Feature
Looking for a new job? Need to find a journal article from 1995? Want the latest news on the mental health field? Whatever your psychology-related information need, chances are APA's Web site can help you find it.
APA's Web site, launched in 1995, offers members full-text journal articles, news about the directorates, updates on APA's advocacy on Capitol Hill and a database that enables members to update e-mail addresses. And, as a way to give psychology away to the public, the site also offers facts on mental health, tips on finding psychologists and a special section devoted to students. The site averages more than 15 million hits per month.
APA has recently added several more services. They include:PsycCAREERS: www.psyccareers.com. APA's Career Resource Center created the PsycCAREERS database for psychologists to post their résumés on a secure online site free of charge. The site gives step-by-step directions on how to fill out the résumé online. Psychologists can list education and work experience, as well as salary requirements and areas of expertise. Résumés stay active for only three months, but can be reposted.
Employers who register with PsycCAREERS can search the database for potential job applicants. PsycCAREERS also provides links to the classified sections of the APA Monitor on Psychology and CareerPath.com. To learn more about salary levels and employment outlook, members can click onto APA's Research Office for the latest statistics at research.apa.org. Career coach and clinician Lynn Friedman, PhD, offers tips about the workplace, building a career in psychology and other topics.
The Career Resource Center also offers a discussion forum for psychologists and provides an online e-mail address book and calendar.
PsycPORT: www.psycport.org. This site offers the latest articles in mental health news from more than 50 sources to researchers and the public. APA's Internet Services staff retrieves these articles from such sources as the New York Times Syndicate, the Associated Press Online and the U.S. Newswire. (APA does not endorse these articles, only offers them as information to members). PsycPORT also links with other search engines such as PsychCrawler.
RuralPSYCH: www.ruralpsych.org. To connect mental health professionals and consumers in isolated areas of the world, the APA Practice Directorate's Office of Rural Health created RuralPSYCH. Psychologists in search of information on mental health and substance-abuse treatment, for example, can use RuralPSYCH to contact each other and to find relevant sources to new theories and research. RuralPSYCH also provides a list of rural internship programs and an online health bulletin.
KidsPSYCH: www.kidspsych.org. In January, APA launched this interactive game Web site to challenge children's cognitive, memory, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The site is divided into two areas: one for children ages 1 to 5 and one for those ages 6 to 9. Animated characters ask for a child's help to complete a task by answering questions that require creative thinking. The site also links to a Web page for parents that tells them what skills their child will practice in these games, and offers further reading suggestions.
PsycINFO DIRECT: www.psycinfo.com. This database allows the general public to perform a literature search on 1.5 million references in psychological journals, books, dissertations and other publications not available through APA's general search engine or PsychCrawler. The database only releases abstracts and citations of journal articles, not the full text. Access to PsycINFO DIRECT may be purchased at $9.95 for 24 hours. APA members and student affiliates can purchase access to the PsycINFO database and the APA journal article database (full-text) on a calendar year basis.
APA's directorates also offer a host of important services for members. Here are some highlights:
Practice Directorate: www.apa.org/practice. Among the most popular of the directorate's Web products is the award winning Consumer Help Center, which offers online advice on how psychology can help people cope with a variety of problems, including stress, depression and chronic illness. The site also helps people find a licensed psychologist in their area (helping.apa.org).
Practicing psychologists will also find a broad range of the directorate's information resources available on the Web, such as record keeping and other similar guidelines, practice pointers, licensure information, managed care-related materials (including updates on APA-supported lawsuits), press releases, volunteer opportunities, public education campaign updates and legislative action alerts.
Science Directorate: www.apa.org/science. On this site you will find APA's Psychology Research Funding Bulletin listing new funding opportunities. The Science Directorate also lists conventions, meetings and workshops.
Public Interest: www.apa.org/pi. This site offers a wide variety of information on and for the many constituencies served by the Public Interest Directorate. The latest additions to the site include a page from APA's Office on AIDS on HIV/AIDS topics and issues, current research, education and training, public policy and mental health services (www.apa.org/pi/aids/).
The Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns Office's Web site offers the new "Just the Facts" brochure for educators and the general public about youth, sexual orientation and the growing concern of reparative therapies (www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/). And APA's Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs has released two new sites: the Minority Undergraduate Students of Excellence (MUSE) Candidate Listings page and the Pipeline newsletter. The MUSE Program identifies outstanding undergraduate students of color whose departments believe them to have the greatest potential to succeed in the field of psychology. The Pipeline is a semiannual newsletter that informs members on the progress of a joint APA/National Institute for General Medical Sciences project called "Developing Minority Biomedical Research Talent in Psychology: A Collaborative and Systemic Approach for Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Recruitment, Retention, Training and Research."
Education Directorate: www.apa.org/ed. The Education Directorate site offers resources for students of psychology as well as teachers and faculty at all levels of education. Information for psychologists, educators and policy-makers regarding current education reform and school redesign efforts is provided at www.apa.org/ed/CPSE. Accreditation pages provide updates on internships and doctoral programs in psychology. To see a current list of courses available to psychologists for continuing professional education, visit www.apa.org/ed/ce.
