Big Issues which challenge applied Psychology

Background: The College of Fellows was formally established in July 2004 and is comprised of psychologists from a variety of backgrounds and with a range of interests. It is hoped that the creation of this group will help Psychology to make a greater contribution to some of the current issues facing the modern world and help to raise the profile of the discipline. Hence, members of the British Psychological Society, government and the general public will become more aware of the impact that Psychology can have on important issues such as antisocial behaviour, conflict/terrorism, religion and social inclusion/diversity. This is particularly pertinent as Society President Ken Brown, in his December 2004 column in The Psychologist reports a large number of enquiries to the BPS press office in recent months on a variety of topics like these. Clearly there is a genuine demand for psychologists input on a wide range of issues and it is hoped that the College of Fellows will provide a forum for these topics to be discussed and brought into the public domain. Objectives: Committee members decided that it would be useful to ask all Fellows what they believed to be big issues facing Psychology in the next few years. Identification of these key issues will help to guide discussion and debate. The purpose of this work was to identify common themes from topics that Fellows considered to be big issues of concern for people in this country and across the world. Method: Professor Steve Newstead (then Chair of College of Fellows Steering Group) wrote to all 659 Fellows in October 2003 requesting big ideas likely to face Psychology over the next few years. In total, 104 responses were received and analysed, giving rise to no fewer than 153 ideas. Two researchers independently identified emerging common themes using a qualitative research method, informed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 1999). This facilitated a detailed exploration of respondents views and enabled individual themes and sub-themes to be identified. This initial analysis was then discussed and any discrepancies were resolved so that a collaborative table of themes could be produced. Results: Six main themes were identified: World Issues Society Image of Psychology Health Technology Ageing Population The Image of Psychology made up nearly a third of the 153 ideas produced and encompassed ideas such as the structure of the BPS, inter-disciplinary working and public awareness and attitudes to Psychology. As the emphasis of this work was to consider issues of concern to the general public and not just psychologists, only the outward-looking, broad ranging themes were considered. From these, 106 ideas were identified, with World Issues and Society transpiring as the most dominant themes (making up 32% and 29% of ideas respectively). Many respondents detailed whether the issues they raised were aimed at a global level or a societal one. Where this was not stated, World Issues were considered to be subjects that have

implications at many levels (political, financial, social etc.) and included themes such as environment, religion and conflict/terrorism. Society issues were those that were perceived to directly impact on peoples lives and their community, such as education, employment, crime and the family. During the analysis, it was apparent that many ideas were inter-linked (e.g. religion and conflict, crime and drugs, social inclusion/diversity and identity.) Therefore, the table of themes below should be viewed as useful for describing the range of ideas produced and not as categories that are mutually exclusive.

B ig Issues 8% 15% 29%

society world issues health technology ageing population

16%

32%

Table of themes:
Sub themes World Issues Social inclusion/ diversity Conflict/ terrorism Economic behaviour

Environment

Religion

Society
Main themes

Identity

Family

Employment

Antisocial behaviour

Education

Crime

Health

Drugs

Medical research

Health promotion

Technology

Impact on daily lives Treatment by society

Advances

Communication

Ageing Population

Quality of life

Medicine

Employment

Breakdown of Big Issues: The main themes are presented in the following section, along with the sub-themes, which are listed in order of frequency. Some of the Fellows responses are included here to help clarify the different ideas produced.

World Issues
Social inclusion/diversity (e.g. asylum seekers, xenophobia, immigration, globalisation) The situation of asylum seekers worldwide, their effect on host countries and their own personal welfare. Britain as a concept is changingpeople travel morethis could lead to a reduction in nationalist identity and perhaps a move towards value-based, cultural but not national identifications. British psychology will have to look at the skills required to compete on a world stage. The issue: the increasing isolation and alienation of certain sections of society Conflict/terrorism (e.g. ideology, security, resolution) the continuing use of violence to settle conflictpsychologists need to explore better methods of conflict resolution at the macro level. What will be the psychological impact on the population, both local to the event and nationally, of a major terrorist event in the UK? The Psychology of Ideologyat this time of clash of civilisations. Economic behaviour (e.g. wealth and poverty, youth) How can psychology contribute to reducing the wealth gap between the rich and the poor? The rich nations are getting richer and the poor nations are getting poorer there prevails a culture of spend now, pay laterthere will therefore emerge an ever-increasing group of people for whom real poverty in later life is a reality. Environment (e.g. climate change, energy gap, global warming) How can psychology contribute to reversing global warming? What can psychology contribute to reducing the energy gap? The earth is squandering its natural resources. Pollution is increasing.

 Human responsibility for care of the environment. Religion (e.g. beliefs, conflict, fundamentalism) the growth of religious fundamentalism throughout the world and its implications for international relations. Differences in religious beliefs. This is the really BIG issue. There is no doubt that such differences are now and probably always have been the major cause of human misery around the world. religion and religious conflict do lie behind many of the worlds problems

Society
Identity (e.g. citizenship, gender, nationalism) It is likely that psychologists will have to face up to big shifts in the sense of self. Even the first name of our Society may require re-examination. the study of nationalism is generally hamstrung by a lack of attention to matters psychological. The continued reassessment of the role of men in our society given the changes achieved by women. As psychologists, we could contribute usefully to the current debates on what it means to be a citizen The tensions between individual and society, the problem of conformity

Family (e.g. children) Why is it difficult to bring up children in this society?Psychology could contribute to our understanding to achieving home/work balance for both genders, and its effects on good enough parenting for the next generation. Increased financial insecurity is meaning that children stay at home longer than previouslywhilst there is potentially a hope that the family unit would become stronger as a consequence, the more reasonable reality is that parents and their ageing children would become increasingly isolated in their shared home, and the pressures on all parties increase commensurately. The dissolution of family and community.

Employment (e.g. women at work)

 The problems of more women at work, and the subsequent impact of having a child and combining it successfully with work, are increasingly impacting on the structure of society. The psychological impact of the flexible labour market. It has long been accepted that unemployment is involved in the social causation of mental health problems. Antisocial behaviour (e.g. attitudes, youth) It is a big issue for society because it appears to be increasing and it is already so widespread. It is a big issue for the Society because it is essentially an attitudinal problem among perpetrators, producing attitudinal, emotional and behavioural problems among its victims. and on the continuum from respect, indifference, contempt, we observe young people showing contempt for any form of authorityand encouraged in this attitude by the media. Education (e.g. illiteracy) In many countries a high proportion of the population receives no education. Illiteracy is rife. Psychology needs to pull together what it knows about learning to learn and what it can offer on the subject of how people can be helped to develop mental capabilities that are equal to sustained, higher order lifelong learning. Crime (e.g. guns, rehabilitation) How effective are current methods of tackling crime? How can the massive increase in gun crime be reduced? there is the issue of how nations cope with those that break the lawputting criminals in prison is simply a way of ignoring them. Few people consider why people commit crimes and few are concerned about how to enable those who do to seek and find fulfilment in an alternative lifestyle.

Health
Drugs (e.g. abuse) There is an increasing usage of psychoactive drugs within contemporary society. Medicine can help manage psychological disorders and illnesses but is not well equipped to evaluate the total impact of drugs on the individual. Drug-taking and smokingboth are big issues for society because they present attitudinal, behavioural and educational problems.

Medical research (e.g. ethical issues) the effects of advances in medicine on concepts of (and reactions to) life and death. Euthanasia, prolonging life indefinitely, transplants, dying with dignity, the whole medical ethics issue.

Health promotion (e.g. changing behaviour, inequalities) The Society should and could be more actively involved in improving the health of the population through health behaviour change as a major opportunity for effective health promotion. How can our research into behaviour help the government to craft effective policy initiatives on promoting key health behaviours and reducing health inequalities?

Technology
Impact on daily lives The use of new technology on daily living internet and mobile phone technology. They affect not only sophisticated engineering projects but also the general public, not least young children. The effects of these technological interventions on interpersonal interaction the impact of spy cameras and the growth of reality TV and associated phenomena. How do people cope with the fact that they are being photographed wherever they travel?Psychologists can investigate these issues that affect and infringe on daily lives. Advances (e.g. nanotechnology, AI, robotics, communication) Nanotechnology, AI/robotics and biotechnologywhat has psychology to contribute to understanding and managing the human impact of the convergence of these technologies? Communications advances make the world an increasingly smaller place, and the availability of information is infiniteas individuals become more technologically isolated, the benefits of community become less and socialisation less relevant. Communication (e.g. youth) The effects of IT games on childrens play patterns and leisure activitieschildren now spend far less time than in the past socialising

 the effects of e-mail and the internet on communications. There is an explosion of communication from teenagers through the internet that was never possible for some people with introverted personalities when they had to rely on talking to peers at school. The press has made much of the concept of adults grooming teenagers in chat rooms. Can psychologists usefully contribute to the debate?

Ageing Population
Treatment by society social psychological processes underpinning behaviour towards old people, as well as the ageing process itself. Quality of Life (e.g. health, care, technology) the ever growing cost of care, and, for that matter, the growing lack of care. ways in which elderly people can be helped to stay in their own homes for years longerone obvious way is for the creation of a smart home in which many of the functions of the household can be controlled from a switch pad. Psychologists would be needed tomake the kit user friendly for old people. Medicine Assessing the impact of medicines and other therapies in disorders associated with age. Employment (e.g. retirement age) Political moves to extend working life to the age of 70.

Conclusion: Generally, the Fellows that responded to the request for big issues had many ideas about how psychology could impact on a huge range of subjects. The identification of these themes should enable the College of Fellows to recognise topics from which to generate research, debate and discussion throughout the BPS and beyond. It may also provide the opportunity for psychological theory relating to a wide range of current topics to feed into the public domain; as many of the issues highlighted are likely to not only be of interest to psychologists, but to every individual.

References: Smith, J.A., Jarman, M. & Osborn, M. (1999). Doing interpretative phenomenological analysis. In: M. Murray and K. Chamberlain (eds.) Qualitative Health Psychology: Theories and Methods. London: Sage (pp. 218 240).