Roxanne Manning, MA
APAGS
Member at Large, Practice Focus
Many of you may have probably read APA President Dr. Norine Johnson’s
article published in the last APAGS online newsletter (go to www.apa.org/apags).
In this article, she described her Presidential Initiatives for 2001. One of
these initiatives is the creation of the Task Force for Expanding Opportunities
in Psychology—Practice (TFEOP), cochaired by Barry Anton, PhD, Jean Lau Chin,
PhD, and Karen Zager, PhD. The mission of this task force is to acquaint
psychologists with some of the cutting-edge activities being performed by their
peers. As the member of TFEOP representing graduate students, I wanted to
briefly describe one of the activities in progress that I believe will be
particularly appealing to you.
TFEOP members were very interested in finding ways to facilitate the sharing
of information between psychologists. We know there are psychologists who are
practicing in nontraditional settings. TFEOP will bring some of these
psychologists to speak at the next APA convention and will create written
materials presenting innovative career choices. One goal, though, was to go
beyond these more traditional ways of sharing information. Not everyone will be
able to attend the APA convention. In addition, when we read articles about
exciting developments, if you are like me and many other students, you are often
left wanting to know more and wishing you had a way to chat with the these
psychologists or authors for an hour.
TFEOP is exploring one way to foster interaction between psychologists that
takes advantage of the Internet. With the help of David Nickelson, PsyD, JD,
Director of Technology Policy and Projects in APA’s Practice Directorate,
TFEOP has begun experimenting with the use of a chat room where one can log on
and "speak" with a psychologist. This format is very appealing as it
provides a forum for interaction similar to that afforded at conferences and
meetings, but at a much cheaper cost and with more convenience to the
participants.
Two pilot chats have been held to examine if this is a feasible way to share
information. Many of us are familiar with visiting topical chat rooms offered by
some of the commercial Internet Service Providers. But, are these
technologically mediated conversational options appropriate for professional
activities? What are the opportunities and impediments? These are the critical
questions for the TFEOP.
Dr. Dorothy Cantor, a past President of APA, and author of the upcoming book,
What Do You Want to Do When You Grow Up? which provides guidance to people
make life transitions, volunteered to be the facilitating psychologist for both
pilot chats, which were held with members of and liaisons to TFEOP. Dr. Cantor
provided written materials before the chat so participants were familiar with
her work and the topic. During the chat, she was then able to answer questions
about the written materials. From these pilots, it appears that the chat format
can be successfully used to share information more interactively between
psychologists. One limitation with this format is finding a way to ensure that
everyone who participates is familiar with the technology before the official
chat session begins. Many graduate students are comfortable with the Internet
and chat rooms, but many practicing psychologists use the Internet primarily for
email. While even the novices who participated in the chat room session learned
that it was an easier format than expected, I imagine graduate students will be
able to embrace this new format more readily at its introduction. "In the
next pilot chat, the Task Force hopes to test out a number of hypotheses,
including the effect of group size on "expert" chat sessions. That
information will help them better decide on next steps," says Nickelson. If
these next pilot chats successfully answer those questions, TFEOP will begin
working to identify experts to lead these chat room sessions that will help
practicing psychologists explore creative new practice opportunities.
This article first appeared in the Winter 2001 Edition of the APAGS
Newsletter, Vol. 13(1)
