DIVISION NEWS
Division 1 candidate statements
The following individuals' candidate statements are from the 2012 Division 1 election cycle.
President-Elect Candidate: Robin L. Cautin, PhD
The efforts of Division 1 to promote the generalist perspective within psychology are more important today than ever before in our field’s history. In an age of increasing specialization and fragmentation, the existence of a common framework through which to communicate is critical to the long-term success and utility of our discipline. If I am elected President of Division 1, I will work with my colleagues to further realize the Division’s potential to demonstrate the interconnectedness of psychology’s subfields and to reaffirm the common intellectual roots of our discipline.
Currently, I am Professor of Psychology and Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs at Manhattanville College. Prior to assuming my current role, I served as Chair of Psychology, and have been on the faculty since 2001. I earned my PhD in clinical psychology from Case Western Reserve University in 1999 and my BA in psychology and philosophy from the University of Delaware. My research focuses on misconceptions in abnormal and clinical psychology, as well as on the history of psychology, particularly of clinical psychology and the life and work of David Shakow. During my tenure, I have taken on leadership roles within both the College community and in professional organizations. Most recently, I served as Secretary of Division 1 from 2008 – 2011, and as Program Chair for Division 26 (History) at the 2011 APA Convention. Email
President-Elect Candidate: Janet A. Sigal, PhD
I am honored to be nominated for President of Division 1. I am a Professor Emeritus at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and received my PhD in Social Psychology at Northwestern University. I taught Social Psychology courses at the undergraduate and doctoral level at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and was Department Chair for six years and Chair of the Institutional Review Board at the University for several years. My research interests are focused on women’s issues, particularly violence against women from an international viewpoint.
At present, I am the Main Representative of the American Psychological Association at the United Nations, and also serve as the Co-Chair of the NGO Committee on the Family-NY. I am a Fellow of Divisions 1, 35 and 52. In 2010 I served as Program Chair for Division 1, and currently am a member and also the UN Liason to the Division 1 Task Force on Policy. If I were elected as President of Division 1, my primary mission would be to foster integration between scientists/researchers and practitioners in all disciplines of psychology. Division 1 is an ideal forum for researchers in all fields of psychology to communicate with and work with practitioners to apply and implement research findings in practical settings. As an applied social psychologist, I value the importance of the connection between researchers and applied psychologists who collaborate in finding solutions to problems. A secondary mission would be to attract international associates since it is essential for psychology to develop a broader vision encompassing global approaches and issues. Email
Member-at-Large Candidate: Gordon M. Burghardt, PhD
My commitment to interdisciplinary activities and scholarship within areas of psychology and with the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities is of long standing and growing stronger with time. Fragmentation is too often the result as specialized research expands. I would see my role in Division 1 as encouraging an appreciation of the rich traditions reflected in our diverse history combined with the need for deeper multicultural and comparative approaches as we confront the future.
Gordon M. Burghardt is Alumni Distinguished Service Professor in the departments of Psychology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Burghardt received his PhD in Biopsychology from the University of Chicago. His research focus has been on comparative studies of behavioral development in species as diverse as turtles, bears, lizards, crocodilians, and, especially, snakes. He has been particularly interested in bringing an ethological and evolutionary attitude to American psychology and has served as editor or editorial board member on numerous journals including Ethology, Animal Learning and Behavior, Zoo Biology, Society and Animals, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, Herpetological Monographs, and Evolutionary Psychology. He is a past president of the Animal Behavior Society, immediate past editor of APA's Journal of Comparative Psychology, and immediate past president of Division 6 of APA—Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology. He has edited or co-edited five books, including The Cognitive Animal: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives on Animal Cognition (MIT Press, 2002) and The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits (MIT Press, 2005). His current research focuses on play in animals, feeding, antipredator behavior, genetics, and conservation of natricine snakes, cognition and behavioral enrichment in reptiles, responses of nonhuman primates to snakes, and the origins of religion. Email
Member-at-Large Candidate: Senel Poyrazli, PhD
I am honored to be nominated as Member-at-Large for APA Division 1. I received my PhD in Counseling Psychology from University of Houston and have been teaching at the Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg campus, for the past decade. As an associate professor, I also coordinate two graduate programs in psychology. My research primarily involves college students’ and immigrants’ psychosocial adjustment processes; with cross-cultural competency being an additional research interest. My research has been published in well-known journals such as the Journal of College Student Development, International Journal of Psychology, Journal of College Counseling, Journal of Humanistic Counseling Education and Development, International Journal of Stress Management, and Journal of Counseling and Development. I was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award by Penn State Harrisburg in 2007 and the Faculty Diversity Award in 2010. I am a fellow of the APA and the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) and I am actively involved within both organizations. I completed a five-year term as the editor of the international psychology division’s official publication International Psychology Bulletin. I am a co-editor of Eurasian Journal of Educational Research and a consulting editor of International Perspectives in Psychology, published by APA. Through my editorship roles and mentoring activities, I work closely with several psychologists in different parts of the world.
Within Division 1, I have been serving as an associate editor of The General Psychologist for the past three years. I have also been informally recruiting members for the division. For the past two years, I worked with both Divisions 1 and 52-International Psychology to share a suite at the APA convention to deliver different programming.
If elected, as a member-at-large person, I will work very closely with the board to support the division in its current direction while also helping the division to expand its role internationally. Email
Member-at-Large Candidate: Emilio C. Ulloa, PhD
After receiving my PhD in Social Psychology from Arizona State University, I entered academia as a faculty member at San Diego State University and was appointed the Director of Psychology Undergraduate Advising and Programs. My roles as teaching and research faculty and administrator have helped shape what I consider to be a nuanced perspective on psychology as a discipline. I believe psychologists, regardless of our specific training, can all serve the needs of our discipline through a commitment to our research, our institutions, and our students. I have served our profession as a site visitor for the Committee on Accreditation (Generalist), the coordinator for the Council of University-Based Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP) annual Diversity Recruitment Event (Diversifying Clinical Psychology, as the chair of last year's Division 1 student poster awards, and on the editorial board for Culture and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Currently I am an Associate Professor of Psychology, Chair of my institution's campus-wide Student Research Symposium, and Director of Undergraduate Advising and Programs in Psychology at SDSU. I would like to bring my energy and administrative experience to Division 1 and help shape the vision for its future as Member-at-Large for Division 1. Email