Another growth area for psychology
We read with great interest your November article “10 Trends to Watch in Psychology.” We would like to add that organizationally focused psychological practice, including industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology, consulting psychology and executive coaching, are among the fastest-growing areas of psychology.
U.S. News & World Report rated I/O psychology as the second-best science job and the 19th best STEM job. It is also the highest paid and the fastest-growing psychology subfield. Similar growth (more than 7 percent) can be seen with executive coaching, a postgraduate specialization within I/O and consulting psychology. In fact, coaching is one of the top three learning approaches that HR leaders use to develop the next generation of leaders. Coaching opportunities can be found within firms, internal learning organizations and talent development organizations. Finally, the 2018 American Psychologist special issue on teams highlights another example of a growing opportunity for consulting and I/O psychology practitioners—team consulting and coaching. This area is important because its practitioners translate psychological science into practice for the benefit of individuals, teams and organizations.
Bill Berman, PhD, President,
Div. 13 (Society of Consulting Psychology)Randy White, PhD, Past President, Div. 13,
Council of Representatives, Div. 13Jeff McHenry, PhD,
Council of Representatives, Div. 14
(Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology)
What about a plant-based diet?
The November Monitor highlights the role psychologists play in slowing climate change (“Climate Change Is Our Call to Action”). But the article fails to show psychologists promoting the one action that individuals can do every day, without changes in government policies or regulations, supportive recycling arrangements or anyone’s permission: They can switch to a plant-based diet.
We assume this recommendation is omitted in large part because psychologists, like economists and climate scientists, are not vegan themselves. We remind them that animal agriculture contributes as much greenhouse gas in carbon equivalents as all transportation combined. Animal agriculture is a major source of water shortage, water pollution and food shortage, through the diversion of crops to feed animals.
Eating a plant-based diet has the added benefit of stopping our participation in the torture of sentient beings, which is the basis of animal agriculture. We assume the featured psychologists share that value, and we would appreciate simultaneously promoting less violence and effective environmental policy.
Amy E. Sibulkin, PhD,
Tennessee State University
J.S. Butler, PhD,
University of Kentucky
Our favorite tweet
Re: “Lab Work: Can Making Suicide More Difficult Save Lives?” (November)
@BartAndrews The amazing @PsychBrownBag talking means safety, one of the best tools we have to do #suicideprevention at the population level. Love that @APA covering this and seeing @AASuicidology experts at work.