Social and Personality Section Awards

2024

The call for student applications for the 2024 Kenneth Dion and Brendan G. Rule awards is now open! The deadline for submissions has been extended to April 15 , 2024.

These awards, named to honour the memory of two Canadian social & personality psychologists who made outstanding contributions to the field during their careers, recognize the best undergraduate (the Kenneth Dion Award) and the best graduate student (the Brendan Gail Rule Award) submissions. The Social & Personality section executive will adjudicate the competition, selecting a winner for each award. Winners will receive a $200 prize.
The application instructions for the Kenneth Dion Award (undergraduate) and the Brendan Gail Rule Award (graduate) are identical. What follows is applicable to both awards.
Requirements:

  • The applicant must be a student and the first author on the project.
  • Applicants must submit an abstract submission to the Social & Personality section for the CPA 2024 convention.
  • Applicants must be planning to attend the 2024 CPA convention.
  • For the Kenneth Dion Award, the applicant must be an undergraduate student.
  • For the Brendan Gail Rule Award, the applicant must be a graduate student.

Due Date: April 15, 2024

To Apply: Students who would like their work considered for the award must make a submission separate from the CPA submission to be sent to the current awards program administrator of the Social-Personality section (see below). This submission should include the following.

1. A cover letter (directed to the awards program administrator) indicating that they would like to be considered for the award including the following information:

  • Full Name
  • University
  • Program (e.g., Department of Psychology)
  • Area (e.g., Social Psychology, Personality)
  • Supervisor(s)
  • Type of award applying for (KD or BGR award)
  • Current standing as a student (i.e., undergraduate vs graduate; year in program)
  • Did you submit to the CPA 2024 convention? Do you plan to attend?
  • What type of submission did you make? (poster, gimme5, talk)

2. A 400-word Abstract for Committee Review (blinded for review). The following headings and format should be used.

  • Title:
  • Area: (Briefly state your specific research question/issue to be addressed.)
  • Context: (Put the research in context by providing adequate background information on relevant scholarly literatures, including references.)
  • Methodology: (State the design, size and characteristics of the sample, procedure, materials, and statistical tests employed, providing rationale as needed.)
  • Results: (Key findings.)
  • Conclusions and implications.

All materials must be emailed with the subject line “BG Rule Award” or “K Dion Award” to:
Email: Cheryl.Harasymchuk@carleton.ca
2023-2024 Awards Program Administrator Social & Personality Section of CPA


2023

In 2023 we brought back the Brendan Gail Rule Award and the Kenneth Dion Award to recognize student excellence. These awards, named to honour the memory of two Canadian social psychologists who made outstanding contributions to the field during their careers, recognize the best undergraduate (the Kenneth Dion Award) and the best graduate student (the Brendan Gail Rule Award) submissions. The awards are based on the quality of the abstract submissions that were first rated by 2-3 independent reviewers. Then, the winners were selected from a list of finalists by our section’s executive committee (blinded review). Each winner will receive a $200 cash prize and their names will be posted on the ‘Student Award Winners’ section of our website.

Gale Chong
Kenneth Dion Award winner: Gale Chong (University of British Columbia, Okanagan)
Tayler Wells
Kenneth Dion Award Runner-up: Tayler Wells (Carleton University)

Morgan Joseph
Brendan Gail Rule Award winner: Morgan Joseph (Carleton University)


2022

In 2022 we brought back annual awards to our section to recognize student excellence. In the past, our section offered the Brendan Gail Rule Award and the Kenneth Dion Award to recognize student excellence. These awards, named to honour the memory of two Canadian social psychologists who made outstanding contributions to the field during their careers, recognize the best undergraduate (the Kenneth Dion Award) and the best graduate student (the Brendan Gail Rule Award) submissions. Although we held off opening applications for these legacy awards until 2023, in the interim, we are offering student awards for ‘Best Poster’ and ‘Best Talk’ in the Social and Personality section at the CPA 2022 Convention.

The awards were based on the quality of the abstract submissions that were first rated by 2-3 independent reviewers. Then, the winners were selected from a list of finalists by our section’s awards committee.

Two winners were selected for the ‘2022 CPA Social & Personality Best Student Poster’ award and one winner was selected for the ‘2022 CPA Social & Personality Best Talk’ award. Each winner will receive a $100 cash prize and their names will be posted on the ‘Student Award Winners’ section of our website.

‘2022 CPA Social & Personality Best Student Poster’ Award Winners

Kesaan Kandasamy
Kesaan Kandasamy, Ryerson University,
The Effects of Discrimination on the Psychological Distress of Chinese Canadians during COVID-19
Co-authors: Lixia Yang, Ling Na, Peizhong Wang, Weiguo Zhang
Rama Eloulabi
Rama Eloulabi & Bidushy Sadika, Western University,
Dehumanizing “Others” during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review
Co-author: Victoria Esses

‘2022 CPA Social & Personality Best Talk’ Award Winner

Yekta Sharafaddin-zadeh, University of Alberta, Canadians’ Perceptions of and Attitudes towards Face Masks on Twitter During the First Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic: The Rise of Anti-Mask Sentiment
Co-authors: Kimberly Noels, Heather Young-Leslie, Veronica Slam, Denilson Barbosa, Nigel Lou, Ying Shan Doris Zhang


Previous Award Winners

The following list is incomplete. If you have information that would fill in the gaps, please send it to Cheryl.Harasymchuk@carleton.ca.

Brendan Gail Rule Award

  • 2023: Morgan Joseph
  • 2011: Sean P. Mackinnon (Dalhousie U.); Finalist: Régine Debrosse (McGill U.)
  • 2010:
  • 2009: Karen O’Brian (U. of Manitoba), Katia Keefer (Queen’s U.) [co-winners]
  • 2008: Johanna Peetz (Wilfrid Laurier U.); Finalist: Paula Brochu (The U. of Western Ontario)
  • 2007: Rebecca Malhi (U. of Calgary); Finalist: Simon Pierre-Harvey (U. du Québec à Montréal)
  • 2006: Benjamin Giguere (York U.); Finalists: Johanna Peetz (Wilfrid Laurier U.), Alishia Alibhai (U. of Calgary)
  • 2005: Lianne McLellan (Queen’s U.)
  • 2004: Matt Burnett (U. of Saskatchewan)
  • 2003: Sarah Fraser (Concordia U.); Finalist: Vassili Spyropoulous (Wilfrid Laurier U.)
  • 2002: Heather Lawson (Wilfrid Laurier U.)
  • 2001: Faby Gagne (McGill U.)
  • 2000: Kimberly Burton (McGill U.); Finalists: Anne L. Israeli (Dalhousie U.), John Kowal (U. of Ottawa)
  • 1999: Winnifred R. Louis (McGill U.); Finalists: Cheryl Terrance (Carleton U.), Lesley M. Akst (The U. of Western Ontario)
  • 1998: Christina Simms (U. of Calgary); Finalists: Stacey Nairn (U. of Calgary)
  • 1997: Lisa Sinclair (U. of Waterloo)
  • 1996: Tamarha Pierce (McGill U.)
  • 1995: Yves Chantal (Quebec – Montreal); Finalists: Silvana Macdonald (York U.), Jennifer Watson (Simon Fraser U.)
  • 1994: Sheree Kwong See (McMaster U.)
  • 1993: Pierre Foisy (Concordia U.)
  • 1992:
  • 1991: Cathy Giordano (U. of Waterloo); Finalists: Neal J. Roese (The U. of Western Ontario), Krista Trobst (U. of British Columbia)

Kenneth Dion Award

  • 2023: Gale Chong
  • 2011: An Gie Yong (Wilfrid Laurier U.)
  • 2010: Rachel Ross (U. of Calgary); Finalist: Cindy Ward (U. of Waterloo)
  • 2009: Leah Funk (U. of Winnipeg; Finalist: Gavin Docherty (U. of British Columbia)
  • 2008:
  • 2007:
  • 2006: Annette Gagnon (U. of Manitoba); Finalists: Danielle DeSorcy (U. of Saskatchewan), Justin Friesen (U. of Winnipeg)