Date: May 15, 1998
Contact: Doug Fizel
Public Affairs Office
(202) 336-5706
[email protected]
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION'S (APA) 106TH ANNUAL
CONVENTION TO BE HELD IN SAN FRANCISCO AUGUST 14-18
Prevention to be Major Theme
WASHINGTON - Psychology's movement away from an exclusive
focus on assessing and repairing illness and toward an emphasis on
prevention will be an overarching theme of the 106th Annual
Convention of the American Psychological Association. More than
1,100 symposia, paper sessions and poster sessions will be devoted
to a wide range of psychological issues from evolutionary
perspectives on friendship, kinship and mateship to
computer-assisted psychotherapy to how the media cover infidelity
to the relationship between the weather and the incidence of
property crimes.
APA President Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D., has chosen
Prevention: Promoting Strength, Resilience and Health in Young
People as the major theme for the meeting and will speak about his
vision of psychology in the 21st century - a retooled social and
behavioral science which studies the positive aspects of life, such
as work, love and play, and how to build strength and character in
people. Best-selling author (Emotional Intelligence) and
psychologist Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., will be the keynote speaker.
Sessions will address such issues as the origins of creativity,
what psychology can contribute to the nurturing of highly talented
children and family-, school- and community-based prevention
programs for young people.
Other notable speakers will include psychologist Mary Pipher,
Ph.D., author of Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent
Girls, Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, Ph.D.,
author/psychologist Jonathan Kellerman, Ph.D., novelist Faye
Kellerman and writer-director Michael Crichton, M.D., who will be
speaking on "Therapeutic Success and its Problems."
Immediately preceding the APA Annual Convention, the APA will
be hosting the 24th International Congress of Applied Psychology at
the San Francisco Hilton Hotel and Towers, August 9-14. The
international meeting will feature presentations at over 500
sessions on a wide array of topics with presenters from all over
the world. As with the APA Convention, media registration for the
international meeting is free. However, unlike the APA Convention,
there will not be media facilities or staff for the international
meeting. For registration materials and other information about
the international meeting, contact the APA Public Affairs Office at
(202) 336-5700 or [email protected].
Logistics
The press facilities for the convention will be in the
Seacliff Room of The Palace Hotel. The press room will open for
early on-site media registration on Thursday, August 13 from noon
to 4:00 PM and during each day of the convention from 8:30 AM to
6:00 PM (except Tuesday, August 18, when it will close at noon).
Convention papers will be available as will be working space,
telephones, fax machines, phone lines for data transmission and APA
staff resources. The press area will also be the site of any news
briefings held during the convention.
The deadline for requesting housing at the special convention
rates is June 23, 1998. Media representatives should contact the
APA Public Affairs Office ([email protected]/202-336-5700) for
registration and housing forms and/or to be placed on a list to
receive the convention program and other convention-related
materials.
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington,
DC, is the largest scientific professional organization
representing psychology in the United States and is the world's
largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes
more than 155,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants
and students. Through its divisions in 50 subfields of psychology
and affiliations with 58 state, territorial and Canadian provincial
associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a
profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.
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