The 2018 jSchool

The 2018 jSchool was hosted in Siena, Italy, from the 8th to the 15th July 2018. This event marked the beginning of the JRP academic year by gathering students and supervisors in one of Italy’s most historical medieval cities. As an official UNESCO World Heritage Site, Siena is known for its cuisine, art galleries and museums, and mostly for the Palio, a horse race held twice a year, representing a highlight in the Sienese calendar.

Theme

The theme was Communication: The psychology of information. This allowed supervisors and students to expand upon a multitude of global issues, applying their psychological knowledge to a diverse range of academic fields, such as marketing of products, policy-making, social media’s influence on attitudes and behaviours, or the ongoing changes in interpersonal communication. Six research teams were responsible of independently combining their scientific research skills to develop and manage the project during the year. Participants actively contributed to the programme, combining their previous knowledge with their motivation to promote positive changes in today’s society.

Projects

The following projects were started in the 2018 jSchool, and presented at the 2019 JRPC. For further details on the nature of the projects, please visit our projects page.

1. Facts versus values: Do moral values predict differences in the credulity of misinformation?
2. The iGeneration: Investigating the relationship between social media use and emotion recognition in adolescents.
3. The poverty trap: A multinational study examining the relation between poverty, stress, financial literacy, and decision making.
4. Early Influences on Abstract Reasoning.
5. What lies ahead? Adolescents’ ethical perspectives on predictive testing in mental health
6. Improving decision-making in the criminal justice system: The effect of teaching aids on the the evaluation of eyewitness evidence

Guest Speakers

Dr Charles Jacob is currently a Professor in the Human Development and Quantitative Methods Division of the Graduate School of Education, at the University of Pennsylvania, and was our first lecturer at the 2018 jSchool. He has been involved with JRP since 2015 and we could have not be more delighted to welcome him back as a presenter.

Dr Jacob has been working in the field of mental health for nearly two decades, serving as the President of the American Counselling Association (Pennsylvania branch) between 2016 and 2017. His area of expertise includes International Counselling Development and Professional Ethics, with his work being published in multiple academic platforms, such as the Journal of Humanistic Counselling, Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, and International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling.

In line with his recent publications, Dr Jacob engaged with students at the 2018 jSchool with a lecture describing how psychologists communicate with a variety of diverse bodies, including patients, researchers, policymakers, and the public. This was in accordance with our annual theme, being Communication: The psychology of information.

Dr Caterina Suitner is currently a Social Psychology Assistant Professor and PhD Supervisor at the University of Padova, and joined us as at the 2018 jSchool to present her previous and current research. With a strong interest in cross-cultural Psychology, she supported  participants with their research projects during her stay at the jSchool.

Dr Suitner is specialised in a multitude of psychology-specific fields, including social influence, cross-cultural psychology, pervasive and informative communication, perception, language and social cognition. Her research has been published in a variety of journals, including Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology, and European Journal of Social Psychology.

As an active representative in today’s scientific community, she is currently a reviewer for multiple psychology journals, as well as a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Italian Psychologists (AIP). She has also been a visiting Professor in 2017 at the New School for Social Research in New York, teaching students Psychology and Social Policy. Additionally, she was a visiting researcher at New York University in the winter of 2018.

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Venue

In the very heart of the Chianti countryside there lies the Certosa di Pontignano, a 14th Century mansion that served as the jSchool venue. The location offered multiple quiet study settings, as well as green spaces, giving the summer school participants the chance to enjoy their academic experience immersed in the Chianti countryside.