APA Member Kicks Off
the Congressional Testimony Season
On Wednesday, March 9th, APA member Timothy
Wilson, PhD, presented APA's annual testimony in support of psychological
research before a House Appropriations Subcommittee in the U.S. Capitol.
Dr. Wilson, a social psychologist and Chair of the Psychology Department
at the University of Virginia, advocated for increased funding at three
federal agencies under the jurisdiction of the House VA-HUD Appropriations
Subcommittee: the National Science Foundation (NSF); National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA); and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Psychological researchers receive grant support from each of these agencies,
and NSF in particular is a primary source of funding for scientists.
Testimony (which is posted on the APA Public Policy Office website at
http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/svahudtest03.html)
highlighted two large-scale grant programs at NSF in FY04—the Human
and Social Dynamics research priority area within NSF’s Social,
Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, and the foundation-wide
Science of Learning program. For more information on each, see NSF’s
website. Following the official testimony, Dr. Wilson and Dr.
Heather Kelly, APA’s Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs
Officer, met with staff from Rep. Virgil Goode’s
office (he is a Republican Congressman from Virginia who sits on the influential
VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee) to get his support for psychological
science at NSF.
APA Files Amicus Curiae in
Support of University of Michigan Admissions Process Psychological Research
Shows Why Diversity in Higher Education is Critical to Combating Prejudice
By Keren Yairi
APA has filed an amicus brief in support of the University of Michigan’s
affirmative action admissions policies that are currently under review
by the Supreme Court. Two class-action lawsuits have been filed against
the University by unsuccessful applicants to the institution who argue
that admissions decisions considering race and ethnicity are unconstitutional.
The APA brief offers a number of psychological research findings supporting
the University’s position. The brief presents research demonstrating
not only that racial and ethnic discrimination and prejudice persist in
American society, but also that many people who do not believe themselves
to be biased or racist actually do maintain racial and ethnic stereotypes.
Because such biases are usually automatic and unconscious, they cannot
be eliminated merely through mindful efforts to change attitudes. However,
stereotypes can be conquered over time, according to additional research
cited in the brief, when opportunities are provided for students of different
races or ethnic groups to interact with and learn from one another.
Why is it important for the psychological science community to address
the Court on the subject of affirmative action? According to Mahzarin
Banaji of Harvard University, who assisted in preparation of
the document, “APA's brief does not contain mere aspirations about
the assumed benefits of diversity and its role is reducing bias. It provides
hard evidence about the depth of prejudice and its consequences, both
conscious and unconscious. Nobody who has the capacity to understand the
evidence, irrespective of their political leanings, can walk away without
admiration and full support for the University of Michigan's position.”
Furthermore, explains Paul Sacket of the University
of Minnesota, who also assisted in preparing the brief, “…Opponents
of the University of Michigan's admission practices had presented arguments
to the Court that seriously misconstrued psychological research showing
links between campus diversity and important educational outcomes. I believe
it is crucial that psychological science respond to these critics.”
Sacket was referring to criticisms of the methodology used in the “Gurin
Report,” a research document assembled by University of Michigan
psychology professor Patricia Gurin and used by the lower
courts in making an initial decision. The APA brief defends the scientific
research standards of the Gurin Report and further demonstrates how the
critiques themselves depend on numerous flawed assumptions and methods.
Finally, the brief supports the conclusion of lower courts that government
has a “compelling interest” in diversity in higher education
as a means of fostering positive interracial and inter-ethnic relations.
As stated in the Gurin report, students who go to college in a diverse
environment "are better prepared to become active participants in
our pluralistic democratic society once they leave such a setting.”
Psychology itself also has a “compelling interest” in creating
a more diverse student body in higher education, as this will allow for
more cultural diversity within the field that will ultimately yield a
better understanding of the country’s ethnically and racially varied
population. “Diversity is an effective tool for creating cross-fertilization
of ideas and contributions in institutions of higher learning," according
to Robert J. Sternberg, PhD, President of the APA and
the Director of the PACE Center at Yale University. "There are multiple
means of creating diversity. Affirmative action is one such legitimate
means."
For more information:
APA Resolution on Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity (1999)
http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/oemares.html#affirmativeact
APA Resolution on Ethnic Minority Recruitment and Retention (1994)
http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/oemares.html
Work/Family Research Soon
to Get Boost in Federal Funding
By Dianne Brown Maranto National Institutes of Health (NIH)
offices (The National Institute for Child Health and Human Development
(NICHD) and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)),
the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, from
the Centers for Disease Control), the Child Care Bureau of the Administration
for Children and Families (ACF), and the Maryland Population Research
Center are collaborating with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to assess
the state of the science in work-family, health and well-being research
to begin to carve out an agenda for future efforts that will build upon
existing knowledge.
NICHD and other NIH Institutes have funded work-family research in the
past, but much of this work has been funded in response to general calls
for research instead of to a specific initiative focused squarely on work,
family and health research. According to Lynne Casper,
NICHD’s director of this program, “The time has come to build
a program specifically targeted at this area of research. We are holding
a conference in June 2003 to launch the new work, family, health and well-being
initiative. This conference will bring together researchers from a variety
of disciplines to help identify theories, methodologies, and constructs
that will help to inform a comprehensive model for future research.”
Another future conference will examine current workplace policies and
practices, state and federal laws pertaining to work, and employees’
notions about workplace policies and programs. This conference will also
foster partnerships between employers and researchers. Both conferences
will help to shape a future research agenda and funding priorities in
this area.
In addition to the previously mentioned NIH research, the military, and
some funding from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH), work-family research has had a major benefactor in recent years
in the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Kathleen Christensen,
a former professor of environmental psychology, developed Sloan’s
Workplace, Workforce and Working Families program in 1994. Since then,
they have sponsored 150 grants totaling over 40 million dollars. Sloan’s
program is organized around three goals: (1) understanding the structure
of the workplace and how it can be rethought to meet the varied needs
of American workers; (2) understanding the daily lives of working families
and the issues they face; and (3) promoting public understanding of working
families through popular books, radio and television. The first and second
goals represent the research foci of Sloan’s centers and grantees,
and the third represents a newer, more applied focus of the foundation.
After several years of workplace research, Dr. Christensen recognized
that many of the issues confronting families and work, center around the
fact that although the demographics and economic needs of the workforce
have changed greatly, the setting and demands of the workplace have not.
“A workplace that requires, full-time, full-year work, with minimal
opportunities for time off or for flexible career paths, subverts the
needs of many in today's diverse workforce. The lack of career paths that
mirror life cycles makes it difficult for many, including dual earner
working parents, older workers, and single parents, to live the lives
they would like. Many do not want to work full time, full year, year in
and year out, on a rigid lock step career path for their entire lives.
But right now they have little choice. The rigidity of the workplace is
profoundly mismatched with the needs of the changing workforce.”
She has worked to shape Sloan’s research agenda accordingly, with
new projects examining career ladders for dual earner families and examining
workplace restructuring in specific industries. While the Sloan Foundation
continues to support important research on working families and the issues
they face, “we have also developed the workplace-workforce mismatch
formulation to support action-oriented research that identifies innovative
workplace ideas and practices that can form the genesis of a movement
towards a more flexible and productive workplace that will be good for
children, good for society, and good for business in the future."
With new sources of funding on the way, psychologists may have more opportunities
to be active in this area of research. Although multidisciplinary teams
are common, the area seems to be dominated by sociologists and labor economists.
Rosalind Barnett, a clinical psychologist at Brandeis
University’s Community, Families and Work program has been conducting
research on worker scheduling and family demands, funded by Sloan and
by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
“The new funding will encourage more psychologists to consider how
their focus on individuals can be broadened to encompass dyadic relationships
and the reciprocal effects of work and family on individual and couple
health and well-being.” Leslie Hammer, at Portland
State University, is another psychologist (industrial/organizational)
who has conducted Sloan-funded research, and who feels that psychologists
have a valuable perspective to offer.
“Our research on working families caring for both children and
parents provides a glimpse of the dynamics, both positive and negative,
that occur among dual-earner couples who are managing multiple family
and work role demands simultaneously.” Tammy Allen,
an industrial/organizational psychologist at University of South Florida,
has conducted research on family supportive workplace issues and work-family
conflict. "This is an exciting opportunity for industrial/organizational
psychologists to contribute to an important research agenda. Our training
in understanding both organizational and individual well-being provides
an ideal foundation for conducting research on the intersection of work
and family roles."
Diane Halpern, APA president-elect, will undoubtedly
bring more visibility to this area of research. Placing a high value on
influencing public policy, Dr. Halpern sees the work/family balance issue
as a natural for science to inform policy. “The world of work is
still organized for the fictional family that lived in the world of black-and-white
television in the 1950s. There are few real families with a dedicated
company man, stay-at-home wife to care for the children or elderly parents,
and two children who apparently never needed much care or suffer from
serious illnesses. We need a new model of work—one that works for
employers and working families and psychologists are in a position to
do the research to inform that new model.”
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