This issue’s feature story on public psychologists makes clear that we, as a field, have a choice to make around how we do our work. One option is to stay with the familiar, even as the world around us changes. While this may feel comfortable, it has unintended consequences—like the potential to stifle diversity in our scholarship, deter bright minds from pursuing psychology, and reduce psychology’s applicability to the issues of the day. As societal challenges beg for new and innovative solutions, this path is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate.
Or we can push for a paradigm shift across our field to make psychology more inclusive, available, and impactful. Whether or not we call ourselves public psychologists, here are three ways to contribute to this approach to our work:
- “Inherent in every community is the wisdom to solve its own problems” is a principle that has guided my work for decades. It recognizes that while psychological expertise is critical to solving many of society’s most complex and intractable problems, any solutions we develop must include the voices of the communities we are trying to help. Integrating our knowledge with the voices of people with lived experience will yield the greatest impact and most powerful solutions.
- Effectively applying psychological knowledge requires our field to better reach diverse groups—from indigenous communities to first responders—with information packaged in acceptable and understandable ways. We must be intentional about developing these skills, like through APA’s trainings with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Scienceopens in new window, which is designed to help participants translate psychological science for broad audiences.
- Historically, we have measured success using individually oriented metrics like the impact factor of the journals in which we publish or the size of our clinical practice. While these indicators are important for our career success, as a field, we must also think about our collective impact. APA’s highly successful amicus briefs remind us that when we pull together and synthesize information from across our field, we can significantly affect critical societal issues.