Candidates for APA President
How will you support and broaden the science agenda at APA?
I will promptly convene a meeting of the best and brightest in psychology to focus on the establishment of Practice-Research Networks.
The scientist-practitioner model requires a renaissance. By having our best researchers and practitioners work together, we can help conduct more relevant research while making practice more rigorous and powerful. Work in Pennsylvania with Practice-Research Networks leads the way. See The Pennsylvania Practice Research Network, Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice (Vol. 8, No. 2, pages 155-167). Our initial efforts continue in Pennsylvania and are expanding. Creating APA-organized Practice-Research Networks will be a primary focus of my presidency. Scientists welcome!
What do you view as the most pressing challenges and opportunities for public and private practice in the next decade?
We must increase psychology's social relevance.
Often, scientists see demands for relevant research as threatening and clinicians fear leaving comfortable therapy rooms. Meeting society's needs is our raison d'etre. Reduce the divorce rate by 50 percent and society will beat a path to psychology's door. Nurture our growing focus on the treatment of physical health problems; embrace that mind-body connection. No public issue is more deserving of attention than our prison system. We do little research on alternatives, although the U.S. incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than any nation in the world. Psychology should be leading the way.
