As a young Boy Scout, I learned always to leave the forest better than you found it. This philosophy—leaving things in better shape than we inherit them—has guided my three decades of work as a psychologist and administrator and my service in public policy. I also believe it serves as a valuable lesson for our field.
It is up to us to leave the field of psychology better than we found it. We can choose to focus solely on excelling in our careers, but—if we want to ensure our field thrives in the years ahead—we can also be intentional about seeing ourselves as stewards of psychology. Here are three examples of how we can accomplish this:
- Be an advisor. It is critical both to prepare students already in pursuit of a career in psychology and proactively draw students to psychology. We want to take time to educate and mentor students and have conversations with them about emerging challenges and opportunities for the field. We can attract bright students to psychology by exposing them to the full breadth of the field and showing them how psychology is relevant to a wide range of real-world issues.
- Be an ambassador. By broadening what the public understands as psychology and connecting the dots between people’s real-world challenges and how psychological knowledge can help, we can elevate people’s understanding of the vibrancy and breadth of the field. For instance, psychologists working in areas like artificial intelligence and climate change—not typically associated with psychology—can see their role as both generating important work and also sharing the value that psychology offers. Building people’s interest in and enthusiasm for our work helps to draw the best and brightest into our field.
- Be an advocate. Giving back to psychology involves ensuring that diversity, in its many forms, meaningfully permeates and improves all that we do—our research, practice, and training. The broad range of perspectives that inform our science naturally lend themselves to improving our field, whether through challenging the status quo in systems and institutions or bringing to light new ideas. We can help the world operate differently, in a way that more regularly uses psychological knowledge to have a positive impact on society.
So, I ask—who are you advising? Are you being an ambassador? What are you advocating for?