APA Past President

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Pat DeLeon, APA Past-President

Accordingly, I was very pleased to learn that the APA website now averages over two million "hits" per week. That is over 8.67 million "hits"per month and 104 million "hits" a year. We are undoubtedly within the 125 top websites in the world. It is extraordinarily reassuring that the Practice Directorate’s creative endeavor with MTV, "Warning Signs: A Youth Anti-Violence Initiative," has become such an enabling vehicle for state psychological association involvement within their school system and their local community. To date, this cooperative effort has resulted in over 18,000 adolescents participating in more than 250 youth forums, and over 4 million viewers seeing the video on MTV. There have been 51 million media impressions, resulting in a 300 percent increase in the number of "hits" on the Practice Directorate Health Center web site alone. In my judgment, this is effectively responding to a pressing societal need.

Similarly, within the publications/journal arena we should be very proud that under the leadership of our Past-President Martin Seligman, APA has begun publishing its first electronic journal, Prevention and Treatment. By the summer of this year the new journal, under Marty’s editorship, already had 4,000 regular readers, with each article being "hit" on an average of 10,000 times. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s first nationally representative survey about distance education course offerings, in academic year 1994-1995 there were 25,730 distance education courses with different catalog numbers being offered. There were an estimated 690 degrees and 170 certificates offered in the fall of 1995 that students could receive by taking distance education courses exclusively. For us collectively, one of the next significant questions becomes: How will our state association, division, and APA continuing education efforts capitalize upon this rapidly expanding technology? A visit to the California Psychological Association annual meeting makes it vividly clear that high quality continuing education is possible, cost-effective, and undoubtedly as a direct result of their licensing requirements, very well attended.

During my tenure as President of APA there will be three special initiatives which I hope will facilitate our evolution into the new millennium. The first will be "WOMEN IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY", co-chaired by Connie Chan, Mary Beth Kenkel, Nancy Russo, Cheryl Travis, and Melba Vasquez [staff, Merry Bullock, mbullock@apa.org]. Utilizing conference calls and e-mail, rather than the more traditional trips to Washington, DC, the task force [WIST] has begun planning for a special mini-convention at our 2000 August convention. Their current agenda includes: 1) Methodological contributions of psychology in assessing system environments and gender impact in regards to science and technology. 2) The impact of information technology on girls and women in school and work. 3) Gender equity issues in access to technology over the developmental life span. 4) Perspectives about science and technology from those who are disabled, ethnic minorities, elderly, or of other special groups. And, 5) Challenges to women as leaders in science and psychology -- past, present, and future. The task force is actively exploring the possibility of inviting various non-psychologist speakers to the convention and ways for collaborating their efforts with interested divisions. There is active involvement of each of the APA directorates. Some of their additional ideas include: development of an APA-WIST web page including information about women in science, profiles of women in leadership positions in science and in psychology, links to other relevant organizations and to WIST-like activities at APA, etc. They are considering starting a project that could continue beyond next year, perhaps by addressing the mentoring processes, with a focus on mentoring for leadership within psychology, academia and science more generally. This could serve several possible target groups at different career points (graduate/junior faculty; mid-career faculty) and in different settings (within academia, within practice). Another possibility is an exploratory workshop or panel session focused on practical guidance rather than mentoring. During the Boston convention the co-chairs met and one intriguing idea is possibly having videotaped interviews with women of distinction in the fields of science and technology, in part for archival value but also to use in a multi-media presentation as part of the mini-convention. Traditionally, women have been and remain relatively under represented in certain fields of science and technology. NSF data reveal that while women constitute 46 percent of the total U.S. work force, they constitute only 22 percent of the science and engineering labor force. At the same time, psychology is becoming increasingly female dominated, although not yet at the governance level. I am confident that we have much to contribute to this important public policy deliberation. Suggestions should be shared directly with Merry and/or the co-chairs.

The second initiative will be PSYCHOLOGY AND LAW, co-chaired by Don Bersoff, Allen Brown, Bill Foote, and Mary McGuire [staff Donna Beavers, dbeavers@apa.org and David Nickelson, dnickelson@apa.org]. For the first time, the President of both the APA and the Canadian Psychological Association (James Ogloff) will be psychologist-lawyers. The interface of psychology and law is of considerable interest to our membership, as becomes evident, whenever the APA Master Lecture Series focuses upon this topic. A historical perspective: the birth of psychology and law typically is traced to Hugo Munsterberg, the "founder" of applied psychology, who early in this century (1908) advocated applying psychology to the law, criticizing lawyers and judges for not embracing psychological research. In the 1920's, several eminent law schools integrated social science expertise into their law curricula and hired psychologists on faculties. In the 1960's, the "modern day" psychology and law movement began to gain momentum. Two events are especially worth noting: (1) APA filing its first amicus brief in Jenkins v. United States (1962) – the critical case that established psychologists as experts in courts, and (2) the establishment of the American Psychology-Law Society (APLS) (1969) – later merging with APA’s Division 41. In 1974, the first psychology-law program was established at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and APA’s Congressional Science Fellow program began (now having provided "hands on" legislative experience for over 50 colleagues). In 1979, the ad hoc Committee on Legal Issues (COLI) was established to provide ongoing recommendations regarding possible APA involvement in the judicial system. In 1995, APA co-sponsored the first Education and Training Conference in Psychology and Law (Villanova). Interest has mushroomed, with psychologists and lawyers solidifying the infrastructure by pursuing interdisciplinary projects, and nourishing those scientists and practitioners involved in the psychology-law interface. 1997, APA co-sponsored its first national conference with the ABA on the topic of family law. This joint APA-ABA conference in Los Angeles [Children, Custody, and Divorce] attracted nearly 1,000 psychologists and lawyers. The second joint conference was held this October in our nation’s capital [Psychological Expertise in Criminal Law]. By all accounts this conference was also a great success. There were over 600 conference attendees and over 100 distinguished psychologists, lawyers, and judges (including a Supreme Court justice) presenting in over 23 sessions. Where do we go from here? That is the question for the task force. On a personal level, I plan on asking every state association that I visit during the coming year to invite their local bar association president as a special guest and to give serious consideration to establishing their own committee on legal issues.

The third focus will be PRESCRIPTIVE AUTHORITY [RxP]. This task force will be co-chaired by Department of Defense (DoD) psychopharmacology graduate Anita Brown, Chuck Faltz, Ray Folen, and Sandy Rose. These selections should not be surprising given that California and Hawaii have long been in the forefront of the legislative prescriptive authority battles, and that in many ways rural America (e.g., New Hampshire) represents where there is the greatest societal need for this expansion of psychological practice [staff Sid Rocke, srocke@apa.org]. Presently they are in the midst of planning for the forthcoming convention, considering panels on training models, legislative activities, the DoD project, and academic interests. Distance learning has become a major element of the various psychopharmacology training modules that are maturing. The task force’s ongoing efforts to develop increasing support within the state and provincial licensing boards for obtaining prescriptive authority has been most impressive. The 21st Century will indeed be exciting and I am confident that professional psychology is well positioned for the future. Aloha.

Pat DeLeon, APA President Elect – Division 42 Web – October, 1999