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.

“The American Psychological Society has played an important role in the last 15 years in American psychology and boosted the case for behavioral research on Capitol Hill,” Roediger said. “I look forward to working with the leaders of other organizations to advance the national agenda of psychology.”

Since earning his PhD in 1973 from Yale University, Roediger has become internationally recognized for his research on human learning and memory. He is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and is the chair of the psychology department at Washington University in St. Louis. His past elected and appointed positions include the presidency of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chair of the Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society, and editor of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. Roediger has previously served on our Board of Directors and has logged several years as the Chair of the Publication Committee. As Chair of the Publication Committee, Roediger oversaw the launching of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, APS’ third and latest journal. For the past three years PSPI has fulfilled its mission by disseminating scientific findings related to matters of public concern.

Roediger sees building the APS membership base as a top priority. Since the beginning of his term, he has been in close contact with the membership team in developing new strategies to promote membership growth.

Levenson is President-Elect
Levenson is a widely recognized researcher in the field of psychological variations of emotion associated with age, neuropathology, culture, and gender. He is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also director of the Institute for Personality and Social Research and director of the Predoctoral Training Consortium in Affective Science.

“I am enormously honored to be elected to the presidency of APS,” Levenson said. “These are exciting times for psychological scientists as we apply new tools and new theoretical insights to deepen our understanding of the mysteries of human behavior. Since its inception, APS has assumed a critical role in advocacy and support for psychological science. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to work with the APS officers, staff, and members as we continue to pursue these goals and work to advance our science.”

Levenson’s research has focused on examining the emotional, behavioral, and physiological signs that will enable predictions of a married couple’s relationship satisfaction, and normative changes in emotion that occur with the progression of age. Other lines of research include studies on emotion, emotion regulation, and emotional empathy within the context of culture and ethnicity. Most recently he has been studying the impact of neurodegenerative disorders and orbitofrontal brain injury on emotional functioning, socio-emotional behavior, and personality.

Board of Directors
Eisenberg and Campbell began their terms on the APS Board of Directors at the conclusion of the 15th Annual Convention in Atlanta. They will each serve a three-year term succeeding outgoing Board Members Linda Bartoshuk, Yale University, and Mark Snyder, University of Minnesota.

Campbell is the psychology department chair of the University of Minnesota. He has been the principal scientist for Project A, a multimillion-dollar research project sponsored by the Army Research Institutes. He is the principal scientist for O*NET, a project which attempted to map out all of the knowledge and skill required for every job in the United States economy.

Through his research groups, Campbell has devised a highly sophisticated system for performance and productivity assessment that has been employed by many fields including the US Army. He has also developed new measures of job performance which led to findings that some aspects of performance are better predicted by personality measures rather than by ability measures.

Eisenberg, a Regents’ Professor of psychology at Arizona State University, is a principal theorist in the field of socioemotional and moral development. She has studied empathy and other factors that play a role in children’s prosocial behavior and, more recently, aggression.

“I was involved in the initial organizational meetings that lead to the founding of APS nearly 15 years ago,” Eisenberg said, “and am pleased to participate in its governance now that it has matured into a vibrant and effective scientific organization.”

Eisenberg was one of the first researchers to employ the use of psychophysiological measures to assess the development of emotion and empathy in children, and broke new ground in the use of nonverbal methods to categorize children’s emotional reactions. In addition, she has several longitudinal studies examining the role of emotionality, the regulation of emotion, and socialization in children’s adjustment and social competence.