IMPACT Updates from the CEO are sent periodically to APA's elected and appointed leadership to provide brief examples of APA’s strategic priorities in action. Below you'll find the July update. I hope it energizes you in our collective efforts to use psychology to benefit society and improve people’s lives.
As a field, we find ourselves with two challenges when it comes to applying psychological knowledge to the critical issues of the day—a major priority of our strategic plan. First, the public often does not know there is a relevant body of psychological knowledge related to the issues with which they may be struggling. Second, psychologists must better translate what we know, particularly our science, and share information in ways that are more accessible to decision-makers and the broader public.
Our intentional approach to these two challenges has been to show the relevance of psychological knowledge in domains like technology, business, education, communications, and others, and to capitalize on opportunities to elevate the important work of our members. Our goal is for people to understand psychology as a “hub science” that is critical to solving many of the complex issues they face. Here are a few examples of these efforts:
- In May, APA released a health advisory on social media use in adolescence, developed by a task force established by President Thema Bryant, PhD, which completed its work in less than 3 months. Historically, APA would have approached this work very differently, taking perhaps a year to produce a report that would not have been framed in a way that was easily accessible to the general public, media, and policy makers. Building on the ground work of staff, the panel was able to quickly synthesize science from areas like developmental, cognitive, neuro, and social psychology, turning complex research into digestible recommendations for educators, parents, policymakers, health practitioners, technology companies, and youth themselves. The result was a resounding success: The work garnered 3,270 media mentions and over 600,000 impressions on social media. Media of note included The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Today Show, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, NBC News, Fox News, Bloomberg, USA Today, the New York Post, Politico, The Hill, Tech Crunch, Time magazine, MSNBC, and NPR. Because this advisory positioned psychology as a leader on this issue, we were able to get this work widely disseminated to key children’s mental health stakeholders, including members of Congress and the Biden administration.
- We are working to get psychology more attention at major convenings outside our field. This not only helps others understand how our science is relevant to their work, but it also allows us to reach larger and broader audiences. For example, I recently spoke on a panel at Aspen Health 2023opens in new window on the importance of responding to psychological trauma as a key strategy for promoting our nation’s collective mental well-being. As the only psychologist on the panel, this was a chance to highlight psychology’s expertise. I discussed a wide variety of areas—from addressing social determinants of psychological health, to developing new programs to improve mental health literacy, to designing organizational interventions like resilience programs in schools. By intentionally bringing knowledge from various areas of our field into these conversations, we have an opportunity to demonstrate psychology’s breadth and its importance for critical societal issues.
- In 2023, more than 326,000 students took the AP Psychology Exam, which serves as an important pathway for students to explore and potentially pursue a career in psychology. When Florida’s Department of Education recently declared that content regarding sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) must be removed from the AP Psychology Curriculum and Exam, APA spoke up strongly, sharing the science with educators and policymakers on why this information was essential for this course. We made the case that, as a science focused on understanding people, an understanding of human sexuality is fundamental. By attempting to erase LGBTQ+ people from the curriculum and test, we argued that it not only harmed members of the LGBTQ+ community, but denied all students access to age-appropriate, science-based information regarding SOGI so that they may grow up to be healthy, informed and well-adjusted citizens.
As a field, our science is our strength. By being intentional about how, where, and with whom we share psychological knowledge, we see people’s appreciation for psychology growing and find ourselves able to achieve greater impact. Thank you for all you do every day to strengthen our field.