Psychology's Role in the Changing Healthcare, in Improving Workplace Environments and in Examining the Psychological Implications of the Human Genome Project to be Major Themes
Singer Pete Seeger As Keynote
With healthcare and work environments changing at light speed, psychologists are examining the possibility of having prescription privileges, the advantages and disadvantages of online therapy, ways to reduce workplace violence and discrimination and the medical and societal implications of gene therapy. These issues will be prominent themes of the 108th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (APA).
More than 1,100 symposia, paper and poster sessions will be devoted to a wide range of psychological issues ranging from mental examinations of sexual harassment plaintiffs, the status of employment testing, psychological characteristics of presidential greatness, the pros and cons of online and E-therapy and prevalence of cybersex and affairs on the Internet to how the media influences attitudes about cosmetic surgery, the role of spirituality in healing, why young adults are moving back home with their parents and ways to reduce anger while driving.
Other presentations will include the effect of marital quality on dieting; what types of personalities are most associated with emotional intelligence; gender differences in adolescent depression; does medication, psychotherapy or both work best at treating depression; the health hazards of being male; the importance of fathers in their children's life span and how menopause can affect a woman's cognitive performance.
Keynote speaker Pete Seeger and his grandson, Tao Rodriguez will tell stories and sing to kick off the APA convention. "I am done with big things and great things, and I am for those tiny, invisible, molecular forces that creep from individual to individual like so many rootlets, or like the capillary action of water, yet which, if you give them time, will rend the hardest monument of man's pride."
For Seeger, the words point to the power of organizations like APA to change the world. "I'm absolutely convinced that if there's a human race here in 100 or 200 years, it will be because of millions upon millions of small organizations," he explains. "They might be academic disciplines or scientific organizations, political organizations or sports organizations, religious organizations or artistic organizations." Now 81, the man who wrote such songs as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "If I Had a Hammer" will combine music and story-telling in a joint performance with his grandson Tao Rodriguez
APA President Pat DeLeon, Ph.D., has chosen serious emotional disturbances with children, adolescents and families as a major theme for the meeting. Experts in these areas will speak about empirically supported treatments for childhood behavior, anxiety and mood disorders, schools and serious emotional disturbance, ways to work with families who have children with serious emotional disturbances and the need for partnerships with managed care and the juvenile justice system.
Another notable speaker will include psychologist Arthur Jensen, Ph.D., who will speak about his theory that genes cause the IQ differences between races.
The press facilities for the convention will be in Meeting Room 8 and 9, Meeting Room Level, in the Renaissance Washington Hotel. The pressroom will open for on-site media registration on Thursday, August 3, from noon to 4:00 PM and during each day of the convention from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM (except Tuesday, August 8, when it will close at noon). Convention papers will be available, as will be working space, telephones, fax machines, phone lines for data transmission and APA staff resources. The press area will also be the site of any news briefings held during the convention.
The deadline for requesting housing at the special convention rates is June 26, 2000. Please use the APA Convention Housing Reservation Form in the enclosed booklet to secure convention accommodations. Send the form directly to the APA/WCVA Housing Bureau, 108 Wilmot Road, Deerfield, IL 60015.
Please send the complimentary Convention Registration Form (registration fee waived for media with credentials) in the booklet to APA 2000 Convention, P.O. Box 630303, Baltimore, MD 21263-0303 or fax it to: (202-336-5708). You will automatically receive a copy of the program and your convention badge. Please also fill out and return the enclosed "Media Registry" card to ensure that you receive future convention-related mailings.
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 159,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 59 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.
Date: May 8, 2000
Contact: Pam Willenz
Public Affairs Office
202-336-5707
pwillenz@apa.org