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One of the goals of APA’s Public Policy Office is
to bring relevant psychological science to bear on issues of national
concern. On Thursday, June 10th, science policy staff organized an APA
Congressional Briefing on Capitol Hill to educate a target audience of
congressional staff and federal agency personnel about psychological research
related to the recent incidents in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Two distinguished psychological scientists spoke at the briefing: social
psychologist Steve Breckler (APA’s Executive Director for Science)
and I/O psychologist Kevin Murphy (Head of the Department of Psychology
at the Pennsylvania State University). In his talk, “How can the
Science of Human Behavior Help us Understand Abu Ghraib?”, Breckler
gave an overview of the social psychological principles relevant to the
prisoner abuse situation. Drawing on decades of research on the power
of the situation to influence and shape behavior and on the stability
of individual personalities, Breckler discussed the relevance of findings
on social conformity, compliance, obedience to authority, individual differences,
and factors that mitigate responses to social influence.
Murphy’s presentation, “How can Psychological Research in
Military Contexts Help us Prevent Another Abu Ghraib?”, highlighted
the study of organizations, and the military in particular. Murphy focused
on how our knowledge about organizational climate and cultural factors,
end-accountability, collective corruption, leadership, training, and whistle-blowing
can be effectively transferred into military contexts to impact prevention
of further incidents and intervention following such events.
The briefing drew a large crowd of more than 100 people, even in the
midst of unusual week in Washington during which former President Reagan
lay in state in the U.S. Capitol. APA has since received a request from
the US Army’s Materiel Command to provide information from the briefing
that might inform the official investigation of the incidents at Abu Ghraib.
More information can be found at http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/abughraibbrief04.html.
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Steve Breckler, APA's Exectuve Director for Science, discusses relevant
psychological research on individual and group behavior.

Kevin Murphy
discusses research on personnel selection and training.
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