In 1969, APA President George Miller, PhD, addressed our membership, challenging current psychologists and future generations to discover how best to give psychology away. Over 50 years later, in a world where many challenges—large and small—go unanswered, often when there is psychological science that has something meaningful to offer, we find ourselves asking, “Have we accomplished this? How can we do better?”
Giving psychology away does not mean simply making it free. Giving psychology away means sharing the broad benefits that psychological science and expertise have to offer in order to enhance society and improve the lives of others. This takes place in many ways—from shaping public policy, to aiding schools in building children’s socioemotional health, to helping leaders and teams navigate organizational change, to providing relief to people with chronic pain, to ensuring psychological factors are considered when developing emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.
Whether we are practicing clinically or in a non-health service domain, overseeing a lab, conducting research, teaching or serving as an administrator, we have knowledge and expertise that can be brought to bear on many challenges of the day. We can bring the voice of psychology to different tables, making the connection between the challenges people face and the knowledge psychology might provide in addressing those challenges.
How are we doing as a field in carrying out George Miller’s charge? Given the many issues that still require psychological solutions, we clearly have more work to do. But we are getting better. Policymakers are more routinely turning to APA on a broad range of issues, from the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic to the behavioral aspects of climate change. Leaders from other fields are more interested in applying psychological science to their own issues.
How do we continue improving and ensure that psychology has the positive societal impact of which it is capable?
- Connecting the dots. Help the public understand those areas for which there is a body of relevant psychological science and how it can be applied to the issues they are facing.
- Increasing psychological literacy. Help others understand psychological principles and their application to everyday life.
- Labeling psychology. Bodies of psychological knowledge are often not identified as psychology, or the psychological aspects are not explicitly acknowledged (e.g., behavioral economics, cognitive science). Let’s proudly identify and call out these areas as psychology.
By sharing our science more intentionally and elevating the public’s understanding of psychology, we can have the impact that George Miller envisioned and attract the next generation of bright minds to our field.