High stakes are an opportunity.

Comments on the article by P. R. Sackett et al (see record 2001-00625-002) which examines the use of cognitive testing in employment, credentialing, and higher education post-affirmative action. The current author states that Sackett et al made 2 badly flawed assumptions in their discussion. These assumptions are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Award for distinguished contributions to research in public policy.

The American Psychological Association 2010 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy is given to a psychologist who has made a distinguished empirical and/or theoretical contribution to research in public policy, either through a single extraordinary achievement or a lifetime of work. This contribution may consist of such factors as research leading others to view specific national policies differently; research demonstrating the importance of the application of psychological methods and theory to public policy; or research clarifying the ways in which scientific knowledge of human behavior informs public policy. The 2010 winner was G. Daniel Lassiter. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Award for distinguished contributions to research in public policy.

The Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy is given to a psychologist who has made a distinguished empirical and/or theoretical contribution to research in public policy, either through a single extraordinary achievement or a lifetime of work. This contribution may consist of such factors as research leading others to view specific national policies differently; research demonstrating the importance of the application of psychological methods and theory to public policy; or research clarifying the ways in which scientific knowledge of human behavior informs public policy. The 2008 recipient award recipient is Janet E. Helms. This article contains a citation, biography, and selected bibliography of Janet E. Helms, as well as one of her original articles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Award for distinguished contribution to research in public policy: Stanley Sue.

The Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest confers the Award for Distinguished Contribution to Research in Public Policy upon a psychologist who has made a distinguished empirical and–or theoretical contribution to research in public policy, either through a single extraordinary achievement or a lifetime of work. This contribution might include research leading others to view specific national policies differently, demonstrating the importance of the application of psychological methods and theory to public policy, or clarifying the ways scientific knowledge of human behavior informs public policy. The citation, biography, and selected bibliography for this year's (1996) awardee, Stanley Sue, are presented here. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Award for distinguished contribution to research in public policy: Thomas Grisso.

Presents the citation, biography, and selected bibliography of Thomas Grisso, one of the recipients of the American Psychological Association's Awards for Distinguished Contribution to Research in Public Policy. From the awardee's citation: "For pioneering the introduction of rigorous empirically based psychological assessment methods into real-world forensic contexts. His studies of the competence of adolescents to waive legal rights broke new ground in psycholegal research and have been widely cited by courts and advocates. His impact on improving standards of forensic ethics has been profound and pervasive. His contributions to the advancement of professional training and service delivery by mental health professionals in the legal system have been equally deep and widespread. Along with Paul Appelbaum, he has articulated a model of the competence of persons with mental disorder to accept or refuse treatment that stands as a permanent contribution to the psychology of law." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human response to environmental noise: Psychological research and public policy.

A research-based, policy-directed argument is made for increasing psychologists' involvement in environmental noise research. Federal policy problems are related to the government's reliance on limited data from a dose-response model and the neglect of key psychological issues such as individual differences in reactions to environmental noise, the psychological factors that mediate annoyance and that identify subgroups that may need protection from stress-related health effects, and the relationship of perceived control to public response. Problems that have limited the usefulness of the empirical base for understanding the psychological mediation of noise effects are reviewed. Research applications of psychological stress theory and noise appraisal models are discussed as essential both to fill in gaps in the literature and to move empirical inquiry in a direction that can inform public policy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Award for distinguished contributions to research in public policy: Janet E. Helms.

Presents the citation, biography, and selected bibliography for Janet E. Helms, the recipient of the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Policy. An article by Helms is also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

G. Daniel Lassiter: Award for distinguished contributions to research in public policy.

The American Psychological Association 2010 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy was awarded to G. Daniel Lassiter, for his creative, rigorous, and theoretically driven investigations of the behavior perception process provide fundamental insights into both the determinants and the consequences of variation in how social perceivers resolve ongoing events into discrete, meaningful actions. Lassiter was one of the earliest psychological scientists to research police interrogations, and his more than 25-year-long program of scholarship on bias and accuracy in evaluations of videotaped confessions serves as an elegant and inspirational model for bridging the gap between basic theory and real-world applicability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awards for distinguished professional contribution to research in public policy.

The Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest confers the Award for Distinguished Contribution to Research in Public Policy upon a psychologist who has made a distinguished empirical and/or theoretical contribution to research in public policy, either through a single extraordinary achievement or a lifetime of work. This contribution might include research leading others to view specific national policies differently, research demonstrating the importance of the application of psychological methods and theory to public policy, or research clarifying the ways scientific knowledge of human behavior informs public policy. The awardee for this year (1997) is Ruby Takanishi. The awardee's citation, biography, and selected bibliography is presented here. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Orphan drugs: problem of public health and economic stakes

Orphan drugs (OD) qualify as drugs scientifically viable but not viable from an economic point of view either because the number of patients who might benefit is too small or because the populations concerned are too poor to afford the drugs. Sick people who could be treated by OD and their families have been fighting for years to induce authorities in charge of health to set up a programme to stimulate research into new treatment for rare diseases. The United States, initiated work in order to confer status on OD leading to the Orphan Drug Act in 1983. It defined the conditions for attribution of the OD status and also made attractive proposals to pharmaceutic industries in order to improve their development. More recently, in 1993, Japan took similar decisions, while the European Union and France are also on the way, as recent meetings of European ministers of health show. In contrast, developing countries are still excluded from medical research as very few tropical diseases have treatment. Legislation for OD, first planned to make up for the high costs of research and development, proved its efficiency. But ODs must move to a new status as some are now becoming the object of important economic stakes.     

Polygraph testing, psychological research, and public policy: An introductory note.

President Reagan's 1983 directive requiring polygraph testing in the investigation of security leaks led to a review of the scientific validity of such testing by the congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Meetings, literature reviews, and interviews with scientists, polygraphers, and government officials culminated in the Scientific Validity of Polygraph Testing (1983), a document which led to the introduction of legislation to restrict the scope and purpose of polygraph use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making a clearing: Qualitative research in anglophone Canadian psychology.

Qualitative research (QR) occupies a middle ground between the sciences and the humanities, which goes against established research practice in psychology and most related social and health science disciplines. At present, QR in Canadian psychology is beginning to take root in some universities and research organizations. Most of the contributors to this special issue reflect this development in Anglophone Canadian psychology. This article briefly introduces the contributions to this special issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and public policy.

Discusses ways to increase the involvement, awareness, knowledge, and education of psychologists in the public policy process. Psychologists have functioned effectively in a variety of roles that are relevant to the policy sector. For example, they are increasingly called upon as expert witnesses. There is a great need for people who can translate the findings of psychology and the behavioral sciences into language and recommendations easily comprehended by the public. Probably the most common role for a psychologist in public policy is that of researcher or evaluator, which uses the psychologist's methodological skill to help policymakers determine whether a program, intervention, or treatment was effective. Psychologists have also increasingly taken positions as administrators in education, health, mental health, welfare, correctional, and human service organizations, where they are directly responsible for the formation and implementation of social policies. Psychologists can also function as activist-collaborators by advocating solutions to social problems. It is concluded that greater involvement of psychology in the public policy process will facilitate the growth of psychological knowledge and the application of that knowledge to the world of which psychology becomes continually a larger part. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

University involvement in public policy deliberation: An example.

Recently, there has been a significant growth in the number of public policy centers on academic campuses across the country, but questions have emerged about how successful the academics, researchers, and professionals in those institutions are in influencing public policy and improving policymakers' deliberations. Finding out what information policymakers request, need, and obtain in order to inform them and improve their decision making is crucial. A variety of skills are needed in order to get involved in the state or national legislative processes that are designed to improve the quality of life in the community. Unfortunately, even when there is strong research and empirical evidence to show the way, it remains difficult to get sound, evidence-based policy passed and implemented. This article discusses how public policy centers inside universities can assist in fostering communication and understanding between policymakers and researchers and improve the policymaking process and subsequent policy decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tobacco psychopharmacology and public health policy: It takes a community.

This commentary is based upon the author's lecture given as the 2010 recipient of the award named in honor of Drs. Joseph V. Brady and Charles R. Schuster, given by the Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse Division (Division 28) of the American Psychological Association (APA). The focus is on the contributions of many behavioral pharmacology researchers who collaborated very much in the spirit of an interactive community dedicated to the common cause of advancing science in service of public health. Division 28 and its members hold a prominent place in this account because, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Division was the lead scientific forum for bringing together researchers addressing the behavioral pharmacology of tobacco and nicotine. The commentary provides an overview of how advances utilizing animal and human models of dependence and withdrawal came to inform public health policy and more recently, tobacco product regulation. The commentary also recounts how efforts by the tobacco industry collided with those of nonindustry researchers, including Division 28 members, and how this was taken up in congressional hearings that addressed behavioral pharmacology research on tobacco. The review concludes with an overview of current challenges to behavioral pharmacology researchers to assist in guiding the regulation of tobacco products by the United States Food and Drug Administration and other national regulatory authorities, as well as guiding the implementation of the international tobacco treaty—the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

On making social research relevant to public policy and national problem solving.

Suggests how social research can become more relevant to governmental efforts to resolve national problems, E.g., poverty. A major function of the research would be to make explicit the goals and beliefs of the several systems donor, delivery, and recipient comprising any national government effort. Data are offered on 1 national effort to train welfare recipients for jobs. Misperceptions between members of the delivery and recipient systems are examined. It is suggested that significant policy research requires (a) a broader framework than usually adopted by a scientific discipline; (b) continuity in the gathering of field data; and (c) a new institutional base that allows scientists and administrators to cooperate in research and policy efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child health in America: toward a rational public policy

Analysis of currently available data on mortality and morbidity indicates that the major organic illnesses of childhood, and their developmental consequences, are susceptible in part to the technical interventions of American medical science. Environmental forces, however, exert a powerful impact on the health of children in the United states, manifested both in the disproportionate toll of most organic diseases on poor and nonwhite populations and in such increasingly important symptoms of familial, social, and behavioral distress as child abuse, accidents, and childhood suicide. Review of the nature, quality, and distribution of child health services demonstrates a systemic inability to reach and treat the children most in need of them. A rational basis for child health policy includes: appropriate concepts of health, disease, and preventive and therapeutic intervention; a capacity to acknowledge, to measure, and to act on the familial and environmental, as well as the medical, sources of illness; an orientation to the developmental and social implications of good and poor child health; and a commitment to enable all children to receive health services. The data and this policy framework lead to these program recommendations: the channeling of resources into a more rational system which guarantees equity and access; a planning and program implementation mechanism which addresses the health needs of diverse local populations and which makes real the advocacy concept; a screening, evaluation, and surveillance methodology; a delivery system which both applies preventive and curative health technology and addresses basic life needs of children; and a coherent program for the training, assignment, and supervision of the several kinds of manpower which such a system would require.     

The social psychological basis for public acceptance of the social security system: The role for social research in public policy formation.

Examined the issue of carrying out research that meets traditional standards of quality while bearing upon significant public issues. Measures of orientation toward socal security were studied, using an opinion questionnaire administered in 615 home interviews in 3 cities. Results indicate that people are committed to social security because it is work-connected through the payroll tax. There is no dissatisfaction with the system by persons who appear to bear the brunt of its inequities. Factors related to willingness to pay into the system are noted. The question of why there has been no previous social psychological research on the social security program is considered, and ways of coping with this lack are suggested. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent abortion: Psychological perspectives on public policy.

The Supreme Court has relied on psychological assumptions in adolescent abortion cases, but it has failed to consider relevant empirical research. The work of the Interdivisional Committee on Adolescent Abortion to fill in this gap provides a model for organized psychology's integration, dissemination, and application of psychological knowledge to promote the public interest. Such efforts should be replicated by state associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hospices: Perspectives on the public policy debate.

The public policy debate on hospice care centers on the appropriate mix of medical and supportive services for terminal cancer patients and how such services should be paid for within existing insurance programs. Past decisions to change health care reimbursement that are applicable to the hospice debate are reviewed, the benefits and costs of hospice care are examined, and the role of research in the formulation of social policy is discussed. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)