The roots of my I/O Psychology career were in my undergraduate degree in Psychology at McMaster University, where I experimented with the effects of testosterone on the parental behavior of male Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus). One day, while observing how often the male gerbil huddled with its offspring, it struck me – instead of only looking at the effect of testosterone, we should also be looking at how the stress of the gerbil’s work life interferes with the gerbil’s home life (a.k.a., work-family conflict). Thus, a fascination with I/O psychology began.

I quickly shed my experimental psychology background and signed on for two years with Pat Rowe at the University of Waterloo in the Masters of Applied Science (MaSC) program. I liked it so much I recently re-upped for a PhD tour of duty, again at Waterloo, with John Michela. My MaSC thesis is on organizational commitment and low alternatives in a contingent worker sample; my PhD studies will be on vision and values; and in-between consulting projects I’m conducting research on personality, work-family conflict, and job contexts.

I believe that getting involved with CSIOP will be a great experience and I look forward to being able to contribute to the close-knit I/O community in Canada. My own perception, after having been to a few CPA conferences now, is that at CPA there is a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that lends itself to the exchange of ideas and the formation of friendships that can result in shared research programs, new views on existing research, employment opportunities, and/or late nights at pubs. So, as the new CSIOP student rep, I hope to communicate the benefits of being in CSIOP (perhaps after I actually figure out what the je-ne-sais-quoi actually is!) and help clarify to students what the benefits of CSIOP membership are, especially in comparison to our big neighbor association to the south. Additionally, I’d like to see more co-operation between universities on internship placements. Instead of having access to only the usual placement suspects of your own university, you might be able to know where students in Calgary, Vancouver, Windsor or Montreal have completed internships.

On that note, I’d love to hear from you (students and non-students alike) on what you like about CSIOP, and how you think it differs from SIOP. Alternately, I’d like to hear what you’d like to see in CSIOP in the years to come. Please contact me at dlferris@uwaterloo.ca  with your comments! If you ask nicely, I may even share some gerbil stories from my time at McMaster.