Monitor on Psychology - December 2011 - (Page 41)

Psychology can take a leadership role in helping different disciplines come together to address society’s top priorities, including health care and environmental sustainability. B Y R EB ECCA A. C LAY I research,” said Belar, pointing to a 2005 Scientometrics study t’s well-accepted that no one discipline has the answer to by Kevin W. Boyack, PhD, and others. Using publication data difficult challenges in such areas as health care, education to see where articles were being cited, the study showed that and the environment, said Cynthia D. Belar, PhD, executive psychology was one of seven science hubs, along with such director of APA’s Education Directorate. Belar kicked off the disciplines as physics, chemistry and medicine. association’s 2011 Education Leadership Conference on Sept. 10. Psychology practice The annual meeting, during is also becoming more which psychologists visit interdisciplinary, said Belar, policymakers on Capitol Hill although in this realm, to advocate for psychology’s “interprofessional” is the educational priorities, focused term used more often. For this year on interdisciplinary example, health-care reform teaching, research and practice. emphasizes patient-centered The solution? care in which psychologists “Interdisciplinarity,” Belar told work as members of almost 150 representatives primary-care teams to of psychology education and improve care. training groups, psychological Also on the rise is membership organizations, interprofessional education, APA divisions and APA in which students from two governance groups. or more disciplines learn While “multidisciplinary” from and with each other to refers to different disciplines improve collaboration and working independently to health outcomes. Within address various aspects of psychology, the Graduate a problem, Belar explained, Psychology Education “interdisciplinary” means two program, housed in the or more disciplines coming Bureau of Health Professions together to solve problems at the Health Resources and beyond the scope of a single Services Administration, has discipline. “It’s working “We don’t have to smash our silos, but we do need to foster interdisciplinary training at together to create something interconnectivity,” said APA’s Dr. Cynthia D. Belar. its core. different, not just a parallel Belar concluded with process,” she said. a call for a double agenda. “We must provide adequate Interdisciplinarity is a growing trend in research, said Belar. preparation for our own work force and advance The percentage of government funding going into multipsychological science to teach teamwork in other disciplines investigator projects has increased dramatically, for example. as well,” she said. “We don’t have to smash our silos, but we At the National Science Foundation, the percentage of funding do need to foster interconnectivity.” n going to single-investigator projects plummeted from 88 percent in 1988 to just 38 percent in 2010. Rebecca A. Clay is a writer in Washington, D.C. “Psychology really is a hub science for interdisciplinary Charles Votaw DeceMber 2011 • Monitor on psychology 41

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - December 2011

Monitor on Psychology - December 2011
Letters
President’s Column
Contents
From the CEO
Willpower Pioneer Wins $100,000 Grawemeyer Prize
Single-Sex Schooling Called Into Question by Prominent Researchers
Maternal Depression Stunts Childhood Growth, Research Suggests
For Boys, Sharing May Seem Like a Waste of Time
Good News for Postdoc Applicants
In Brief
Treatment Guideline Development Now Under Way
Government Relations Update
Psychologist Named Va Mental Health Chief
The Limits of Eyewitness Testimony
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Time Capsule
Deconstructing Suicide
Questionnaire
A Focus on Interdisciplinarity
A Time of ‘Enormous Change’
The Science Behind Team Science
Good Science Requires Good Conflict
A New Paradigm of Care
Speaking of Education
Science Directions
New Labels, New Attitudes?
Psychologist Profile
Early Career Psychology
Unintended Consequences
Better Options for Troubled Teens
Saving Lives, One Organ at a Time
New Journal Editors
APA News
Division Spotlight
Guidelines for the Conduct of President-Elect Nominations and Elections
American Psychological Foundation
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - December 2011