Observer > 2000 > December
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132000Volume 13, Issue10December 2000

Presidential Column

Robert Bjork
Robert A. Bjork
University of California, Los Angeles
APS President 2000 - 2001
All columns

In this Issue:
An Evolutionary Perspective

About the Observer

The Observer is the online magazine of the Association for Psychological Science and covers matters affecting the research, academic, and applied disciplines of psychology. The magazine reports on issues of interest to psychologist scientists worldwide and disseminates information about the activities, policies, and scientific values of APS.

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Up Front

  • An Evolutionary Perspective

    With apologies in advance to experts on the theory of evolution, I cannot resist adopting an evolutionary perspective on the growth of knowledge and professional structures in psychological science, the young discipline that is the domain of the American Psychological Society. In particular, I am concerned in this column with two contemporary "evolutionary tasks" of our discipline, namely, overcoming geographical confines, and getting rid of a misunderstood contrast between fundamental science and its practical applications. The evolutionary metaphor could be extended well beyond these two facets, hut I will spare the readers of this column my other speculations.

First Person

  • Fostering Collegiality in Psychology Departments

    Academic departments that are well run have concrete goals and strategies — which are usually well articulated on paper — and generous resources to accomplish them. What most departments often take for granted is an "invisible component," the "hidden curriculum," or "community" which is required for departments to function smoothly. In an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, controversial author Elaine Showalter quoted Columbia literature professor David Damrosch, who argued that academic life "looks for and rewards traits of isolation, competitiveness and associability." Damrosch said that most academic departments have become "clubs of the unclubbable," a tribal or clannish culture — where any controversy could easily lead to hostility (Showalter, 1999).