President's Message
President's Message
It is with great pleasure that I am greeting you as President of the Division of Health Psychology (2006-2010). We had an outstanding scientific program at the most recent International Congress of Applied Psychology in Athens. This is due mainly to the efforts of many dedicated members of Division 8. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who worked so diligently to make our scientific program outstanding and I want to congratulate all of the members of the Division who participated in the Congress. The Health Psychology program was rich and diverse and Athens presented us with a most lovely and inspiring venue. In addition, our Division hosted a lively Social Hour in Athens where over 125 congress delegates attended. A special thanks goes to our Greek hosts whose efforts on behalf of the Congress made this event something to remember for a long time. The Division's goals for the future include: (1) increasing the Division's visibility within IAAP and at the meetings of IAAP, (2) increasing the world-wide representation of the Division's membership, especially under-represented regions, (3) increasing communication and collaboration among members and (4) increasing our visibility in the Journal of the International Association of Applied Psychology, Applied Psychology: An International Review.
Every four years, a new executive is elected to the Division. Thanks are due to the wonderful work and dedication of our previous executive including Ralf Schwarzer, Stevan Hobfoll and Aleksandra Luszczynska. We are most grateful to them for their work on behalf of Division 8. Today, I am very pleased to welcome the members of the new executive of Division 8 -- President Elect, Aleksandra Luszczynska, Secretary, Urte Scholz and Past President, Ralf Schwarzer. I look forward to working closely with you over the next four years to continue to build a stronger, more vibrant, and more visible Division 8. Given the importance of health issues, health promotion, and the fact that health concerns are ubiquitous in our society and our discipline, we have our work cut out for us. I would like to express our gratitude to Jochen Ziegelmann whose expertise and dedication have made the Division 8 Website very special, up to date and attractive. We are very fortunate to have him with us. I look forward to working with him over the next four years.
Please feel free to communicate with me whenever you have input for the Division. I encourage you also to sponsor symposia at various conferences calling on members of the Division throughout the world. We have a strong membership and they provide a rich reservoir of talent that can be called upon. We will continue to provide input to conferences, co-sponsor invited symposia when possible, and promote special journal issues on issues in health psychology.
I look forward to working with you over the next four years of my presidency, to activities during that time, and to seeing all of you in 2010 in Melbourne for the next Congress of the International Association of Applied Psychology.
September 30, 2006 - Toronto, Canada
Prof. Esther Greenglass
President, Division of Health Psychology