American Psychological Foundation

The American Psychological Foundation (APF) requests proposals for the 2006 Wayne F. Placek Large Grants and the Wayne F. Placek Small Grants. Both awards support scientific research that increases the general public's understanding of homosexuality and aims to alleviate the stress that gay men and lesbians experience. Applicants for both awards must have a doctoral degree and be affiliated with a college, university or research institution.

Applications for the large grants should propose new studies that can be completed in two years solely with the level of funding provided by the grant. Up to $50,000 may be requested for any expenses associated with conducting an empirical research project, including salary for the applicant or assistants, equipment (with a $5,000 limit), supplies, travel, photocopying, postage and payment of participants. The award does not pay institutional indirect costs.

Special preference for one of the two grants will be given to applicants who have completed their doctorates within the previous seven years. The deadline for receipt of large grant applications is March 10.

The small grants program awards up to $5,000 to cover expenses associated with conducting an empirical research project on lesbian, gay and bisexual issues. Applications should propose a new study that can be completed in one year solely with the level of funding provided by the grant. Funds are not normally provided for stipends of principal investigators, travel to conventions or manuscript preparation. The award does not pay institutional indirect costs. Small grant applications must be received by Jan. 25.

Applications for both awards must conform to the APF Placek Grant Award guidelines, which can be found at www.hookerprograms.org.

In 2005, APF granted about $100,000 to support research on lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) issues and homophobia prevention. The funds are part of APF's Wayne F. Placek Research Grants program, which promotes increased public understanding of homosexuality.

Since 1993, APF has granted more than $1 million in research funding, including institutional matching funds, through the fund.

This year's Placek Large Grant recipients are:

• Gregory B. Lewis, PhD, a professor of public administration and urban studies at Georgia State University, received $50,000 for his proposal, "Increasing public support for same-sex marriage: What can existing data sources tell us?" Lewis will amass and analyze data from 125 general population surveys conducted over the past 25 years. He will assess what causes participants to make acquaintance with lesbians and gay men or change their beliefs about the origins of homosexuality, their moral judgments of homosexual relations and their support for overturning sodomy laws. By studying why people's attitudes change, he hopes to learn how to overcome opposition to same-sex marriage.

• Ann Marie Ryan, PhD, an organizational psychology professor at Michigan State University, received $49,732 for her proposal, "Sexual orientation harassment in the workplace." With her Placek grant, she will assess the relationship between individual characteristics, work outcomes and well-being via a Web-based survey of gay and lesbian employees. The primary purpose of the research is to develop better tools for assessing workplace sexual orientation harassment and to better understand the relationships between workplace harassment and work attitudes and individual well-being.

Ryan is a fellow of APA and a former president of Div. 14 (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology).

Div. 38 (Health) and the APF Board of Trustees awarded the Timothy Jeffrey Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Health Psychology to Helen Coons, PhD, at APA's Annual Convention in Washington, D.C., in August. Coons is the fifth recipient of the annual $1,000 award, which honors a full-time clinical service-provider's outstanding commitment to clinical health psychology.

Coons received her PhD in clinical psychology from Temple University in 1990. She is the founder and president of Women's Mental Health Associates in Philadelphia, a clinical associate psychiatry professor at Drexel University College of Medicine and an adjunct faculty member in the psychiatry department at Pennsylvania Hospital, part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. She specializes in collaborative treatment, continuing education for clinical psychologists, program development and policy in women's health and mental health.

Coons won the 2001 APA Committee on Women in Psychology Emerging Leader Award and, in 2003, became a member of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Advisory Committee on Women's Services. This year, she represented APA in the Department of Health and Human Services Primary Health Care Policy Fellowship Program and co-directedthe APA Clinical Health Psychology Institute on Women's Health in April. She chairs the APA Continuing Education Committee and is a former chair of the Committee on Women and Health of Div. 38.

Louise K. Jeffrey, PhD, founded the award in 2000 to memorialize the career and contributions of her late husband, Timothy Jeffrey, PhD, a former president of Div. 19 (Society for Military Psychology) and director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's clinical psychology department. For more information about the Jeffrey Award, visit www.apa.org/apf.

APF and APA Div. 40 (Clinical Neuropsychology) have selected the recipients of the 2005 Henry Hécaen and Manfred Meier Scholarships. The two $2,500 awards recognize excellence in graduate neuropsychology studies. The 2005 winners are:

• Yelena Bogdanova, PhD, of Boston University, received the 2005 Henry Hécaen Scholarship. She is examining the nature of numerical cognition and its relation to visuospatial functioning in frontostriatal disease, especially selective visuospatial dysfunction in Parkinson's disease and HIV. She hypothesizes that dysfunction of the basal ganglia and their cortical connections, particularly to the parietal lobes, underlies selective number processing and visuospatial deficits in patients with frontostriatal disease.

• Kimberly M. Miller, of the University of Florida, received the 2005 Manfred Meier Scholarship. Her dissertation study uses psychophysiological methods to examine potential deficits in Parkinson's disease patients in their emotional response to neutral, pleasant, disgusting and fearful pictures. Her preliminary work suggests that Parkinson's patients may have a reduced reaction to fear stimuli. She hypothesizes that this may be due to the reduction in dopamine that characterizes Parkinson's disease and neuropathology of the amygdala. Miller will use structural magnetic resonance imagining volumetric measurements to correlate psychophysiological data with amygdala volumes.

Arthur Benton, PhD, established both scholarships at APF to honor two esteemed colleagues in neuropsychology: the late Henry Hécaen, PhD, a French neuropsychologist instrumental in founding and developing neuropsychology as a science, and Manfred Meier, PhD, a retired researcher from the University of Minnesota who studied patients with epilepsy, cerebrovascular disorders and Parkinson's disease.

For more information about the scholarships, please visit www.apa.org/apf.

APF requests applications for the 2006 Randy Gerson Memorial Grant, which provides a $5,000 award to a professional academician or practitioner to advance the systemic understanding of couple dynamics, family dynamics and multigenerational processes. A strong preference will be given to projects using or contributing to Bowen family systems theory or furthering the work of Randy Gerson, PhD.

APF encourages individuals from a variety of educational settings to apply. All applicants must have a doctoral degree or an equivalent terminal degree within their field. Applications should include a statement of the proposed project; rationale for how the project meets the goals of the fund; budget; statement about how the results of the project will be disseminated; two letters of recommendation and a curriculum vitae.

The application deadline is Feb. 1. All materials must be submitted electronically via e-mail. For more information, visit www.apa.org/apf or call (202) 336-5814.

APF and Div. 27 (Society for Community Research and Action) have selected the DePaul University Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) and its director, psychologist Sheila C. Ribordy, PhD, as the recipient of the 2005 Harry V. McNeill Memorial Award for Innovation in Community Mental Health.

CMHC provides mental health, case-management and prevention services to children, adolescents and their families who live in the Lincoln Park, Near North and Loop neighborhoods of Chicago. The organization also operates two satellite offices located near Cabrini-Green and Lathrop Homes, which are public housing communities. The center provides free or low-cost services to the approximately 65 percent of client families that are on public assistance. Approximately 80 percent of the organization's client families are ethnic minorities.

The CMHC Bridges program assists juveniles who have come into contact with the legal system. Its Crossroads program works with local elementary schools to provide assessment and group services to youth at risk for delinquency and their families. CMHC also provides clinical training opportunities to graduate students in the DePaul University psychology department's clinical psychology program.

For more information on the McNeill Award, visit www.apa.org/apf.

In 2006, APF will award its third biennial $25,000 F.J. McGuigan Young Investigator Prize to recognize the efforts of a young psychological science investigator who is studying the concept of the human mind from a primarily psychophysiological perspective. Physiological and behavioral research may qualify for support, but dualistic approaches, such as those espoused by many contemporary cognitive psychologists, do not qualify for support.

Nominees must have earned a doctoral degree in psychology or a related field fewer than nine years ago at the time of the nomination. Nominees must also be affiliated with an accredited college, university or research institution. APF will award the prize to the recipient's institution for the benefit of his or her research. Faculty salaries and indirect costs may not be requested.

The deadline for nominations is March 1. Nomination packages must contain four copies of two representative publications and six copies each of a nomination letter written by a senior colleague; a one- to two-page statement of accomplishments and plans for the next five years, written by the nominee; and a curriculum vitae. APF does not accept self-nominations for this prize. Send materials to the APF Frank Joseph McGuigan Young Investigator Prize, APA Science Directorate, at the APA address.

For more information, visit www.apa.org/apf or contact Science.

APF requests proposals for the 2006 Esther Katz Rosen Grants, which award up to three scholars grants of up to $25,000 per year for three years for research on and programs for gifted children. Renewed funding is contingent upon the submission of an interim progress report and availability of funds. APF offers grants for:

• New scholars who would like to pursue research in the psychology of giftedness.

• Established scholars who would like to begin pursuing work in this field.

• Graduate students who have passed their qualifying exams and who are working with an established scholar in the area of giftedness.

APF will give special consideration to projects that are innovative and can become self-supporting or lead to external funding. Some preference is given to APA members.

The application deadline is Feb. 15. To apply, submit a four-to six-page proposal, curriculum vitae and institutional review board approval via e-mail. Graduate student applicants must also submit recommendations from a graduate adviser and department chair or director of graduate studies. For complete application guidelines, e-mail, visit www.apa.org/apf or call (202) 336-5814.

-compiled by E. Merck, I. Ramos and E. Packard