The Society for Personality and Social Psychology offers a limited number of stipends and awards to support members from international locations who wish to attend its Annual Convention. This award is intended to increase the global representation of SPSP members and attendance at the Annual Convention.

Both graduate students and teachers/scholars who have completed their doctoral training are eligible to apply.

About the Award

The goal of the International Travel/Registration Award is to increase representation of scholars from underrepresented countries at the SPSP Annual Convention. This goal was set because:

1. SPSP aspires to be international in outlook, both in terms of the populations we study and the researchers who are studying them;
2. Attendees from outside of North America are underrepresented at the meetings;
3. The North American location of the meeting, compounded by wealth disparities between these countries and the U.S., often puts attendance at our conference out of reach for international scholars from underrepresented countries.

Award selection criteria focus primarily on applicants’ contribution to enhancing international diversity and representation, and prioritizes applications from students and teacher/scholars from world regions historically underrepresented at the convention, as members of SPSP, or more broadly in the field of social/personality psychology (more information available under the Eligibility tab).
 

SPSP will host an International Reception at the convention (time and location to be announced).  Award winners are expected to attend the reception.
 

Award Amounts
     In recognition of large variations in the typical levels of resources and wealth between countries, and in travel costs associated with attending SPSP meetings in North America (based largely on distance traveled), three levels of award are offered. The three levels are based on two simple dichotomies reflecting country-level resources and travel costs.
 

Country-level resources: Countries are defined as high- versus low-resource countries based on the "2019 World Bank definition of “high-income economies”.  
 

• High resource: 81 countries are identified as relatively high-income based on GNI per capita
• Low resource: all other countries are classified as relatively low-income

Travel cost: Countries are defined as high versus low in travel costs.
 

• Low cost: countries are those (a) in the North American continent (including island states) or (b) in Western Europe
• High cost: all other countries

Award amounts are based on combinations of these two dichotomies:
 

• High Resource/Low Cost = up to $600 award
• Low Resource/Low Cost and High Resource/High Cost = up to $1,000 award
• Low Resource/High Cost = up to $1500 award 

Eligibility

Applicants cannot have previously won an SPSP Travel/Registration award (i.e., the Graduate Travel/Registration Award, the Diversity Graduate Travel/Registration Award, or the Teacher & Scholar Travel/Registration Award).

Applicants may apply for this award together with any other registration stipend for which they are qualified (see here for a full listing of available registration stipends). However, an applicant can receive only one of the stipends.
 

Geographic Eligibility
Applicants must reside outside of the U.S. and Canada at the time of the convention. The country of residence will normally be based on the location of the applicant's institution. Although individuals from any world region outside of North America are eligible to apply, applicants from underrepresented regions will be given priority in the evaluation process. For the purposes of this award, underrepresented regions include most countries in Southern and Eastern Europe; Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Oceania; Africa and the Middle East; and Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Other Criteria

Graduate student applicants must be enrolled in a graduate program in psychology, and have research interests that fall broadly within areas of personality, social, or a related sub-field (e.g., political psychology, health psychology, cultural psychology, etc.).
 

Teacher/scholar applicants must teach and work primarily with undergraduate or Master’s level students, and have research interests that fall broadly within the areas of personality, social, or a related sub-field (e.g., political psychology, health psychology, cultural psychology, etc.). 

Undergraduate students are not eligible to apply. 

Non-members are eligible to apply, but must become members to accept the award. Applicants from underrepresented regions may be eligible for dues reduction or exemption. Please contact membership@spsp.org for additional information.

International applicants may apply for this award together with any other registration stipend for which they are qualified (i.e., the Diversity Graduate Registration Stipend, the Graduate Registration Stipend, or a Teacher/Scholar Registration Stipend). However, an applicant can receive only one of the stipends. 

Submission Requirements

• A curriculum vitae (CV)
• A 300-word essay in which you describe how your research and/or your life experiences contribute to the internationalization of SPSP or of social and personality psychology research and how you would benefit from receiving an international award.

About the Stipend

The Society for Personality and Social Psychology offers limited support in the form of compensated convention registration for both U.S. and international students attending its Annual Convention. Registration stipend winners will receive an in-person compensation code to register for the Annual Convention.

Applicants cannot have previously won any of the SPSP travel/registration awards (i.e., the International Travel/Registration Award, the Graduate Registration Stipend or Travel Award, the Diversity Undergraduate or Graduate Registration Stipend or Travel Award, or the Teacher & Scholar Travel/Registration Stipend or Travel Award).

Applicants must be an SPSP member through December 31, 2026.

Winners will be chosen via a lottery system.