Board of Scientific Affairs (BSA): 2017 Annual Report

BSA members: Sara Jo Nixon, PhD (chair), Tammy D. Allen, PhD, Aaron S. Benjamin, PhD, Hector M. Betancourt, PhD, Nancy K. Dess, PhD, Adriana Galvan, PhD, Linda C. Sobell, PhD, Jerry M. Suls, PhD, and Keith F. Widaman, PhD. (5 females, 4 males)

The Board of Scientific Affairs held one face-to-face meeting in 2017, on March 24-26 and met by telephone conference call once a month through the end of the year. The following report summarizes the major work topics, accomplishments, and other issues of concern to the Board over the past year, including work of the committees that report to the Board and activities managed by the Science Directorate. 

BSA compiled a document, “Table of Acquired Skills for Future Careers” which provides a rudimentary comparison/contrast of the kinds of skills that are acquired when undergoing scientific training with emphasis across subdisciplines within psychology. The goal of the document is to provide information that can broaden career considerations for students both in academic and non-academic settings. The Committee on Early Career Psychologists and the Board of Educational Affairs reviewed the table and submitted comments. BSA will work with staff from the Science Directorate to post the information on the APA website and to keep it updated.

At the spring 2016 BSA meeting, BSA met with Ian King, executive director for Membership, to discuss the possibility of having a future standalone APA science conference. BSA was enthusiastic about this idea and discussed many cutting edge possible topics including human interaction with technology.

Planning proceeded in 2017 on the idea of a conference focused on human-technology interaction to be held in Washington DC, April 5-7, 2018. A steering committee of leading experts in this broad area was established, along with the structure and organization of the conference, by early 2017. Marketing and dissemination occurred during the summer of 2017, and submissions were due October 29, 2017.

BSA members created the ATI program because the board members believed it was important for researchers and academics to keep their skills current. They discussed having short courses in emerging areas of research techniques and the Advanced Training Institutes idea was created. ATIs provide training in cutting-edge methods and technologies to psychological scientists. Four ATIs took place in 2017.

• Structural Equation Modeling in Longitudinal Research, at Arizona State University, May 30-June 3, 2017. Kevin Grimm, who is a faculty member at Arizona State University, led this course, which featured a series of lectures and hands-on computer workshops on longitudinal methods, modeling, and measurement in contemporary psychological research using SEM.
• Big Data: Exploratory Data Mining in Behavioral Research at Arizona State University, June 5-9, 2017. Kevin Grimm, who is a faculty member at Arizona State University, led this course, which featured an overview of recent advances in exploratory data mining for the analysis of psychological and behavioral data, including both general principles and specific techniques. Participants also gained hands-on experience with the techniques and were invited to bring their own data and research problems to work on in consultation with the course instructors.
• Research Methods with Diverse Racial & Ethnic Groups, at Michigan State University June 5-9, 2017. Frederick Leong led this ATI, which included sessions on methods for investigating treatment outcomes in diverse populations, quantitative and qualitative methods, measurement equivalence and invariance across diverse groups, and methods in areas ranging from genomics to aging research to community research.
• Non-Linear Methods for Psychological Science, at the University of Cincinnati, June 19- 23, 2017. Organized by Michael Richardson, this ATI provided a thorough introduction to a variety of non-linear and dynamical methods. Such methods are becoming increasingly prominent within psychology and related disciplines. Specific topics included time series analysis, recurrence quantification analysis, fractal analysis, and dispersion analysis.

BSA established the Culture of Service Awards in 2006 to increase attention to the involvement of psychological scientists in service to the discipline. The awards have recognized individuals as well as departments for their contributions to a culture of service. Beginning this year, the individual award will be presented every other year (alternating with the APA Prize for Interdisciplinary Team Research) while the departmental award will no longer be offered. The individual Award for Distinguished Service to Psychological Science was presented in 2017 to Baruch Fischhoff, Carnegie Mellon University, and Richard E. Nisbett, University of Michigan.

BSA developed the Meritorious Research Service Commendation to recognize outstanding employees in government bodies (federal, state, or local) and nonprofit organizations who help foster psychological science through their work in planning, promoting, and managing funding programs for research and research training. 2017 was the 16th year in which the citation was given. BSA selected Bruce N. Cuthbert (National Institute of Mental Health) and Gerald F. Goodwin (U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences) to receive commendations for 2017.

Science programs at the 2017 APA convention included the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award addresses, the Neal Miller Lecture, the Master Lectures, and Science Student Council programs.

Master Lecture Program

BSA selected the following speakers to participate in the 2018 Master Lecture Program at the 2018 convention: Megan Gunnar (University of Minnesota) in the developmental psychology area, Karen Hollis (Mount Holyoke College) in the learning, behavior, and action area, Linda Collins (Pennsylvania State University) in the methodology area, Daniel Krauss (Claremont McKenna College) in the psychopathology and treatment area, and Michael Bond (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) in the social and cultural psychology area.

Distinguished Scientist Lecturer Program

BSA selected the following speakers to deliver Distinguished Lectures at regional psychology conferences in 2018: Brent Roberts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, V. Robin Weersing from San Diego State University, and Philip Zimbardo from Stanford University.

Neal Miller Lecture

BSA selected Betsy Murray (National Institute of Mental Health) as the Neal Miller Lecturer at the 2018 APA convention.

The work of the committees that report to BSA constitute a large part of science governance activities, as summarized below:

The Committee on Scientific Awards continues to recognize important scientific achievement in psychology through its selection of psychological scientists for prestigious APA awards. It selected recipients for the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (Mahzarin Banaji, Anthony Greenwald, Gordon Logan, and Robert Plomin), the Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology (Jacquelynne Eccles), and the Distinguished Scientific Awards for Early Career Contributions to Psychology (Sara Burke, Kathryn Harden, Mark Landau, Adam Leventhal, Lara Ray, Nicole Stephens, and Jessica Witt). The Committee also recommends psychologists that APA can nominate for other scientific awards not conferred by APA.

The Committee on Animal Research and Ethics focused on advocacy efforts to promulgate evidence-based regulations, and promote implementation of regulations and policies that ensure laboratory animal wellbeing while facilitating scientific progress. To that end, CARE members met with their respective Congressional representatives and/or their staff to raise awareness of the role of ethical nonhuman animal research in improving the health and wellbeing of both humans and other animals. CARE also spearheaded a multi-organizational meeting with the Director of NIH, Francis Collins, MD, PhD, during which Dr. Collins reaffirmed NIH support for humane and ethical research with all nonhuman animals, including most species of nonhuman primates.

In keeping with its mission to facilitate the conduct of and training in scientifically and ethically responsible research involving humans, in 2017 the Committee on Human Research focused its efforts on education, outreach, and regulatory issues. CHR continued exploring mechanisms for preparing the field to embrace open science, which including the feasibility of offering workshops on data sharing. The Committee also continued monitoring the status of and responded to updates on the revision of the federal policy for the protection of human research participants.

The Committee on Psychological Tests and Assessment continued work related to the activities of the Joint Working Group for a Professional Practice Guideline for Test User Qualifications. CPTA began review of the SIOP Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures and continued revising two CPTA sponsored statements, “Recent Developments Affecting the Disclosure of Test Data and Materials: Comments Regarding the 1996 Statement on the Disclosure of Test Data” and, “Third Party Observers in Psychological Testing and Assessment: A Framework for Decision Making.” CPTA completed work on an informational piece, FAQ: Maintaining Test Security in the Age of Technology which can be found online: https://www.apa.org/science/programs/testing/test-security-faq.

The Science Student Council advises BSA and the Science Directorate on issues of concern to graduate students. The Council selected the following recipients of graduate student awards: Emily Cohodes, Irene Huang, and Sarah Tashjian. The Science Student Council also developed programming for the APA Convention.