Weight is a factor in graduate admissions

[psychRA]

Has anyone come across this interesting new study in Obesity about BMI and admission to psychology grad programs? I don't have access to the full text through my university, but here is a brief summary. The authors found that applicants with a high body mass were less likely to be accepted into programs:

we could see a clear relation between their weight and offers of admission for those applicants who had had an in-person interview,” Burmeister said. “The success rate for people who had had no interview or a phone interview was pretty much equal, but when in-person interviews were involved, there was quite a bit of difference, even when applicants started out on equal footing with their grades, test scores and letters of recommendation.”

I'm surprised and not surprised at the same time. I wonder how our field might compare to other disciplines?

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[PsySeeker]

I think I have access, I'll check it out later. I'm honestly not surprised. Especially if the applicants they studied were morbidly obese. My feeling is they likely face great bias in nearly all aspects of life.

 

[WisNeuro]

Don't forget about confounding variables...

 

[psychRA]

Don't forget about confounding variables...

Such as?

I'm curious to hear more about the study itself.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Such as?

I'm curious to hear more about the study itself.

Beyond the obvious such as on-paper credentials (which the authors may have attempted to control for, not sure), perhaps in-person interview performance? Although I don't know that it'd be possible to tease that apart from weight-related biases on the part of the interviewers, given that obtaining something such as an interviewer rating of the interviewee would likely include those biases.

 

[WisNeuro]

Just saw another article for this. The n was 97. That's extremely low for a correlation study. Not saying that there isn't anything there, just that we're making a lot of inferences on not much evidence.

 

[futurecatlady]

Anyone remember this incident?
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/06/04/outrage-over-professors-twitter-post-obese-students

 

[Lisa44201]

Anyone remember this incident?
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/06/04/outrage-over-professors-twitter-post-obese-students

Yep.

 

[PHD12]

I'm surprised and not surprised at the same time. I wonder how our field might compare to other disciplines?

There is unfortunately going to be some ageism, sexism, discrimination of people with weight issues (or another ism) in pretty much every field and especially the job market. It probably varies depending on the location, culture of the setting, etc. For some reason, psychologists tend to be thin or average, but not obese. Maybe because we are in a health profession?

 

[Doctor Eliza]

There is unfortunately going to be some ageism, sexism, discrimination of people with weight issues (or another ism) in pretty much every field and especially the job market. It probably varies depending on the location, culture of the setting, etc. For some reason, psychologists tend to be thin or average, but not obese. Maybe because we are in a health profession?

My theory has always been that it related to perfectionism. We definitely noted that the people in our program tended to be fairly fit (and also often attractive).

Dr. E

 

[PHD12]

My theory has always been that it related to perfectionism. We definitely noted that the people in our program tended to be fairly fit (and also often attractive).

Dr. E

Tell me about it. There are way too many smart, interpersonally savvy, "perfectionistic" and attractive people to compete with in the psychology job market. I also noticed this on internship interviews. Why can't you guys be less perfect? Wish I was competing with engineers. Not many attractive or interpersonally comfortable ones there

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Tell me about it. There are way too many smart, interpersonally savvy, "perfectionistic" and attractive people to compete with in the psychology job market. I also noticed this on internship interviews. Why can't you guys be less perfect? Wish I was competing with engineers. Not many attractive or interpersonally comfortable ones there

The bolded is actually something I might disagree with to some extent...there are a surprisingly high number of folks in psychology who have relatively poor social skills and/or relatively little tact. Maybe that's one of the reasons we have so much trouble getting legislation passed in our favor However, most of those people are still amazing psychologists.

I agree as a whole, though. I'd never felt as surrounded by intelligent folks as the day I started grad school, and I'd never felt so mediocre by comparison as the day I started my current postdoc.

 

[eagle4life]

Tell me about it. There are way too many smart, interpersonally savvy, "perfectionistic" and attractive people to compete with in the psychology job market. I also noticed this on internship interviews. Why can't you guys be less perfect? Wish I was competing with engineers. Not many attractive or interpersonally comfortable ones there

Whoa where are you finding all these attractive, gregarious, seemingly perfect individuals individuals? I wish I could find some girls in my program like that. Everyone is socially awkward and personally I find them very unattractive

 

[PHD12]

The bolded is actually something I might disagree with to some extent...there are a surprisingly high number of folks in psychology who have relatively poor social skills and/or relatively little tact. Maybe that's one of the reasons we have so much trouble getting legislation passed in our favor However, most of those people are still amazing psychologists.

I think many psychologists are interpersonally skilled in the sense that they tend to be pleasant, likeable, agreeable etc. overall. It seems to me that psychologists have more of a problem with being assertive and speaking in a direct way about their expertise and value they bring to the table. I can't even count the number of times that psychologists complicate everything and cannot provide a direct answer during treatment team meetings while other professionals have no problem encroaching upon our area of expertise and being assertive. So in a sense you are right that they lack some interpersonal savvy, but in other ways I think it is pretty developed. Maybe a lack of leadership skills and assertiveness.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I think many psychologists are interpersonally skilled in the sense that they tend to be pleasant, likeable, agreeable etc. overall. It seems to me that psychologists have more of a problem with being assertive and speaking in a direct way about their expertise and value they bring to the table. I can't even count the number of times that psychologists complicate everything and cannot provide a direct answer during treatment team meetings while other professionals have no problem encroaching upon our area of expertise and being assertive. So in a sense you are right that they lack some interpersonal savvy, but in other ways I think it is pretty developed. Maybe a lack of leadership skills and assertiveness.

I've actually run into a fair amount of both--the lack of professional assertiveness on one end, and the general unlikableness and/or lack of tact on the other. I would say that many are interpersonally savvy in that they are able to identify and address problem behaviors in therapy, though.

 

[Ollie123]

I have mixed feelings about the assertiveness/direct answer things. On the one hand, I agree its not optimal "leadership" and likely hurts us in negotiations, etc.. On the other hand, there is pretty universal agreement that people who hem and haw and complicate things are the ones who ultimately make the best decisions.

I think there is room for both and there is something to be said for at least providing a plan of action for arriving at a decision, but I've seen too many professionals trained to provide the wrong answer with authority in the name of "leadership" to want us to move too far in that direction.

As for personalities...I've had generally good luck on that front. Save for one practicum where the clinicians were some of the weirdest people I've ever met in my life, most people I've interacted with have had some semblance of social skills without necessarily being the "smooth-talker" type.