Giving Psychology Away
Collin College Study Grant Proposal
Salena Brody, Department of Psychology
The title of this proposal comes from a recent movement in the fieldto sharefindings with a broader audience and to use psychological science to inform public policy and address pressing social issues.[1]
Rationale: After hearing an excellent address on the ethics of giving science away at a top tier research conference, I began thinking about the ways I viewed popular books written by professional psychologists. I worried that the texts may oversimplify (or “dumb down”) complicated findings. I hadn’t thought much about the role they played in informing public policy decisions. The presentation, given by a prominent psychologist who frequently publishes op-ed pieces in the New York Times about his research, suggested that giving the science away in accessible bites is an ethical responsibility to the public we serve, and he proposed how to do it with skill and integrity.
I started to think about the ways in which respected scholars have done the work of giving their science away and how a public understanding of their research has impacted policy work in meaningful ways. The popularization of our findings has led to real interventions and innovative programs, two of which I’ll discuss here.
Significance: One good example of the interplay between academic research and its first cousin, the mainstream text, is work on implicit bias. MahzarinBanaji and Anthony Greenwald have published over one hundred peer-reviewed studies in top tier psychological journals over the past two decades. Yet their work appeared to influence public policy only after their implicit association tests (IAT) became available to the public. They collected data through Harvard’s Project Implicitwebsite (available to the public) and they distilled their findings to a more general audience through feedback given after taking the quick test.[2] As the public fascination with the tests increased, additional rigorous academic research tackled questions about the psychometric properties of the test—making the IAT arguably one of the most scrutinized tests in the field. While it is difficult to know whether the scrutiny was a direct result of public interest or not, we do know that the public spurred enough interest for the authors to publish a book explaining the IAT to a general audience (Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People, 2013).
Additionally, implicit bias research has found links between negative implicit associations of Black targets and a host of other variables, including the amount of violence directed toward Black juveniles under police custody.[3] This work has been applied to understanding the dozens of recent police shootings of unarmed black men. As the subtitle of Blind Spot suggests, good people can hold troubling biases that they are not consciously aware of. With this knowledge, Mayor Bill De Blasio has recentlyapprovedan anti-bias training program for New York City’s police force. This training comes directly from decades of social psychological lab and field research on the consequences of implicit bias. In his recent State of the City address (February, 2016), De Blasio specifically used the psychological language of implicit bias: “This spring, we will introduce ‘implicit bias’ training for our officers—helping them identify, understand and change unconscious behaviors that may affect their policing… All of the training and technology we are delivering to our police department will help every one of our 35,000 uniformed officers become the kind of cop they signed up to be.”[4] This use of academic language by a public policy maker is a significant milestone for researchers of implicit bias.
As with Banaji and Greenwald, psychologist Carol Dweck has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles in respected academic journals over several decades. Yet, it was largely due to the publication of her2007 book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” that interventions began being implemented in schools across the country. Growth mindset research has also influenced workplace culture, mental health interventions, and parenting best practices.[5] Local Collin County districts have adopted growth mindset practices within the classroom and school communities by teaching children to think more flexibly about intelligence, athletic abilities, and failure. Students (perhaps future Collin students) who are growing up with this type of mindset training and interventions will generate more research questions as we follow the long-term outcomes of this intervention program. Thus, the public application of the research is generating excellent opportunities for academic researchers to study the issue longitudinally in a real-world setting.
Studying the interplay between the academic and non-academic worlds becomes ever more important when we acknowledge how each makes the other better, as in these two cases.
Work plan (5 weeks, Summer II 2017)
I’ve chosen this selection of books based on the reputation of the authors, the popularity of the books, and my interest in these particular topics. The topics covered in these books are broad, ranging from thinking styles to neuroscience to mind-body effects. I touch on many of these topics in my teaching, so I am eager to sprinkle some of the storytelling that I find in these texts into my lectures. I am curious about the approaches each of the authors will take to distill their findings to a mainstream audience. I plan to address these similarities and differences of the approaches in my study grant presentation as well as a summary of what I learned.
I hope that the experience of stepping back from the work of academic writing and learning about the field solely from mainstream texts will be transformative. I have no doubt that the conversations I have with colleagues about my reading list will be thought-provoking and constructive. A common criticism of mainstream texts (and one that I anticipate from my esteemed colleagues) is that the contents may be more hype than substance. I hope that having a foot in both worlds will put me in a good position to evaluate that claim as I make my way through the list.
Week 1: Thinking
Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), Daniel Kahneman, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 512 pages.
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (2010), Chip & Dan Heath, Crown Business, 305 pages.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2007), Carol Dweck, Ballantine Books, 288 pages.
Week 2: Motivation
Drive (2011), Daniel Pink, Riverhead Books, 288 pages.
The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works (2013), Kelly McGonigal, Avery, 288 pages.
Week 3: Heuristics
The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us(2010), Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, Harmony, 320 pages.
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving (2014), John Medina, Pear Press, 304 pages.
Week 4: Social Problems
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do (2011), Claude Steele, W. W. Norton & Company, 256 pages.
Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) (2015), Carol Tavris & Eliot Aronson, Mariner Books, 400 pages.
Week 5: Happiness
Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being(2012), Martin Seligman, Atria Books, 368 pages.
Stumbling on Happiness (2007), Daniel Gilbert, Vintage, 336 pages.
Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges (2015), Amy Cuddy, Little, Brown and Company, 352 pages.
Additional reading:
Slavich, G.M. (2009). On 50 Years of Giving Psychology Away: An Interview with Philip Zimbardo, Teaching of Psychology, 36: 278-284.
Chamberlain, J. (2016) #Give psychology away: Meet four mental health professionals using social media to share psychology, APA Monitor, 47(1):
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