our members to enjoy. To reflect the reduced number of in-person events, membership is half price this year. We are still charging a fee as we are hoping to host physical events in the second semester (more about those in the Socials section!).

For now, read on to find out about the amazing things we’ll be getting up to this year -

Socials

Pre-covid, PsychSoc was known for hosting lots of socials (from our legendary sub-crawl to personality cocktail making sessions to our annual gala). This term we will still fill your calendar with amazing events, but you can enjoy them all from the comfort of your own home!

Our first pub-quiz social in collaboration with Psychology Department had over 100 people (and a ferret) battling it out for the title of pub quiz champion. It was so popular we are planning a Happy Holidays quiz towards the end of term, so keep your minds sharp and ears peeled for more details.

Academic events

We have a plethora of events throughout the year to quench your thirst for knowledge.

Our guest lectures this term include explorations of Free Will and Moral Responsibility (13^th Oct), a member-exclusive Behavioural Economics talk in collaboration with the Adam Smith Economics Society (27^th Oct) and a dive into the Psychology of Swearing (10^th Nov).

We are bringing back one of our most popular events, Psychology in the Pub. A highly interactive event where the audience discuss a topic that is presented and lead by a specialist, will have a parapsychology theme in an evening led by a University of Edinburgh expert. The date is TBC, so follow our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for updates.

Our biggest event of the year is our Annual Conference (at the start of second semester), which hosts a collection of fantastic guest-lectures, seminars and workshops from Psychology professionals all over the world. This year it is a careers conference, so will be exploring all of the different places and career paths Psychology can lead you onto.

Made by us

Brainscape is our applied Psychology podcast which now has nearly 30 episodes! It is explores how psychology applies to all aspects of life and human behaviour, from stand-up comedy, to dating, to psychopathy.

We are looking to expand our team, those who join the Brainscape team can gain experience:

Researching topics and publications
Hosting episodes
Interviewing academics leading in their field
Editing and producing podcast audio
Marketing and promoting the channel

The podcast is available on all major platforms, so give it a listen and get involved!

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4xm16tF5ib3w4FWWz0ZOAg?si=KeVpC9IAR8KXcInndd13xQ

Apple podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/brainscape/id1457059338

Anchor -
https://anchor.fm/brainscape/episodes/Face-your-Fears----Part-1-e8dvs9

Writebrain is our society magazine (which will be published as an online Zine this year).

It is an op-ed publication written and edited by students from all over the world, with this year’s topic - ‘Why is Psychology so WERID?’. It will be published and free to access on all of our social media channels, so look out for it later this year.

Psychology families

In our brand new Psych Soc families second, third and even fourth year students become parents and mentors to freshers. They will pass on the immense knowledge and survival tips they gathered in first year and (if restrictions ease) eventually join together family dinners, challenges and socials. A wonderful way to meet people from all levels of the course, share experiences and make friends for life, we are hoping this is the first of many generations of Psychology Society families.

Membership

The membership cost for this year is £2.50 and gives you access to members only events, as well as discounted ticket prices to other events happening throughout the year!

All members are welcome to our committee meetings where we plan our events and activities.

To become a member fill out this google form and pay your membership fee using the QR code or link on the page:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSblAI8WFl08zUCtP8ehRrpKC6CIVLmJU7zBFDuQ8aHVBgbA/viewform?fbclid=IwAR1dHCS65pEJUOXWSw0Id6OUWc1MW1V_j4VlsAW-ncysOPcbcdxKupt57iA

Committee

Our society committee is as active as ever and meets twice a week. Once for general and once for academic meetings. In general meetings, we plan our socials, discuss and prepare podcast episodes and talk about the families. Our academic meetings are to plan our annual conference and organise our other academic events. If you can’t make it to the meeting, don’t worry, minutes are posted later on in committee group and you can easily catch up. The weekly general meeting is at 1pm on Wednesday and weekly academic meeting at 2pm on Friday, so come along and meet us – (zoom link)

We still have some committee positions available, which will be votes in during our EGM.

The EGM will be held in week 4 of semester 1 and the positions going are: