Basic Behavioral Science Enhances Nation’s Mental Health

Soon the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) will officially issue a new report, Basic Behavioral Science Research for Mental Health: A National Investment. This document, the culmination of a two­year effort — co-chaired by APS Past-President Gordon Bower (Stanford University) and myself — highlights the recent accomplishments of basic researchers in psychology and related behavioral, cognitive, and social science. The NIMH Behavioral Science Task Force, which prepared the report, included a subcommittee of behavioral scientists from the National Advisory Mental Health Council, the Director and Chiefs of the Neuroscience and Behavioral Science Branch of NIMH, and a distinguished panel of 46 researchers in fields ranging from ethology to cultural anthropology. In the final analysis, however, the focus was on psychology in all its aspects.