a) Regional congresses in the
1990s
During the 1990s
a new series of Regional Congresses of Psychology was launched after an
agreement between the International Union of Psychological Science and the
IAAP. Local organizers obtained funding and support from both organizations to
assist them in the start-up phase. In the American continent the Interamerican
Psychological Society has over many decades organized the earliest regional
congress. During the 1980s this was an autonomous initiative. In 1995 the IAAP
and the IUPsyS decided to organize the first regional congress in that region;
this took place in Mexico in 1997 just three weeks after the end of the
Interamerican Congress of Psychology held in Rio de Janeiro. This initiative
generated some trouble, political tension and misunderstanding among
organizations and leaders that lasted for 1-3 years. It was agreed by officers
of both associations in a joint meeting held in Caracas in 1999 that they would
avoid organizing parallel and competing conferences in the region. It means no
follow-up of this series of congresses in such a region.
In Europe, in
1989, under the initiative and leadership of Peter Drenth (and the Netherlands
Psychological Society), the 1st European Congress of Psychology was held in
Amsterdam. The 2nd ECP was held in Budapest in 1991. The European Federation of
Professional Psychologists Associations (EFPPA) chaired by its President Ype
Poortinga, decided to arrange these congresses under its auspices.
Both Pieter
Drenth and Ype Poortinga are members of our EC. Six European Congresses of
Psychology have been organized during the 1990s, since 1995 co-sponsored by the
IAAP and the IUPsyS; the most recent congress was held in Rome July 1999 and
the next will take place in London in 2001. Turkey is a member of the EFPPA and
after some discussions held this fall 1999 by EC members as well as officers from
both organizations, Charles Spielberger (as president of the IAAP) and Tuomo
Tikannen (as President of EFPPA) also agreed to avoid parallel and competing
conferences in the region.
The first Asia
Pacific Regional Conference of Psychology was held in Guangzhou, China, in
1995. This congress, co-sponsored by the IUPsyS and the IAAP has had no
follow-up or lasting impact. The first Regional Congress of Psychology in
Africa was held in Durban, South Africa last summer. This congress,
co-sponsored by the IUPsyS and the IAAP, was in fact a national rather than a
regional congress because of the very low attendance of participants from
nearby countries and the region. Africa is the only continent where there is
still no strong regional association of psychologists regularly organizing a
regional conference. In Asia there is a strong regional association of social
psychologists which maintains regional meetings every two years, 2001 in
Melbourne.
b) Divisional congresses in the
1990s
During the 1980s
and 1990s the series of European Congresses of Work and Organizational
Psychology were launched, among others, by leading figures of the IAAP,
officers and EC members, as well as Division 1 leaders and members. The IAAP
launched the European Journal of Work and Organzational Psychology (Charles de
Wolff was the founder director, 1991) and the European Association of Work and
Organizational Psychology (EAWOP, 1995).
The Division of
Traffic and Transportation Psychology has organized at least one International
Congress in 1995 and another is scheduled for this year 2000 in Berne. The
Division of Economic Psychology organizes every two years an International
congress with the International Association of Researchers in Economic
Psychology. In 1999 they organized both a congress and a summer school in
Italy.
The IAAP has
strong and weak divisions. It may possibly be more appropriate that the IAAP
starts to consider becoming more involved during the first decade of the
twenty-first century in promoting and sponsoring divisional congresses,
conventions, and summer schools.
That is, every
two years somehow subsidizing and sponsoring the organization of an activity
backed by a weak division to increase the visibility of such a field of
expertise in a region or in the international arena. It has an actual
advantage: the IAAP division already exists to back the initiative before and
after the specific event which was sponsored takes place. It means that it may
have continuity. Divisional congresses may take place in a region as a satellite
activity or coinciding with a regional congress enhancing the visibility of the
specialty and the division in such a region.
This might be a
good example: in the year 2001 there is a congress in Australia sponsored by
the Asian Society of Social Psychology. The IAAP (and the IUPsyS) could
co-sponsor this activity, which is actually backed by a real and solid regional
association and it will thus have continuity.
c) Regional training
conferences
Susan Pick,
current president of the Interamerican Psychological Society and President of
the Regional Congress held in Mexico in 1997 has suggested the idea of regional
training conferences. This is a summary of her main comments
An analysis of
the responses to an evaluation of the congress shows that this interest is
derived from
* its truly
international representation (people from over 60 countries attended the
regional congress held in Mexico) rather than a mainly local one (which tends
to happen with regional congresses),
* its emphasis
on training in obtaining specific skills (over 70 skill building workshops were
provided by specialists who did not charge),
* extensive
subsidies (in terms both of inexpensive and free accommodation and reduced
fees),
* the fact that
several organizations sponsored it (IAAP; IUPSyS, SIP and IACCP),
* the truly
applied nature of the work presented and
* the quality of
the presentations (not only the curricula of the presenters).
These responses
point to:
* the importance
of combining the efforts of several organizations to provide the best possible
service to the individuals and groups that we as associations represent and
therefore have the obligation to serve,
* the importance
of strengthening international participation as well as local psychology and
* the importance
of providing specific skills to participants and high quality presentations.
How can we as
international and as regional organizations provide that support? First and
foremost is the principle that as many colleagues as possible should have
access to these meetings. This implies that there has to be special attention
for psychologists in the neediest countries who face the greatest difficulties.
We can follow in the steps of IAAP by assigning a certain percentage of our
budgets to the support colleagues in the developing world. We can also be
central in the dissemination of information about the event, providing ideas
regarding individuals that can provide high quality skills training workshops
without charging, assuring the quality and relevance of the presentations, and
last but not least assuring that our different organizations really work
together.
d) Criteria for further
regional congresses in Psychology
Michael Frese,
President elect of the IAAP, has suggested the following criteria for a
regional congress:
(i)
it
must be in an area which is not yet well developed from a scientific psychology
point of view
(ii)
it
must be in a country which is easy to reach from other "developing"
countries or countries in which psychology does not have a strong position
(iii)
it
must be a congress that is cheap to go to (both in terms of reaching the
country and in terms of the fees for the congress and the expenses for hotels,
etc.)
(iv)
A
regional congress should and does not imply that there will be follow-up
congresses. As a matter of fact, I am perfectly happy with having regional
congresses that have no follow-ups but that are important events for the
graduate students and the scientists who attend.
(v)
For
any congress we should work together with the relevant national and
international associations. However, we should not allow our decisions to be
completely run by the decisions of these associations. In our case, this means
that we should accommodate potential problems of overlap with regional
associations but we should not give regional associations a veto power. IAAP is
and should be a bit more independent because of our individual membership than
other organizations that have to be much more diplomatic vis-a-vis membership
organizations
(vi)
We
should involve EC members to the largest possible extent. This does not mean
that we should not involve people we know and whose quality we know. In any
case, we should not think of Regional Congresses just as an extension of our
association, but should think of our organization to provide a SERVICE to the
region.
(vii)
Obviously,
the regional congress should be regional, that is it should go beyond any one
country.
(viii)
It
should be organized as a minimalistic congress, that is outside hotels
(preferably in a university) so to make attendance really inexpensive and it
should provide a heavy reduction for (graduate) students to attract them.
(ix)
The
program of a regional congress should not be the same as the one for a
"normal" regular congress. We should give the regional congresses a
stronger educational function. This implies for example, that invited speakers
give much more of an overview of their area than just presenting their specific
research activity.
Thus, a regional
congress would be differentiated from a typical other congress also in terms of
content.
The floor is
open for discussion in the association and we would welcome your feedback and
comments.