Psychology in the real world

The role of the psychologist in the arena of public policy is increasing in scope and influence. Once perceived as guesswork about human behavior, psychologists' work and wisdom now affect everything from interior design to legal decision-making.

A new speakers' series at the College reflects these developments. The Department of Psychology and the Rockefeller Center are jointly sponsoring a year-long colloquium titled "The Impact of Psychology on Public Policy Decisions." The series is bringing eight distinguished psychologists to campus to give talks on their research and its impact on policy-making.

The first two speakers appeared during the fall. Robyn Dawes, who chairs the University of Oregon's psychology department, spoke on the "motives and mechanisms for achieving contributions to the public good." Craig Ramey, a member of the University of North Carolina's psychology department, spoke about his experiments with preschool enrichment programs and their effect on academic performance.

The most recent speaker in the series, appearing on January 17, was Reid Hastie, currently a psychologist with Northwestern University. Hastie has worn many hats during his career as a psychologist, but he focused his discussion on his work as a research scientist for his presentation titled "Inside the Jury."

Professor Hastie discussed his extensive research work on jury deliberation processes. The question behind his work was whether jury decision-rules affect the decision process. A decisionrule determines whether a jury must have a simple majority or a unanimous vote to reach a verdict. To investigate the question, he set up mock jury trials in which he and his staff selected a "jury" from a real pool of jurors in Boston, had them view a reenactment of a past murder trial, then sent them away to come back with a verdict. He found that jury decision-rules do not affect the final verdict reached but do have a negative effect on the amount of communication between jurors, on their satisfaction with the process, and on the thoroughness of deliberations.

Though this was an experiment, Hastie and other experts felt the study was "very realistic." In spite of the fact that they were part of an experiment holding no real-world consequences, jurors spent as much as five days reaching a decision, their behavior was comparable to that within a real trial, and they testified that it was very realistic.

The study's realism served as a point of departure for Hastie's discussion of the policy implications of psychological research. Though many disagree, Hastie feels that the realism his work incorporates allows him to generalize his results to real-world situations.

The speakers' series will continue into the spring with talks scheduled on the worth of personnel tests, stressors in our environment, nuclear risk-perception, effects of custody arrangements, and how the system deals with "troubled children." Professor George Wolford, who is coordinating the series with the assistance of Professor Rogers Elliot, said they are investigating the possibility of compiling the material from the series in a textbook for use in introductory psychology courses at the College.