Imagine how we could increase psychology's value in the eyes of the public and other professions if psychological principles and their applications were more widely known. Now is the time for us to help our society gain greater understanding of the wide range of ways psychology can improve quality of life by translating psychological science for the public using accessible language and engaging media.
Why? As educators, scientists, practitioners and social activists, we understand the importance of psychology to the many facets of our lives. To help others live happier, healthier lives, we need to make the benefits of psychology well known.
What? We educate about principles of psychological science; interpret current events through this lens; and share scientific findings, their lay interpretations and their practical applications.
For whom? It behooves us to share our data with multiple publics, including other psychologists, students at all levels, professionals from related fields, patients/clients and members of their support systems, legislators and other policymakers, the lay public and other organizations.
Who translates? Findings can be translated by professional/discipline organizations, such as APA, authors of scientific articles, psychology practitioners, educators and other psychologists who interact with the public and non-psychologists, including teachers, journalists, bloggers and other health-care professionals.
How? There are myriad outlets for doing so, such as psychoeducational materials, massive open online courses, scholarly publications, media interviews, books and magazines, podcasts, webinars, social media, interactive exhibits and public education campaigns (e.g., APA's Psychology: Science in Action Public Education Campaign). Different communication mechanisms reach different audiences.
What stops us? Countless barriers make it challenging for us to communicate our science. They include attitudinal barriers, such as the disconnect between scientists and practitioners and the view of some psychologists that translation and advocacy are not part of the role of the scientist or scientist-practitioner. There are also barriers related to the public's ability to understand science and mental health issues, as well as with psychologists' ability to communicate in ways that can be understood by non-psychologists. Many psychologists lack experience and comfort with communicating to the public or lack the academic institutional support to do so.
With input from my Presidential Task Force on Translating Psychological Science for the Public and APA staff, I have the following recommendations for psychologists. We need to:
- Appreciate the value and imperative of communicating our science to the public.
- Develop competence in sharing our scientific knowledge with others, including reporters.
- Learn from good examples of translating psychological science for the public.
- Be thoughtful about what we communicate.
- Tell a story and be creative and engaging in doing so.
- Use diverse methods for and innovative approaches to communication.
- Publicize relevant resources.
- Recognize the difficulties and challenges in translating psychological science to the public and collectively seek solutions.
- Honor effective efforts of those who highlight for our multiple publics our invaluable psychological science.
Hopefully, the APA presidential task force's thoughtful, comprehensive efforts will help us as an organization and as individuals to share more effectively our outstanding scientific contributions in a way that is informative and meaningful.
Let me give a shout out to members of this task force for their outstanding contributions: Dr. Roxane Cohen Silver (co-chair), Dr. Dawn Foster (co-chair), Dr. Susan Fiske, Sue Frantz, Dr. Fred Leong, Dr. Kathryn McHugh, Dr. Michael Scullin and Dr. Megan Smith, as well as the APA staff who supported our efforts, Rhea K. Farberman and Dr. Steven Breckler.
For more information on the APA Presidential Task Force on Translating Psychological Science for the Public, see the article.