How Can We Share


How Psychology Can Be Shared

 

OTRP: Taking it to the Streets: How to give Psychology Away and Become a Local Media Hero

 

I. Media Channels

 

   A. Traditional Media


  1. Newspapers
    1. OP-ED submissions
    2. Columns
    3. Articles
  2. Magazines
    1. Psychology Today
    2. Articles
  3. Radio
    1. Newscasts
    2. Public radio interviews
  4. Television
    1. Newscasts
    2. Specials
    3. Self-proclaimed experts (Dr. Phil)
  5. Books
    1. Self-help
    2. Non-fiction (e.g., Gladwell) and fictional accounts based on true events
  6. Motion pictures (especially documentaries, truth-based fictional account)
  7. Popular music (this may be a stretch)

 

   B. Internet-based Media


  1. Blogs
  2. Website newsfeeds
  3. Podcasts
  4. Facebook, Linked-In
    1. Theme-based groups
    2. Posts
  5. X (formerly Twitter), etc.
  6. Listservs

 

II. Sharing by Experts

 

   A. Become established as a media contact expert (See Media Expert Training Resources, VII below)

 

   B. Write articles

 

   C. Provide interviews

 

   D. Host a...

  1. Newspaper column
  2. TV program
  3. Radio program
  4. Blog
  5. Podcasts
  6. Website

 

   E. Speakers

  1. School, college, university events, classroom guest speaker
  2. Profit and non-profit organization, company events

 

    F. Public Demonstrations

  1.  From Bill Altman:  Use some simple technologies to demonstrate particularly important ideas, such as the danger of calling or texting while driving.  For instance, I've been using a really simple (and really cheap) driving simulator hooked to a laptop computer, and allowing people to drive under normal conditions, while listening to the radio, while talking with a "passenger," while on their cell phone, or while texting.  In each scenario, I have other people counting driving incidents such as going over the center line, driving off the road, accidents, missing traffic lights or signals, etc.  Because I also have access to a Biopac MP40, I'll also often hook the driver up for an EEG, which will read out in real time as they drive under these conditions.  This has been much more effective at getting people's attention than simply telling them not to drive while texting.
  2. From Jerry Rudmann:  I'm interested in developing ways in which students of psychology (two-year, university, or grad school) can share their knowledge of psychology with others (high school students, non-psychology college students, the general public). Psi Beta has been running two service learning programs in which students make presentations to others about psychology - topics include the bystander effect, self-control/academic self-regulation; dealing with shyness and understanding happiness are under development.  I'm just now starting conversations with TOPSS to possibly start a high school honor society. I'm thinking that Psi Alpha (proposed high school honor society), Psi Beta (CC honor society), and Psi Chi (upper division honor society) could collaborate to develop programs in which honors students themselves give psychology away by presenting talks and in doing so not only help to increase the psychological literacy of the general public, but provide our students valuable oral presentation and teamwork experience, and perhaps help them acquire deeper learning of the material they are presenting.
  3. From Rajiv Jhangiani:  Over the past year I have given a lot of thought to George Miller’s idea of “giving psychology away” and have settled on open pedagogy as a particularly effective way to do this. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, see David Wiley’s post about it here: http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2975 .  In a nutshell, this involves repurposing students’ energy, potential, and even their creativity by having them produce resources to serve the commons, rather than using yet another “disposable assignment” that only the instructor will see. Whether participating in the APS Wikipedia initiative, the NOBA Project’s student video competition, or even having my social psych students write op-eds and submit these for publication (this idea won an action teaching award from the Social Psychology Network), adopting open pedagogy has dramatically changed the quality of my students’ work (they pour a lot more energy into their projects when they know their work is meaningful and will be public scholarship). I have presented on this topic at Psych One, TIP North West, and NITOP and wrote a blog post summarizing these efforts here: http://thatpsychprof.com/pilot-testing-open-pedagogy/ .  To my mind, an outstanding example of Open Pedagogy outside of psychology is LibreTexts (based at UC Davis). Constructed by students (and, unlike Wikipedia, vetted by graduate students and faculty), LibreTexts (which covers a range of STEM disciplines and is now expanding into Psychology) is the most visited Chemistry website in the world!

 

III.  Sharing Through Teaching and Training

 

   A. Psychology courses


  1. High school AP and non-AP
  2. College courses
  3. College or department hosted speaker series not connected to classes

 

   B. First Year courses (application of psychological concepts and strategies for achieving greater success)


   C. Internships (learn job skills, how profession applies psychology)


   D. Brief interventions designed to promote academic or life success (live and online delivery). Examples include:


  1. Mindset
  2. Stereotype threat
  3. Application of self-regulation to promote success in college or life. Examples:
    1. Mindset
    2. Stereotype threat
    3. Application of self-regulation strategies 

 

   E. Workshops that teach applications of psychology to pubic and public organizations


    1. Supervisor effectiveness workshops
    2. Assessing student learning outcomes
    3. How to study effectively

IV. Sharing Through Co & Extra-Curricular Opportunities

 

   A. Teaching Assistantships (TA)

   B. Peer-mentoring

   C. Tutoring

   D. Internships

   E. Club and honor society (Psi Beta, Psi Chi) programs promote:

  1. Leadership
  2. Research
  3. Community service
  4. Service learning


V.  Sharing Through Training Psychologists and Teachers of Psychology (STP, APA, APS, NITOP, etc.)

 

   A. Conference symposia

   B. Conference lectures

   C. CE and other workshops on

  1. Psychology’s content
  2. Teaching strategies

   D. Professional networking

  1. Build theme-based networking lists
  2. Issue monthly or quarterly email newsletter of e-zine

 

VI. Information Archives for Psychological Information – Private & Public Access (some exist; many could be developed)

 

   A. Essays, articles

   B. Suggested reading lists

   C. Suggested movie lists

   D. Audio files

   E. Video files

   F. Image files (JPEGs, clip art, etc.)

   G. PowerPoints

   H. Prezis

   I. Resource websites

   J. Key each archived resource, when relevant, to holidays or other events to commemorate

 

VII. Media Expert Training Resources

 

  1. OTRP: Taking it to the Streets: How to give Psychology Away and Become a Local Media Hero
  2. APS Observer article: Step Up to the Mic: Why We Don't Talk With the Public and Policymakers, and Why We Should
  3. Cohn (2009) article: Putting Your Best Face Forward: Making Effective Presentations
  4. The American Psychological Association provides excellent advice on how to prepare for an interview: How to work with the media: Interview preparation for the psychologist  
  5. The Center for Anthropology and Science Communication provided a good, concise tool kit for working with reporters and interviewers: Working with Media: Creating Good Press for Anthropology  
  6. National Association of Social Workers' Media Toolkit 
  7. Union of Concerned Scientists: A scientist's guide to talking with the media. This excellent, readable book deals with each of the topics covered by this website.
  8. APA's video Talking to the Media to Promote Psychology
  9. APA's Translating Psychological Science 
  10. APA's Using Psychological Science to Understand and Fight Health Misinformation (pdf)