The Ivory Towers of Academia

1
The Ivory Towers of Academia

• A personal view as the founder of Pitts
• Office of Child Development

2
Academia vs. Community

• Research
• Emphasizes Basic
• Educational
• Discipline Based
• Communication
• Scientific Community
• Careers
• Narrow course

• Research
• Need for Applied
• Education
• Interdisciplinary
• Communication
• Public Legislatures
• Careers
• ?

3
Basic vs. Applied Research

• Academicians cherish their freedom to explore
  their disciplines independent of public pressure
• Too oftenAmerican Scholars still hold fast to
  the hermeneutics of exile, using their
  specialized knowledge to dwell in a distant time
  or an esoteric disciplinary space, returning
  periodically like Rip Van Winkle from his
  inaccessible mountain to tell the forgetful
  villagers what life was like in the distant
  pastWe scholars rightly cherish our independence
  of mind an our originality of perspective, but we
  need to balance the hermeneutics of exile with a
  more creative hermeneutics of community
  Damrosch, 1995
• 
  

4
Basic vs. Applied Research

• We often restrict our inquiries to existing
  scientific debates often ignoring societal issues
• Important applied issues often have get very
  little attention

5
Basic vs. Applied Research What people want to
know about?

• Issues covered in my applied issues course
• Prenatal issues and policy
• Controversies of child birth
• Early intervention programs
• Effective education and policy
• The politics of child programs
• Youth gangs and violence
• Effective Parenting

6
Basic vs. Applied Research Methods

• We restrict our methods and approaches to
  existing procedures
• the practioner of a mature science from the
  beginnings of his doctoral research continues to
  work in regions for which the paradigms derived
  from his education and from the research of his
  contemporaries seem adequate. He tries, that is,
  to elucidate topological details on a map whose
  outlines are available in advance
• Kuhn, 1976

7
Community Based Research

• Tensions between community and researchers
• Lack of value of research
• Who controls what
• What will I get for it?
• Scientific Method the Gold Standard
• Control vs. ecological validity
• Control Groups
• Quantitative vs. qualitative methods

8
Community Based Research

• Program Evaluations
• Report cards or tools?
• What are the goals?
• Who pays and who plays?
• Summative vs. formative evaluation

9
Applied Research

• Does it have an impact?
• Research vs. Politics and People

10
Academia vs. Community

• Research
• Emphasizes Basic
• Educational
• Discipline Based

• Research
• Need for Applied
• Education
• Interdisciplinary

11
Interdisciplinary Education

• Someone once claimed the only thing connecting
  classes in many schools is the plumbing Klein,
  1990
• Its claimed Developmental Psychologist can
  recognize 2 out of 3 children unknown source

12
Interdisciplinary Education

• Pitts training grants in child abuse and child
  welfare psychology, law, medicine, social work,
  child care, education nursing
• Institutional Barriers
• University structures
• University finances
• Degree requirements

13
Interdisciplinary Education

• Professional biases
• Research beliefs
• Communication Problems
• Professional identification
• Journals, conferences, etc
• Licensing Requirements

14
Academia vs. Community

• Research
• Emphasizes Basic
• Educational
• Discipline Based
• Communication
• Scientific Community

• Research
• Need for Applied
• Education
• Interdisciplinary
• Communication
• Public Legislatures

15
Communicating to Public

• A cartoon in the New Yorker two dowdy scientists
  musing over their apparently lackluster careers
  with the self-consoling caption
• One thing to say about us Meyer, we never
  stooped to popularizing science
• Stevenson, 1977

16
Communicating

• We tend to avoid communicating with public and
  may even be warned against it
• What is the alternative who represents
  Psychology?

17
Communicating

• Must speak in sound bites (you will be cut)
• Personality and looks count
• Just give conclusions
• Main effects vs. interactions
• Dont want to hear hesitancy

18
Academia vs. Community

• Research
• Emphasizes Basic
• Educational
• Discipline Based
• Communication
• Scientific Community
• Careers
• Narrow course

• Research
• Need for Applied
• Education
• Interdisciplinary
• Communication
• Public Legislatures
• Careers
• ?