This year, the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) conference took place in Padova, Italy. The conference annually brings together researchers in psychology and related fields to improve the state of psychological science. The conference centers on critical topics such as theory building, open science, valid measurement of psychological constructs or statistical approaches currently embraced in psychological research (e.g., network analysis, Bayesian statistics).
Nikol and Anna from our team attended this year’s SIPS. They participated in workshops, lectures, and discussions on reproducible research, preregistrations, network analysis, causal literacy, experimental methodology, generalizability in psychological science, or improving psychological science for LGBTQIA+ professionals and participants. Besides exploring various research topics and learning new skills, SIPS facilitates networking, international collaborations, and participation in diverse research projects. For instance, Anna joined the Multi100 project that, involving more than 200 other researchers internationally, aims to investigate the impact of analytical choices on the robustness of published results in social sciences. Following the “Do’s and Don’ts of Preregistration – the Ultimate Guide” workshop, Nikol got involved in the group that will jointly put together guidelines for the best practices for preregistered research, aiming to publish the guide as a paper and shiny application.
Besides participating in the workshops, Nikol joined the poster session with her “pre-study poster” called “#BodyPositivity or #BodyNeutrality on social media: Which one is more beneficial for body image?”. Poster introduced an experimental study intending to compare the effect of body positivity and body neutrality content on social media on self-objectification and body dissatisfaction. The planned research addresses the potentially negative impact of body positivity on self-objectification and is a part of Nikol’s dissertation project. In Nikol’s words: “At first, I was a little bit afraid to present my poster, but in the end, it was a truly rewarding experience. I got to talk about my research with people passionate about best research practices and received valuable feedback that will help me better design my study. Overall, this year’s SIPS was wonderful and inspiring, as always. I cannot wait for the next years to come. ”
