|
Psychology on Display: Exhibiting Psychological
Research on Capitol Hill
APA has always taken seriously its mission to educate the public
and policymakers about the importance and utility of behavioral research. Over
the years we have tried several means to show what behavioral research is all
about: bringing congressional staff to universities to show them research in
progress, or bringing psychologists to Washington to give talks or visit
congressional offices. Since 1997, we have had important opportunities to
participate in Capitol Hill exhibits that focused on the importance of research.
We put considerable time and resources into choosing and displaying good
examples to show why psychological research is important to the missions of the
federal research funding agencies. We hope these web features will give
psychologists good ideas of how scientific research can be displayed for a lay
audience.
The exhibitions shown here were like science fairs, tailored to
the educated, lay audience of Capitol Hill. In each case, interested
organizations and/or universities were invited to set up a booth. Each
congressional office and other special guests were invited to attend a reception
and to tour the exhibits. APA put together displays that showcased the work of
one or more psychologists funded by the featured agency or department. With the
featured psychologists, we put together short handouts or news releases,
something for visitors to take away with them.
We strongly believe that psychological research should be seen
side by side with physics, astronomy, microbiology and other scientific
research. We work towards a time when nobody is surprised to see us in the room!
Back to Top^
|