About

GASP is open to all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and research interest. Allies are especially welcome.

GASP was founded in 2001 to provide social support and professional resources to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender students and faculty in social and personality psychology.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is GASP?

GASP (GLBTQ+ Alliance in Social and Personality) is a nonprofit organization affiliated with (but independent of) the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. GASP provides support and professional information to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) students and faculty in social and personality psychology and their hetorosexual allies. GASP is open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or research interest.

GASP is currently working with several organizations to improve the climate for LGBT students and faculty in our field. For example, GASP has received an APA Interdivisional Grant, with the sponsorship of Divisions 8 (SPSP, Society for Personality and Social Psychology), 9 (SPSSI -- Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues) and 44 (Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues) to support the GASP Measures Project . GASP also works with the Training and Diversity Committees of SPSP to support LGBT research and researchers.

Why does it exist?

There are two main reasons why we thought there was a need for such an organization. First, LGBT individuals continue to face considerable prejudice, stigmatization, and isolation, particularly in professional settings. We wanted to create a forum for LGBT social/personality psychologists and their heterosexual allies to provide one another with solidarity, social support, and practical/professional advice. Second, we wanted to provide a forum where researchers studying LGBT issues and teachers who wished to present current research on LGBT issues in their classes could obtain helpful information and resources.

What does GASP do?

That's largely up to you! We have some preliminary plans, but we hope interested participants will voice their own ideas about the needs that such a group can serve. One important function is social -- simply meeting other LGBT social psychologists and our heterosexual allies goes a long way toward reducing the sense of isolation that many LGBT academics face, and we hope to provide both face-to-face and online opportunities for such interactions. We also hope that the GASP website and listserve will serve as a clearinghouse for LGBT-related professional information. For example, students and faculty going on the job market or applying to graduate school might want to compare different universities and cities with regard to the overall climate for LGBT students and faculty.

We hope to develop an online list of social/personality psychologists around the country who are willing to provide this information. This list of gay-friendly contacts is just one of the resources that we imagine linking to the GASP website. We also seek information on recently published studies on LGBT issues, RFPs for LGBT-related social/personality research, etc. We hope that these efforts will lay the groundwork for multiple informal networks of GLBT and GLBT-supportive social/personality psychologists around the country. Some long-term "dreams" include travel scholarships for researchers presenting GLBT research at future SPSP meetings.

If you've got your own "wish list" for such an organization, we'd love to hear it. Please write to us at gaspmail@earthlink.net .

Who is included?

Everyone who wants to be. Although GASP focuses on LGBT issues, the involvement and participation of supportive heterosexual allies is crucial, and so we welcome everybody's support and involvement, regardless of sexual orientation or research interests.

How do I get involved?

There are 4 ways to become involved in GASP activities:

1. Join the GASP listserve by contacting us at gaspmail@EarthLink.net.
2. Send suggestions for GASP activities and for resources for LGBT-related research, teaching, and professional issues to add to the GASP website to Lisa Aspinwall and Lisa Diamond at gaspmail@earthlink.net .
3. Attend our annual meeting at SPSP.
4. Consider a donation to GASP.

Your support could fund graduate student research on LGBT issues, travel to conferences, and other important means of increasing visibility for LGBT research and researchers. For more information, please write to us at gaspmail@earthlink.net .

If I get involved, can I keep that confidential?

Absolutely. The extent and openness of your participation is entirely up to you.
Privacy Policy

Who are these people?

GASP was founded in November 2001 by Lisa Aspinwall and Lisa Diamond, Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 South 1530 East, Room 502, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0251. You may reach us at gaspmail@earthlink.net .

Affiliates & Sponsors

GASP is an independent nonprofit scientific and professional society. It is with appreciation that we acknowledge the following organizations and individuals for their support.

• GASP has been an affiliate of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology since 2002. We gratefully acknowledge continued support from SPSP and its Diversity and Climate Committee for our Mentorship Luncheons and social hours at the annual SPSP meeting.
• LGBT students are eligible for SPSP's Undergraduate and Graduate Diversity Travel Awards and the Social Psychology Network (SPN) Mentorship Program for Underrepresented Students.
• GASP also wishes to acknowledge the American Psychological Association for its funding of our interdivisional grant to support the GASP Measures Project and other enhancements to the GASP web site. This grant was supported by APA Divisions 8, 9, and 44, and we appreciate this broad base of support by our colleagues in these divisions.
• GASP especially wishes to acknowledge Dr. Tom Malloy, Jake Jensen, Owen Xu, Brad Winegar, Charles Jackson, James Marchment and other members of the University of Utah Department of Psychology web team for their fantastic support of the GASP web site since its inception in November 2001. There is no way we could do this without you.

Call for Sponsors for Graduate Student Research and Travel

GASP is still seeking individual and organizational/institutional sponsors for graduate student research and travel awards to support top-quality research on LGBT issues. Please write to us at gaspmail@earthlink.net to discuss potential sponsorships.

Wall of Honor

GASP would like to thank the following individual students, postdocs, and faculty in personality and social psychology for hosting tables at our GASP Mentorship Luncheon. We appreciate their contributions to an inclusive and welcoming professional environment.

Lisa G. Aspinwall, University of Utah
B. Ann Bettencourt, University of Missouri
Karen L. Blair, University of Utah
Ben Blankenship, James Madison University
Galen Bodenhausen, Northwestern University
Jennifer Bosson, University of South Florida
Jacqueline Chen, University of Utah
John Christensen, University of Connecticut
Terry Conley, University of Michigan
Paul M. Connell, Stony Brook University
Maureen Craig, New York University
Chris Crandall, University of Kansas
Clayton R. Critcher, University of California, Berkeley
Sara Crump, Baker University
Amy Cuddy, Harvard Business School
Lisa M. Diamond, University Of Utah
Tessa Dover, Portland State University
Patrick Doyle, Sirius XM + Pandora
Alice Eagly, Northwestern University
Adam Fingerhut, Loyola Marymount University
Jonathan B. Freeman, New York University
David M. Frost, Columbia University
Julie A. Garcia, California Polytechnic State University
Negin Ghavami, University of California, Los Angeles
Carlos Godoy, University of Southern California
Phillip Atiba Goff, Center for Policing Equity at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Jin X. Goh, Colby College
Rosanna Guadagno, National Science Foundation
Tabea Hässler, University of Zürich/McGill University
Jeff Hunger, Miami University
Sa-Kiera Hudson, Yale University and UC Berkeley
Kerri Johnson, University of California, Los Angeles
Cheryl Kaiser, University of Washington
David R. Kille, Instagram
Laura A. King, University of Missouri, Columbia
Zoe Kinias, INSEAD Singapore
Teri Kirby, Purdue University
Marianne LaFrance, Yale University
Justin Lehmiller, Ball State University
Ryan Lei, Haverford College
Robyn Mallett, Loyola University Chicago
Sarah Mancoll, SPSSI
Traci Mann, University of Minnesota
Sara McClelland, University of Michigan
Pranjal H. Mehta, University of Oregon
Lynn C. Miller University of Southern California
Wesley Moons, Moons Strategic Media
Thekla Morgenroth, Purdue University
David Myers, Hope College
Loran Nordgren Northwestern University
Kristina Olson, University of Washington
Allen Omoto, Claremont Graduate University
John Pachankis, Ph.D. Yale University
L. Anne Peplau, University of California, Los Angeles
Luis M. Rivera, Rutgers University
Steve Rouse, Pepperdine University
Nicholas Rule, University of Toronto
Jessica Salvatore, Amherst College
Krishna Savani, Nanyang Business School
Jenessa R. Shapiro, University of California, Los Angeles
Jessi L. Smith, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Jennifer Spoor, La Trobe University
Joshua A. Tabak, Facebook and Cornell University
Charlotte Tate, San Francisco State
Dexter M. Thomas, University of Utah
Janet Tomiyama, University of California, Los Angeles
Ben Valen, New College of Florida
Sari van Anders, University of Michigan
Paul Vasey, University of Lethbridge
Terri Vescio, Penn State University
Sarah Ward, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Keith Welker, University of Massachusetts Boston
Nic Weststrate, University of Illinois at Chicago
Judith White, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
Jimmy Wiser, Evolution Media, Burbank, California

Privacy Policy

Updated February 28, 2018

Simply stated, GASP's privacy policy is to respect the wishes of its members regarding the openness of their participation in GASP. In a better world, these concerns and protections wouldn't be necessary, but we realize that members of our field interested in GASP may have real concerns about privacy.

You might think about your participation on a continuum from anonymity to direct personal involvement. Here is a list of ways to participate in GASP, and how information about your involvement will be handled.

1. The website:
   The anonymous option is to use the resources on the GASP web page. We have deliberately omitted tracking and analytics data scripts from the site to respect anonymity. We hope you find the resources on our site useful, and the knowledge that there are many GLBT individuals and allies in our field encouraging.
2. The listserv:
   Participation in the listserv is confidential. The membership list is seen only by the list adminstrator, Lisa G. Aspinwall. Of course, we cannot guarantee the listserv against unauthorized intrusions (i.e., hacking), but we can say that we will make every effort to protect this information from any use other than to provide support and information to GASP members. Of course, if you posted a message to the list, your e-mail address would be displayed (see note below re getting another e-mail address), but you should be able to receive messages confidentially.
3. The discussion:
   If you wanted to join the listserv under a different name (e.g., John Q. Gasp), simply get an e-mail account that cannot be traced to your work or home. We think that it would be more informative and helpful if people identified themselves, but, of course, this is up to you.
4. Send information:
   Send Information about research, teaching and professional issues to gaspmail@earthlink.net . Messages sent to the gaspmail account are read only by Lisa Aspinwall. We will not share information about such messages unless you specifically request that we do so. For example, several people have written to inquire about GASP, but we did not add their names to our list of people supporting the request of the SPSP Executive Committee to formally recognize GASP unless the writer specifically asked us to do so.
5. Contribute to GASP.
   We will soon have a mechanism for making tax-deductible contributions to GASP to support student travel, student research, and other programs. Contributions may be made anonymously or confidentially or with full acknowledgement.
6. Attend GASP meetings:
   We'd love to meet you.

Please write to us at gaspmail@earthlink.net.