Grants and opportunities

Lizette Peterson-Homer grantee aims to reduce rabies risk among children

APF has given doctoral student Jiabin Shen, of the University of Alabama, a $5,000 APF Lizette Peterson-Homer Injury Prevention Grant to explore how to reduce dog-bite injuries to children in rural China.

Dog-bite injuries are particularly prevalent due to the high number of dogs in the country—many of which are used as protection by women whose husbands have left the village to seek work in nearby cities. Between 1996 and 2006, there was a 2000 percent increase in rabies cases in China.

Shen will use the grant to gather more data on how and when children are bitten. She will also study attitudes among parents about preventing injury to create dog-bite prevention programs for Chinese farmers and their children.

APF awards four scholarships

APF has awarded scholarships to four graduate students who are doing promising work:

• Stephen P. Becker, of Miami University, who won the $5,000 Harry and Miriam Levinson Scholarship to fund his dissertation, "Differentiating the Development of Internalizing and Externalizing Comorbidities with ADHD: The Roles of Social Information Processing and the Positive Illusory Bias."
• Kristy E. Benoit, of Virginia Tech, who won the $3,000 Ruth G. and Joseph D. Matarazzo Scholarship to support her dissertation project, "Interpretation Bias in Anxious Mothers and Their Children: Can Interpretation Modification Affect the Intergenerational Transmission of Anxiety?"
• Erik J. Girvan, of the University of Minnesota, who won the $2,000 Clarence J. Rosecrans Scholarship to support work on his thesis, "Habits of Meaning: When Does Learning to Categorize Situations Attenuate Bias in Social Judgments?"
• Courtney Gosnell, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, who won the Peter and Malina James and Dr. Louis P. James Legacy Scholarship for her research, "The Ego-Depleting Nature of Social Support." This is the first year APF has awarded the James scholarship, which was established by retired psychology professor Louis James, PhD, in honor of his parents.

Funding opportunities

Fund your research on gifted and talented children:

APF is accepting applications for the Esther Katz Rosen Graduate Student Fellowship, a $25,000 grant to support activities related to the psychological understanding of gifted and talented children and adolescents.

Applicants must be graduate students who have achieved doctoral candidacy. Students may apply before having passed their qualifying exams, but APF requires proof of having advanced to doctoral candidacy before it releases funds. Students must be in good academic standing at a university in the United States or Canada. The home institution of the selected fellow must provide a tuition waiver.

The application deadline is March 1.

Grants advance understanding of homosexuality

APF is accepting applications for two $15,000 Wayne F. Placek Grants, which support empirical research from throughout the behavioral and social sciences on any topic related to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender issues.

APF gives priority to proposals that address the following topics:

• Heterosexuals' attitudes and behaviors toward lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people, including prejudice, discrimination and violence.
• Family and workplace issues relevant to lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people.
• Subgroups of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations that are underrepresented in research.

Applicants must be either doctoral-level researchers or graduate students affiliated with an educational institution or a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization. The application deadline is March 1.

Apply for a Visionary grant

APF is seeking nominations for one of its Visionary grants and for the $5,000 Drs. Raymond A. and Rosalee G. Weiss Research and Program Innovation Fund Grant. The Visionary grants, which provide up to $20,000 in funding each, and the Drs. Raymond A. and Rosalee G. Weiss Research and Program Innovation Grant support research, education and intervention projects that use psychology to solve social problems in the following priority areas:

• Understanding and fostering the connection between mental and physical health to ensure well-being.
• Reducing stigma and prejudice to promote unity and harmony.
• Understanding and preventing violence.
• Supporting programs that address the long-term psychological needs of individuals and communities in the aftermath of disaster.

Applicants must be affiliated with 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. The application deadline is March 15.

Nine students win $1,000 scholarships

APF and the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology have presented the 2011 — 2012 Graduate Student Research Scholarships, which help defray the costs of students' research projects. The winners are:

• Aaron Haas, Morehead State University.
• Ann Catherine Johnson, University of Notre Dame.
• Jessica Keeney, Michigan State University.
• Gloria Luong, University of California, Irvine.
• Daniel M. Stout, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
• Erin L. Thomas, Yale University.
• Molly A. Walsh, University of North Carolina–Greensboro.
• Brandon L. Warren, Florida State University.
• Kevin L. Zabel, University of Tennessee.