By Beth Azar
Monitor staff

If APA Science Director Richard McCarty has anything to say about it, the next decade will be known to social scientists, federal officials and the public as the Decade of Behavior. The name is the cornerstone of a public education campaign and advocacy effort that the Science Directorate is launching in 2000 to inform the nation about the critical importance of behavioral and social research.

?The Decade of Behavior will focus attention on the many contributions of the behavioral and social sciences in addressing many of our society?s most daunting challenges, from ensuring the healthy development of children to addressing the behavioral underpinnings of healthy lifestyles, interpersonal violence, teen pregnancy, drug abuse and many other issues,? says McCarty.

The initiative is still in its formative stages, but is expected to include national scientific symposia, educational events, and press and congressional briefings that highlight the significance of behavioral and social sciences to the nation?s health and well-being.

McCarty sees the initiative as a fitting follow-up to the Decade of the Brain, the title that Congress gave the 1990s at the behest of an organized group of neuroscience supporters. That initiative was a public education campaign that generated an intense focus by the nation on neuroscience research and an influx of funding for scientists interested in studying the brain.

It?s now time to move from the brain to behavior, says McCarty. He and other members of APA?s leadership hope that the Decade of Behavior will convince policy-makers of the critical importance of behavioral research to the health of the nation.

?Human behavior and misbehavior are at the root of seven out of 10 deaths, and an even larger proportion of mental illness,? says APA President Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD. ?If we can get the government and the American people to focus on behavior, solving many of our problems will be within our grasp.?

As with the Decade of the Brain, McCarty wants to engender excitement about behavioral and social research among researchers, lawmakers and the public. At the core of the initiative will be an educational effort to teach the public about the importance of behavioral and social research, as well as attract bright young people to pursue careers in the field.

APA?s Science Directorate will serve as the catalyst for launching the Decade of Behavior by forming a broad coalition of behavioral and social science organizations, federal funding agencies, private foundations and academic departments.

APA?s Board of Directors voted in December to endorse the initiative as did the executive committee of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences. The federation is now working to get all of its 150 affiliate members to individually support the initiative, says David Johnson, PhD, the federation director. Over the next few months, McCarty and other APA staff will meet with other behavioral and social science organizations, federal agency staff and private foundations to gain more support for the initiative.

APA?s Science Directorate will form a broad coalition of behavioral and social science organizations, federal funding agencies, private foundations and academic departments.

The project already has one highly influential supporter at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). ?OBSSR will be behind it 100 percent,? says Norman B. Anderson, PhD, director of NIH?s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research.

?It is really the perfect time to launch such an effort,? says Anderson, who believes the initiative will provide unprecedented visibility to the behavioral and social sciences and focus attention on society?s needs for new approaches to changing behavior.

McCarty foresees setting up a separate, tax-exempt nonprofit organization to support national Decade of Behavior events and programs. He expects different disciplines related to behavioral and social research will plan their own activities as part of the initiative.

APA?s public policy staff is developing a resolution on the Decade of Behavior, which they will present to Congress and President Clinton for approval before 2000.

?I?ve never been more excited about anything,? says McCarty. ?I plan to use this initiative to shape my activities at the Science Directorate for the next several years. And I believe it will have a significant and positive effect on the field of psychology as well as all the behavioral and social sciences.?