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162003Volume 16, Issue9September 2003

Presidential Column

Henry L. Roediger, III
Henry L. Roediger, III
Washington University in St. Louis
APS President 2003 - 2004
All columns

In this Issue:
The APS Campaign for Psychological Science

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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    Disaster Response and Recovery

    Disasters like Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut draw massive media coverage, trauma interventions, and financial donations to victims. But psychological research shows the efforts don’t always yield the intended benefits.

Up Front

  • The APS Campaign for Psychological Science

    I just wrote a check to the American Psychological Society for $1,000. I didn't do it because I am President. I feel sure I would have done it anyway, had I been asked as a "civilian" to contribute to the new annual (and fully tax-deductible) APS Campaign for Advancing Psychological Science (CAPS). Why? Because APS is that worthy of our attention and support to do more great work on behalf of psychological science. I would give more if I had it to give. Current and previous Presidents and Board Members of APS also are giving generously to start our campaign. We are on our way to a nearly 100 percent commitment among our officers and former officers. This is a great start, but we need the help of the APS membership in raising significant additional money.

First Person

  • Applying for Research Grants

    Grantsmanship is an important skill for graduate students aspiring to either an academic or applied research career. Securing your own funding can lead to higher quality research (e.g., better measurement tools, more advanced technology, larger samples), a larger salary, additional grants and job market appeal, and the ability to hire research assistants. Unfortunately, most graduate programs in psychology do not provide students with formal training and we must learn as we go. Due in part to lack of encouragement by faculty mentors, graduate students often do not apply for funding to support their research (Locke, Spirduso, & Silverman, 2000). Despite a prevalent belief that little money is available for graduate student research, funding is widely available, but you must know where to look and how to prepare a competitive application.

More From This Issue

  • Award News

    APS, Psi Chi Offer Bandura Award By Michelle Bushey Staff Writer Albert Bandura has made great contributions to psychology through his teaching and research. To honor his contributions, APS and Psi Chi are partnering to offer the Psi Chi/APS Albert Bandura Graduate Research Award. Through this partnership, Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in Psychology, and APS hope to "encourage, stimulate, and maintain excellence in scholarship, and advance the science of psychology." APS Executive Director Alan Kraut said, "APS welcomes the opportunity to partner with Psi Chi in an effort to recognize science-based graduate student research.

  • Strategic Management Simulations: From Psychology Research to Medical Practice

    The more than 40-year-old behavioral complexity theory and the much newer science-wide complexity theory consider many observed phenomena as "open systems" that can only be sufficiently understood and (where possible) predicted at their current level of multidimensional functioning. Human behavior (in behavioral complexity theory) as well as all phenomena studied by science (ranging from atoms to economies in science-wide theory) constrain the options of lower-level components that make up a system. For example, as ancient humans formed societies, they lost certain individual freedoms.

  • Studying Chimps Gives ‘Signs’ of Human Language Development

    They surely are a social group. They make requests, answer questions, and comment about each other and their surroundings. As with any social group, they spend a great deal of time together and interact daily. Emotions, at times, can get heated, and fights have been known to erupt. During one such confrontation, a member tries to calm the fracas. Moja, one of the exceptional chimpanzees in this social group, uses American Sign Language to convince the others to "stop" and "hug." This is the level of communication discovered using video cameras by APS Charter Member Roger Fouts at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute.

  • Scientists in the Service

    Bringing Science to Military Policy By Jane M. Arabian I remember, as a new graduate student, hearing one particular comment made to my first "Pro Sem" class by the chair of the University of Toronto psychology department, Endel Tulving. He told us not to expect a position in a college or university once we earned our PhD. He urged us to take advantage of the opportunities to learn and do research as graduate students, but to keep an open mind about careers. Our only "job" in graduate school was to become good scientists; part-time jobs or internships were discouraged. His remarks surprised me.

  • Research Stands Trial

    The Supreme Court recently ruled, by a 5-4 majority, that racial diversity is indeed a compelling interest of higher education. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor supported this conclusion, stating in her June 23 opinion that such diversity "better prepares students for an increasingly diverse workforce and society, and better prepares them as professionals." The decision came after repeated attacks on numerous psychological studies defending affirmative action at the University of Michigan.

  • Hollon Awarded for ‘Outstanding Article’

    Steven D. Hollon, Vanderbilt University, received the George A. Miller Award for Outstanding Recent Article in General Psychology for his article, "Treatment and Prevention of Depression" which appeared in the November 2002 issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the American Psychological Society. "Steve's most outstanding attributes are his remarkable clarity of mind and his ability to combine creative-synthetic intelligence with a rigorous critical-analytic perspective," said APS Fellow and Charter Member David Lubinski, Vanderbilt University. "APA's George A.

  • Psychologists in Non-Traditional Academic Departments

    Shifting Focus: The Experience of a Traditional Academic in a Professional School By Larry E. Beutler I am a scientist-practitioner in the tradition of the Boulder Model. I have taught in three major medical schools, in a small state university, in two graduate schools, and have just retired as professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In the spirit of the scientist-practitioner, I have been a clinician in large and small group practices as well as in individual, independent ones. In all of these roles I have been interested in how psychological knowledge can be developed and applied more meaningfully.

  • Children in Poverty: Implications for Research, Public Policy

    Approximately 20 percent of US children under the age of six live in poverty, the highest rate of all developed countries. What are the effects and outcomes of children who are raised in poverty? What are some of the ways in which low income may directly affect children's development? Of the many programs implemented to try and eradicate poverty, which have been successful? These are some of the questions APS Fellow and Charter Member Jeanne Brooks-Gunn addressed in her research on children in poverty and the direct public policy implications of poverty. Brooks-Gunn received the APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award and delivered her award address at the Annual APS Convention in Atlanta.

  • NIDCD Supports Collaborative Efforts in Translational Research

    It all started on a racquetball court around 1990. Stephen Camarata and Keith Nelson had come to Pennsylvania State University from two different worlds: Nelson a developmental psychologist, and Camarata a speech pathologist. They would get together to play racquetball. Occasionally, conversation would break out. "Conversation," Nelson said, "that led to a very rich collaboration." With funding from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, their collaboration led to translational research that is now benefiting children worldwide, even while the treatments they developed are still being tested and refined.

  • Roediger Is 2003-04 APS President

    The APS membership has elected a mix of seasoned APS veterans and newcomers to the leadership of the Society. Henry L. Roediger, III began his term as President at the conclusion of the APS Annual Convention in Atlanta, succeeding Susan T. Fiske. Robert W. Levenson became President-Elect and Nancy Eisenberg and John P. Campbell also began their terms on the APS Board of Directors. All are APS Fellows and Charter Members, and distinguished, highly regarded researchers in their respective fields. Fiske continues serving as Immediate Past President, taking over for her Princeton University colleague John M. Darley, who concluded his three-year presidential term.

  • APS Announces Annual Giving

    In August, the American Psychological Society turned 15. From the start, APS has been a strong, effective voice for scientific psychologists. APS continues to provide leadership in how the world understands psychological science, and how psychological science shapes the understanding of our world, through our journals, our convention, and our advocacy. To meet the challenges in those areas, the APS Board of Directors is seeking your support through the APS Campaign for Advancing Psychological Science, or CAPS. APS President Henry L. Roediger, III has kicked off CAPS in his Presidential Column.

  • Politics Invade Peer Review: NIH Behavioral Science Grants Under Attack

    On July 10, 2003, the House of Representatives began debate on the Appropriations bill that would fund the National Institutes of Health for the fiscal year 2004. Rep. Pat Toomey, R-PA, introduced an amendment to halt funding for four NIH grants, two funded by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, one funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and another funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Of the four grants targeted by the Toomey amendment, all are behavioral research, and three are related to risky sexual behavior. (Study abstracts available on Page 8.) The amendment was a direct assault on behavioral research.

  • Psychology Gives Gallaudet President Leading Edge

    Technically, I. King Jordan is a human male of average stature. You'd think he'd need to be a little bigger, not because his last name is Jordan, but because he walks around carrying the hopes and dreams for much of this world's population of deaf people. Jordan, an APS Charter Member, is the eighth president of Gallaudet University, the world's only university in which everything is designed to accommodate the hard of hearing. He is the first deaf president in the institution's 139-year history. A Gallaudet alumnus, Jordan assumed his current position in 1988 after the Gallaudet community rebelled against the appointment of yet another non-deaf chief executive.