I am delighted to be starting my Presidential Year as the head of Division 1! Clare, Jocelyn and I have just completed an exciting and successful year as D1 Presidential Trio, and I am looking forward to building on our success.
Clare initiated the Big Ideas theme in her term as president, and I am following up on that in three ways:
Special D1 conference on the Next Big Ideas in Psychology
As I hope you have seen, we have set the date of this conference for February 23-24 in Phoenix, AZ. There will be six invited speakers, and a poster session for others to discuss their nascent Big Ideas. The Call for Nominees for speakers has gone out and we have already received many promising nominations. I hope you will plan on attending!
Big Ideas grant program
There is a lot of money around for research projects of all kinds, but almost no funding for big, integrative, theoretical ideas. D1 could be, and should be, a leader in making some funding available. We hope to get this program going this fall.
Big Ideas in Psychology Book Series
A book series on Big Ideas could be an important way of supporting the mission of Division 1. It often takes a book-length work to develop the kind of integrative, interdisciplinary ideas that are the ideal of the D1 mission. We plan to submit a proposal for approval to the D1 Executive Committee this fall.
“Because we are both “general” and interdisciplinary in Division 1, we have an inherent leadership role within APA that we could develop further to help integrate the goals of numerous divisions.”
More broadly, I hope to establish fruitful collaborative connections with other APA divisions. Because we are both “general” and interdisciplinary in D1, we have an inherent leadership role within APA that we could develop further to help integrate the goals of numerous divisions. I’ll share more ideas on this theme with you in the months to come. Meanwhile, if you have thoughts to share with me on any D1 topics, please send them to me at arnett@jeffreyarnett.com.