It is a pleasure and an honor to serve as president to the Society for Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology (SBNCP). I have been involved in division and Council governance over the past several years, and during this time, I have come to recognize the value in serving the APA. For many of us, time and travel budget constraints limit the meetings we can attend. Each year I skip meetings that also align with my interests but being involved with APA and SBNCP brings about a unique sort of fulfillment that comes with contributing to the greater good and causes benefitting our profession. While serving on Council, I learned that my fiduciary responsibility was to the whole of APA. Focusing on SBNCP work in the capacity of president has been a nice change of pace.
My motivation to be involved with APA sometimes requires explanation for colleagues who wonder why I am involved in an organization that is “full of clinicians.” I met and worked with many clinicians during my service to APA Council, and I never got the sense that they viewed science as irrelevant to their work or that APA should not devote resources and energy into science. Conversely, I believe that psychologists who do not work as clinicians have a fundamental obligation to recognize and support the roles played by those in clinical practice. Many of our SBNCP members are licensed clinicians or faculty who teach in the area of clinical psychology. Our clinical colleagues across the APA have shown broad support for some of the core interests of Div. 6 and associated divisions, such as in the reaffirmation of APA support for the use of nonhuman animals for teaching and research.
The majority of individuals who join SBNCP are researchers and educators. Those who follow developments in education are aware of the role that the APA has played in supporting undergraduate teaching. In 2006, APA published Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major and released a much streamlined and user friendly 2.0 version in 2013. If you are involved in undergraduate education, you have likely encountered these guidelines, and some of you may work in departments that have fully implemented them into the curriculum. The team who put the guidelines together is to be commended. A lot of thought and work went into crafting the guidelines. I am pleased to see that one of the five major goals (Knowledge Base in Psychology) includes “Analyze the variability and continuity of behavior and mental processes within and across animal species” as an indicator of Baccalaureate proficiency.
However, while the term “biological” appears as a domain that needs to be covered in psychology curricula, there is no benchmark indicating that students should learn about the brain or nervous system.
The term “animal” appears in Goal 2 (Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking) in the context of research ethics, where the point is made that introductory students learn about ethical treatment of animals in research contexts. I do not dispute that this should be a part of the psychology curriculum (and not just in introductory psychology). However, I am reminded of an interesting paper that Michael Domjan and Jesse Purdy published in American Psychologist in 1995. Domjan and Purdy closely examined leading introductory psychology textbooks to evaluate their coverage of animal research. They noted that except for the chapter on conditioning and learning, very little text was devoted to animal research or animal research studies were discussed as if they were conducted on humans. The ethical justifications for using animals were discussed in most of the books. However, the textbooks overall were lacking in demonstrating the important contributions that animal research has made to psychology, as well as both animal and human well-being.
It would be interesting to do a similar follow up on Domjan and Purdy’s evaluation of introductory psychology textbooks today. The APA guidelines were not written to reflect what is covered in psychology textbooks. The reverse is more likely true. It is not unusual for psychology textbooks to use structural adherence to the APA guidelines as a selling point. After all, who doesn’t want to simplify program assessment efforts? I do believe we need to make our voices heard and recommend that a greater breadth of issues pertaining to animal research be addressed in the guidelines.
Furthermore, career options identified in the guidelines include “animal trainer” for those with a bachelor’s degree. Various neuroscience related jobs are listed for people with advanced degrees. Listing potential careers for people with a psychology degree is challenging, and I do think that SBNCP members could be helpful in revising the list to reflect the career options for students.
My intention for bringing up these items is not to question the intent or knowledge of the hard-working panel who created the guidelines or to argue that the general interests of SBNCP take primacy over our colleagues representing different areas. I do believe that we need to advocate for ourselves. How can we be involved with setting the benchmarks for the undergraduate psychology major?
Some ideas include:
- Contact members of the panel who oversee the creation and revision process for the guidelines. There is a 10-year revision cycle and so there is opportunity to be heard. (I volunteered to serve on the panel for version 3.0.)
- Get involved with Div. 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology) and engage with colleagues here about your concerns.
- Get involved with task forces, work groups and other endeavors commissioned by the APA Board of Educational Affairs.
I am sure that others have ideas as well, and I welcome you to share them with me or if possible, the Div. 6 Listserv.
Our membership continues to grow, in large part because we have created more opportunities for people to join as affiliates and students. This is of course a very positive development and bodes well for the future of SBNCP. For those of you that are new to SBNCP, we welcome you and encourage you to get involved with us through the convention and in service to the executive committee. Please feel to reach out to me or other officers if you have questions or comments about what we do. Please encourage colleagues and students to join SBNCP. A core value held by members of the SBNCP executive committee is to provide a supportive and inclusive environment for all. Whether it be communicating over the Listserv or attending the convention, we treat each other with respect and courtesy. If a member in our ranks experiences otherwise, I strongly encourage them to speak with me or another trusted member of executive committee about it. We are here to support you.
In addition to being an inclusive division, we also need to be proactive when it comes to increasing diversity within our membership. At the 2019 convention in Chicago I attended a discussion group among division leaders seeking to increase diversity among members and the executive committee. SBNCP of course is not alone in this regard. There is no single proven step that we as a division can take to promote diversity. This will be an ongoing discussion, with action that needs to follow. I do know that those of us in academic positions are the ones who can initiate change through our support and actions toward students: Particularly students who would be drowned out or marginalized unless someone in a position of influence, such as a course professor or lab PI, reaches out.
I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the dedication of our wonderful executive committee. Our division program co-chairs, Reggie Gazes and Erik Garcia, are hard at work putting together an excellent slate of symposia and speakers for the 2020 meeting in Washington, D.C. I am grateful for all of their hard work and enthusiasm. We are hopeful that the three collaborative proposals they are working on will be accepted. We have some solid connections with other APA divisions, and the proposals are an excellent opportunity to expand and solidify these relationships. Lauren Highfill is our awards chair, and along with past chair Jennifer Vonk, she will ensure that we honor our colleagues for their distinguished service and scientific contributions. Please be sure to nominate your deserving colleagues. Heather Hill agreed to serve again as fellows chair. It is a pleasure to welcome Preston Foerder into the fold as membership chair. Jeremy Bailoo and Cynthia Crawford continue in their service as secretary and treasurer, respectively. Irene Pepperberg and Jennifer Vonk are our members-at-large. David Washburn is our Council Representative, and you can read his informative report in this issue . Brielle James is our student representative, and Erik Garcia our early career professional (ECP) representative. I am grateful for the guidance provided by Past President Mike Beran and President-Elect Jonathon Crystal. Last but not least, Alan Daniel continues to put together a wonderful newsletter for us.
I look forward to a productive year as SBNCP president. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have questions, ideas or concerns.