Presidential Address

Presidential Address

Presidential Address     

2007 Presidential Address: Singing and Solidarity

As the audience entered the hall, a large screen displayed the title of the talk from an overhead projector. On the dais, about three feet above the floor, was a lectern, and next to it an arrangement of eight chairs facing each other in a square formation, two on each side of the square, the sides at a 45 degree angle from the side of the platform. At the appointed time, SSSR past-president Donald Miller climbed the steps to the lectern to introduce the speaker, Stephen Warner. When he had completed that task, Warner came forward to the lectern and a woman later identified as his wife, Anne Heider, began working the projector. A few minutes into the address, at Warner's cue, she and six others joined him on the dais, taking seats in the arrangement of chairs, from which position, facing each other with Warner standing facing toward them, they sang a song, as described below. When they were finished, they left the dais, and the rest of the address proceeded in a conventional manner. Prior to this singing demonstration, the address itself began as follows.     

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in the Digital Age: Presidential Address

Our field has come a long way in establishing cognitive-behavioral therapy as the empirically supported treatment of choice for a wide range of mental and behavioral health problems. Nevertheless, most individuals with mental disorders do not receive any care at all, and those who do often have difficulty accessing care that is consistently high in quality. Addressing these issues is complex and costly and thus progress has been slow. We are entering an exciting stage in which emerging technologies might offer novel solutions to the treatment gap. This paper discusses a number of technology-enabled solutions to our field’s challenges, including Internet-based and smartphone-based cognitive-behavioral therapy. Nevertheless, we must remain attentive to potential pitfalls of these emerging technologies. The paper incorporates suggestions for how the field may approach these potential pitfalls and provides a vision for how we might develop powerful, scalable, precisely timed, personalized interventions to enhance global mental health.     

Presidential Address: 21st International Congress of Applied Psychology

In 1920, 66 years ago, in Geneva, on Claparede's initiative, 16 psychologists coming from 7 countries met to discuss Nature and Nurture in Aptitude Development. They had a fruitful meeting, decided to create IAAP, and immediately started to organise the second Congress of Applied Psychology which took place in Barcelona in 1921. IAAP is, therefore, the oldest international association of psychologists. Thirty-five years later, and after a period of inactivity due to the war, there was a big step forward. Five hundred psychologists from 29 countries met in London for the 12th IAAP Congress, and Dr. Frisby, opening the Congress, could already take pride in the diversification of our field, quoting educational, clinical and social issues.     

SSSR Presidential Address Public Religions and the Postsecular: Critical Reflections

The term “postsecular” is proliferating in the writings of scholars working in the humanities and social sciences. This article assesses the variety of meanings attributed to the term, groups them in six clusters of ideas, and raises questions about the tensions that exist between some of its different meanings. Taking the central idea that religions enjoy relatively high visibility in the public sphere of postsecular societies, the article then considers how well this applies to the case of Britain. It argues that the visibility of religion in Britain's public sphere—far from being postsecular in any of the current meanings of the term—is actually associated with the state's “interpellation” of selected religions as partners in the delivery of public policies for managing diversity, combating inequality, and promoting social enterprise.     

2005 National Society of Genetic Counselors Presidential Address: Raising Our Voice

This Presidential Address was given at the annual education conference of the National Society of Genetic Counselors in Los Angeles, California, USA on November 14, 2005     

2003 Division 35 Presidential Address: Feminist Leadership: Feminist Visions And Diverse Voices

Although the theories and models on feminism and leadership exist, there has been little study of the intersection of the two. The literature on feminist leadership is scant. Few have defined it and fewer still have researched it. Thus, Feminist Leadership was chosen for my presidential initiative. This initiative kicked off a dialogue about feminist leadership that is summarized in this article. The article is based on my presidential address presented at the 2003 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in concluding my year as President of Division 35, the Society for the Psychology of Women. It identifies some challenges faced by women in leadership positions and by feminist leaders. It identifies the major issues that emerged during a web-based dialogue about feminist leadership. It discusses the intersection between theories of leadership and feminism. It ends with the lessons learned and implications for the future of feminist leadership.     

Introduction to Maureen O'Hara (Division 32 Presidential Address)

This fictional, humorous article pokes fun at one of our profession's sacred cows and raises fundamental questions about our increasingly legalistic approach to ethics. The intent is not to make fun of genuine professional ethics, but to point to a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of this important topic. The article is entirely fictional, and the characters and settings are not real. If you think you recognize some of the characters in the story, perhaps even yourself, you could be right, however, because the article is indeed "a fictional story that might be true."