APF lecturers to explore timely topics at convention

By Starla Crandall

The American Psychological Foundation (APF) has selected seven psychologists to give lectures at APA?s Annual Convention in San Francisco, Aug. 14?18.

The lecturers will explore such timely issues as the need for unification within psychology, gender differences in learning, treatments that work on schizophrenia, and psychology and public policy.

Arthur Benton Lecture

Harold Goodglass, PhD, designer of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, will give the 1998 Arthur Benton lecture, 'The changing frontiers of neuropsychology from 1950 to the present,' on Sunday, Aug. 16, 2?2:50 p.m., in the Marriott Hotel, Yerba Buena Salon 7.

Goodglass has spent decades studying aphasia and cerebral dominance. He earned his doctorate in psychology from the University of Cincinnati in 1951. Shortly after, he was named the first doctorate psychologist at the National Veterans Aphasia Center at Cushing Veterans Administration Hospital in Framingham, Massachusetts.

In 1969, Goodglass assumed directorship of the Aphasia Research Center at Boston University School of Medicine, an organization funded by the National Institutes of Health, which has long been an important training center for behavioral neurologists and neuropsychologists in the United States and abroad.

Among the research findings of Goodglass and his associates is the demonstration that the superiority of the left cerebral dominance for language is constant across the age range from three-year-olds to elderly adults. The Benton lecture sponsors a distinguished psychologist who has an international reputation for excellence in teaching, scholarly contributions, research or investigation in neuropsychology or a related area.

William Bevan Lecture on Psychology and Public Policy

Herbert C. Kelman, PhD, one of the founders of the peace research movement, is the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University and director of the Program on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution at the Harvard Center for International Affairs. He will give the 1998 William Bevan lecture, 'Interactive problem solving as a metaphor for international conflict resolution: lessons for the policy process,' on Saturday, Aug. 15, 1?1:50 p.m., at the Marriott Hotel, Yerba Buena Salon 5.

Kelman received his doctorate in social psychology from Yale University in 1951. Throughout his career, he has explored the social-psychological dimensions of international relations. During the 1950s, he was one of the creators of the peace research movement, including its first periodical, Journal of Conflict Resolution. His book 'International Behavior: A Social-psychological Analysis' (1965) is generally regarded as the definitive text on the social psychology of international relations. He has been a pioneer in the development and application of interactive problem solving and has served as an unofficial third-party approach to the resolution of international and ethnic conflicts.

The Bevan series of lectures was established in 1993 to honor the contributions of William Bevan, PhD, who dedicated his life to promoting psychology and policy issues in the public interest.

Distinguished Teaching Award Lecture

Diane F. Halpern, PhD, the recipient of the 1998 Distinguished Teaching Award, is professor and chair of psychology at California State University?San Bernardino. She will give her lecture, 'Designing the 21st-century university: pedagogy, technology and lifelong learning,' on Sunday, Aug. 16, 3?3:50 p.m., at the Marriott Hotel, Yerba Buena Salon 3.

Halpern?s work, much of it controversial, has received a great deal of public attention resulting in numerous television appearances and articles throughout the world. She has written, 'Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking' (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996) which, in the words of one reviewer, has become the 'critical thinking bible' for psychology. Her book, 'Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities,' (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992) provides a meaningful context for the study of social and physiological factors and their joint and reciprocal actions, resulting in similarities and differences between women and men.

Halpern, who received a doctorate in experimental psychology at the University of Cincinnati, is a member of the Graduate Record Examination Technical Advisory Committee. She is also president of APA?s Div. 2 (Teaching).

F.J. McGuigan Lecture on Understanding the Human Mind

Lynn Nadel, PhD, will give the 1998 F.J. McGuigan Lecture on, 'Cognitive maps in the hippocampus of rats and humans,' on Saturday, Aug. 15, noon?12:50 p.m., at the Marriott Hotel, Yerba Buena Salon 6.

Most of Nadel?s research has focused on the hippocampus, with digressions into developmental disorders (autism and Down syndrome), the impact of stress on both development and memory formation, and the general domain of memory function and amnesia. Since 1985 he has been at the University of Arizona, serving as the chair of the psychology department for nine of those years. Nadel has published more than 100 articles and books on his research and given numerous presentations in North America and Europe.

Nadel received his doctorate at McGill University in 1967. He was selected by the National Institute of Mental Health for a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Jan Bures in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he studied the interhemispheric transfer of memory traces.

The McGuigan lecture series was made possible by a gift from the late F.J. McGuigan, PhD, who was internationally recognized for his scholarship in cognitive psychophysiology, research methodology and progressive relaxation.

Esther Katz Rosen Lecture

The 1998 Esther Katz Rosen lecturer, Barbara Kerr, PhD, will give her address, 'Genius and gender: how boys and girls construct the meaning of their giftedness,' on Sunday, Aug. 16, 4?4:50 p.m., at the Moscone Center, South Building, Room 238.

Kerr received her master?s degree from Ohio State University and her doctorate from the University of Missouri, both in counseling psychology. She has taught at the University of Nebraska, where she established the Guidance Laboratory for Gifted and Talented, and at the University of Iowa, where she was associate director of the Connie Belin National Center for Gifted Education.

Kerr is a professor of psychology at Arizona State University. She is the author of 'Smart Girls, Gifted Women: A Handbook for Counseling Gifted and Talented' (Ohio Psychology Press, 1985); 'Smart Girls: A New Psychology of Girls, Women, and Giftedness' (Gifted Psychology Press, 1997) and more than 100 articles and papers on the topics of guiding and nurturing talent.

The Esther Katz Rosen fund supports an annual lecture on the psychological understanding of gifted children.

Arthur W. Staats Lecture for Unifying Psychology

Arthur W. Staats, PhD, a leading thinker of unifying theory in psychology, will give the inaugural lecture in this series on Friday, Aug. 14, noon?12:50 p.m., at the Moscone Center, South Building, Room 303. Staats? address is titled 'Psychology?s chaotic threads of diversity must be woven into a fabric of unified science.'

The family of Arthur Staats established this lecture series in his honor because unification is Staats? passion. Early in his career, his research ranged from theories of child development to the invention of applied education and clinical procedures such as 'time-out' and behavioral toilet raining. It was this fragmentation in his own work that led him to consider psychology?s need to work for unification. In 1963, Arthur Staats harnessed his early thoughts into psychology?s first book on unification. In the book, 'Complex Human Behavior' (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963) Staats constructed a theory that unifies traditional psychological material with learning-behavior principles. In 1984, Staats and five others organized a special interest group that became the Society for Studying Unity Issues in Psychology.

APA?s Div. 1 (General) will choose an expert each year from a different field to deliver the lecture. The lecturer preferably will address issues that bring together the behavioral and psychological traditions, as in using behavioral principles when considering personality or psychological measurement.

Rosalee G. Weiss Lecture

Bertram P. Karon, PhD, the 1998 Rosalee G. Weiss lecturer, will give his talk, 'The tragedy of schizophrenia,' on Sunday, Aug. 16, 11?11:50 a.m., at the Marriott Hotel, Yerba Buena Salon 3.

Karon is best known for his writings on psychotherapy. He has written more than 140 publications, including, 'Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia: The Treatment of Choice' (Jason Aronson, 1995), which he co-wrote with Gary VandenBos, PhD, and 'Black Scars: A Rigorous Investigation of the Effects of Discrimination.'

Karon is a professor of clinical psychology at Michigan State University, where he has taught tens of thousands of undergraduates since 1962. Karon, who earned a doctorate in psychology from Princeton, received the 1990 Master Lecturer Award from the Michigan Psychological Association and the 1988 Distinguished Psychoanalyst Award.

According to Karon, the tragedy of schizophrenia is not only the dire effects of the symptoms on the lives of patients and their families, but also that psychologists are not using treatments that are known to work. In his lecture, he will review the scientific evidence of treatments that work, as well as the bases for catatonic stupor, hallucinations and delusions, and how this knowledge can be employed in treatment.

The Rosalee G. Weiss Lecture was established in 1994 by Raymond A. Weiss, PhD, in honor of his wife, Rosalee.

Starla Crandall is the public relations coordinator for the American Psychological Foundation.