APA selects recipients of its annual awards

1999 honorees to be recognized at APA's Annual Convention in August.

By Mel Waters
Monitor staff

Each year APA's four directorates and the Committee on International Relations in Psychology honor members who have distinguished themselves in the areas of science, practice, education, public interest and international humanitarian efforts. Winners will receive their awards this summer at APA's Annual Convention in Boston, Aug. 20-24.

APA congratulates these psychologists, who have made lasting and significant contributions to the field of psychology.

Science awards

APA's Committee on Scientific Awards selected 11 researchers to receive Distinguished Scientific Awards.

Three eminent researchers will receive the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, which recognizes psychologists who have made exceptional theoretical or empirical contributions to basic research. Two researchers will receive the Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology. And six will take home the Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contribution to Psychology Award, which honors excellent young researchers.

The Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award is being presented to Elliot Aronson, PhD, William T. Greenough, PhD, and Allan R. Wagner, PhD.

Aronson, professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, is being recognized for his contributions to experimental methodology in social psychology, his attempts to bridge social psychological theory and real-world problems and his conceptual and empirical achievements testing and modifying the theory of cognitive dissonance--the process by which people who are confronted with a discrepancy between their attitudes and behavior must do something to make them consistent with each other.

His most recent research demonstrated that making people aware of their hypocrisy induces them to change their own dysfunctional behavior. In particular, his study shows that pointing out a person's hypocrisy--for example, someone who urges others to use condoms, but doesn't always use them himself--increases that person's condom use.

Greenough, professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, won the award for his research on the brain mechanisms underlying learning and memory. His discoveries have been critical in establishing that learning and memory involve the rapid formation of new synaptic connections and modification of existing connections between neurons.

His research focuses on understanding how environmental events shape and mold the brain during a person's life, what sorts of changes take place in the brain and what causes these changes. This work underlies the understanding of what constitutes "normal" development, how aging can be offset and the mechanisms of learning and memory.

Wagner, the James Rowland Angell Professor of Psychology at Yale University, is being honored for the development of models of associative learning and memory, including the Rescorla­Wagner Model, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) model and the Affective Extension of SOP (AESOP). In the Rescorla­Wagner model, Wagner and Robert Rescorla, PhD, proposed a quantitative rule for the reduction of error tendencies that has been adopted in many connectionist models.

In SOP, Wagner offered a quantitative real-time model of Pavlovian conditioning centered around presumed variation in stimulus processing due to differences in memory priming. In AESOP, Wagner extended SOP to incorporate how associations involving emotive attributes of stimuli modulate associations involving the sensory/perceptual attributes of the same or other stimuli. SOP and AESOP have proved useful in a wide variety of conditioning circumstances, including the development of pharmacological tolerance and stimulus control of eating.

The Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology will go to husband and wife research team Loren J. Chapman, PhD, and Jean P. Chapman, PhD, for their research on identifying people at increased risk for schizophrenia as well as the problems of identifying specific cognitive deficits among people with the disorder. They are using their research to design and test psychometrically sound cognitive markers to identify people predisposed to schizophrenia.

The winners of the Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contribution to Psychology Award are Monica R. Biernat, PhD, Gretchen B. Chapman, PhD, Michael D'Zmura, PhD, Steven J. Luck, PhD, C. Neil Macrae, PhD, and Niels G. Waller, PhD.

Biernat and Macrae will share the award for their work in social psychology. Biernat, professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, is being honored for her research on social judgment and stereotyping as they apply to various social groups as well as for her work on the "shifting standard phenomenon," which demonstrates that the same stereotype may be applied differentially to members of different groups.

Macrae, professor of experimental psychology at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, is being recognized for his experimental work on various aspects of social cognition. His work focuses on how stereotypes are activated and suppressed, and he has devised creative experimental paradigms that have allowed him to investigate the mechanisms that underlie stereotyping

Chapman, professor of psychology at Rutgers University, won the award for her research on how people make judgments and decisions about health behaviors. She applies fundamental psychological principles to issues of illness prevention, including the role of education in breast cancer treatment decisions. She also investigates the role of simple judgment rules and decision biases in choices patients make about their own care, and she studies the role individual patient preferences play in mathematical models of decisions used to inform health policy.

D'Zmura, professor of cognitive sciences at the University of California, Irvine, is being recognized for his contributions to understanding human vision. He has provided an important, broad theoretical framework for understanding how people perceive stable colors for objects despite a variety of conditions under which the objects may be viewed. And he has provided a fresh perspective on how people perceive color behind transparent objects.

Luck, professor of psychology at the University of Iowa, has been selected for his early career contributions to the field of behavioral and cognitive neuroscience in the area of visual attention. He uses a variety of research methods, such as single-cell and electrophysiological recording and behavioral paradigms, to understand basic issues in visual attention. He has attempted to integrate research in animals and humans and to link particular cognitive processes to specific neurobiological origins.

Waller, professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis, is being recognized for research on individual differences, particularly in the area of personality, and his contributions to the study of psychometrics and behavior genetics. In the area of behavior genetics, Waller has conducted important research on the genetic and environmental influences on personality, psychopathology, and social behavior. The major feature of Waller's research concerns the development, application and evaluation of statistical procedures for the measurement of personality. He recently co-authored a book with Paul Meehl, entitled "Multivariate Taxometric Procedures: Distinguishing Types from Continua" (SAGE Publications, 1998).

Practice awards

APA's Board of Professional Affairs is honoring several members of the association for their distinguished contributions to psychology practice. They are Dorothy W. Cantor, PsyD, a private practitioner in Westfield, N.J., Gary D. Melton, PhD, professor of neuropsychiatry and behavioral science at the University of South Carolina and Peter E. Nathan, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Iowa.

Cantor, APA's 105th president (1996­97), will receive the Distinguished Contributions to Applied Psychology as a Professional Practice Award for her leadership and advocacy for the profession of psychology throughout her career. As APA president, she met with the presidents of nine national mental health organizations at a summit meeting that ultimately resulted in the "Patients' Bill of Rights" (Your Mental Health Rights) in response to the abuses of managed-care organizations.

Cantor has also served on APA's Board of Directors and is a past president of the New Jersey Psychological Association. She now serves on the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice and as a council representative for Div. 42 (Independent Practice). She has a reputation as a mentor with a strong interest in bringing women and people of color into positions of responsibility within the profession. She chaired Div. 42's first Committee on Women and founded a political action group called Women in Psychology for Legislative Action.

Melton will receive the Distinguished Contributions to Public Service Award for his work to improve society's response to child maltreatment, focusing on how the interface between law and psychology affects children. He has worked extensively with schools and juvenile justice departments at community, state and federal levels, helping these institutions integrate mental health services with their other services. As vice-chair of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, he spearheaded a drive to institute a national system of support for new parents. The resulting program, Healthy Families America, now operates in 38 states and the District of Columbia.

Melton is a research scientist and director of the Family and Neighborhood Life group in the office of the vice president for public service and agriculture at Clemson University. He is the director of the Consortium on Children, Families and the Law, a national network of policy research centers. He is also president of Childwatch International, a global research network sponsored by the Norwegian government.

Melton is a past president of Div. 41 (American Psychology-Law Society) and Div. 37 (Child, Youth and Family Services). He also served as a member of the APA Working Group on Child Abuse and Neglect and the APA Task Force on Psychology and AIDS.

Nathan is the recipient of the Distinguished Contributions to Knowledge Award for his pioneering work on the psychological treatment of alcoholism. His work triggered a great expansion in research and clinical applications by psychologists studying alcoholism over the past three decades. His research has explored issues of alcoholism prevention, whether alcoholics can learn to gauge their intoxication levels in order to modulate their drinking and the psychological and environmental factors associated with tolerance.

Nathan has chaired the Alcoholism and Alcohol Problems Review Committee of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He is a past president of APA's Div. 12 (Clinical) and current president of the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology.

Public Interest awards

The winners of APA's 1998 Public Interest Awards are Bonnie Strickland, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, and Leonard Bickman, PhD, professor of psychology and public policy at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.

Strickland has been selected as the recipient of the Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest Senior Career Award, which recognizes distinguished contributions in the public interest that advance psychology as a science or a profession. Over the last 40 years, Strickland has fought against the myths surrounding ethnic and sexual minorities. For example, her studies showed black youth in the 1960s possessed an internal locus of control--believing one's behavior rather than luck or forces beyond one's control can make things happen--which proved to be one of the individual variables that predicted social action. Instead of waiting for others to give them equal rights, the black youth of the 1960s had to forge their own way.

This type of research opened the door for others to pursue race-related research as a way to gain a better understanding of the civil disturbances of the civil rights movement. Strickland served as APA's 1987 president, was the first chair of Div. 12's Committee on Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action and helped start the division's Women and Ethnic Minority sections. Strickland brought the general public's attention to psychological research on women and depression during her presidency.

Bickman won the Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy Award for his lifetime of work in children's mental health services. The award recognizes a psychologist who has made a distinguished empirical or theoretical contribution to research in public policy through a single extraordinary achievement or a lifetime of work.

In 1997, Donna Shalala, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, awarded him the Secretary's Award for Distinguished Services for his contributions as a member of the National Advisory Council of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In recent years, Bickman's work has focused on mental health problems. And he recently completed a study of the children's mental health services. To enrich communications in the new field of mental health services research, Bickman recently founded a new journal published by Plenum Press, Mental Health Services Research.

Education and training awards

APA's Board of Educational Affairs has selected Nadine M. Lambert, PhD, and Gregory A. Kimble, PhD, as the winners of APA's education and training awards

Lambert, professor and director of the school psychology program at the University of California at Berkeley, will receive the Distinguished Contributions of Application of Psychology to Education and Training Award for her research in applied psychological measurement, which has helped illuminate the psychological factors associated with a successful school experience.

This award is the first of its kind to be given by APA's Board of Educational Affairs. It recognizes psychologists for evidence-based applications of psychology to education and training. Lambert was a member of APA's Board of Directors from 1984­87 and Board of Educational Affairs from 1991­94.

Kimble, professor of psychology at Duke University, has been selected to receive the Distinguished Career Contributions to Education and Training Award for his lifetime contributions as an administrator, teacher from high school to postdoctoral levels, author, editor of two major psychology journals and mentor to students and senior-level psychologists. Kimble's contributions to APA include service as president of divisions 1 (General) and 3 (Experimental) and membership on several committees, task forces and boards, including APA's Board of Directors from 1980­82.

International awards

APA is giving its 1998-99 Awards to Nila Kapor-Stanulovic, PhD, professor of human development and mental health at the University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, and Edwin A. Fleishman, PhD, distinguished university professor of psychology emeritus at George Mason University.

Kapor-Stanulovic will receive the International Humanitarian Award for her activism in promoting mental health programs in war-torn countries. In 1995, she became a consultant to the UNICEF offices in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. She has designed country-specific psychosocial programs in those countries for assisting children affected by armed conflicts and by adverse consequences of socioeconomic transitions. Kapor-Stanulovic has also trained national staff for the implementation of recovery programs for children in need.

In addition to assisting children, Kapor has participated in several programs supported by the World Health Organization and the Norwegian Red Cross, to provide postwar rehabilitation to medical staff in Bosnia, including seminars on burnout and upgrading professional skills. In 1996, she designed a program for psychosocial support to the victims of polio epidemics in Kosovo.

APA will recognize Fleishman with the Award for the International Advancement of Psychology for his lifetime contributions to international cooperation as well as to the advancement of knowledge in psychology. He has devoted more than 40 years to organizational efforts to bring psychologists in different fields around the world together to facilitate interactions among them.

Fleishman is past president of the International Association of Applied Psychology, served as a member of APA's Committee on International Relations in Psychology, Policy and Planning Board and Council of Editors, and was chair of APA's Committee on Psychological Tests and Assessment.



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