APA president: Psychology can help solve the world's greatest challenges

Psychology should use its strengths—its breadth and its ability to help people change behaviors—to take on the environmental crisis, APA President Alan E. Kazdin, PhD, told APA’s Annual Convention on Friday.

As one example of what he called “low-hanging behavioral fruit,” Kazdin urged psychologists to get people to curtail drinking bottled water, which consumes millions of barrels of oil each year in transportation costs alone.

Feedback research could be used to show people instantly how much money they waste taking long showers, he said. And psychologists could apply research on social norming to spur the nation's businesses to help people make environmentally healthy choices.

Weighing in on such grand challenges as climate change can also improve the public’s understanding of psychology, said Kazdin.

 ‘'This is a wonderful opportunity to spread our diverse knowledge to solve some social problems, and also to be recognized as a uniform field,” Kazdin said.

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