Councils & Committees

Health Research Council

The purpose of the Health Research Council is to promote health psychology research, to contribute to the development of future health psychology investigators, and to ensure that Division 38 remains a recognized leader in health psychology research.

The primary way the council achieves this is by granting student research awards. Two types of awards are granted. One is the Student Research Award, which funds research for which a student is the principal investigator, usually dissertations. Each year we grant five Student Research Awards: two in general health psychology, one in pediatric psychology, and two in health disparities/ethnic minority health. The second type is a Student Travel Award. Student Travel Awards go to the three highest rated student submissions to the APA annual convention. Awards are announced publicly at the Division 38 business meeting at the APA annual convention.

More information about student research awards, including a listing of past recipients, can be found here.

The Health Research Council endeavors to encourage research to generate knowledge in health psychology. The Council also promotes high standards of ethical conduct in health psychology research. The Health Research Council encourages research by:

• Acquiring and publicizing relevant funding, ethics and knowledge transfer information for the discipline. Publicizing new or surging areas of research in health psychology. Note: Publicizing funding information and promising areas of research is generally done by arranging for the publication of announcements or articles in The Health Psychologist and on the Division 38 website. For example, see APA's latest database of measures - PsycTESTS.
• Provide strategic recommendations to the Division Executive regarding research directions. This may include recommending eminent researchers for expert panels when requested, serving as the source for review processes, or for input on research-related matters brought to the Division.
• Liaising with other APA and Division 38 committees as appropriate (e.g., convention program chair; including the Division journal, Health Psychology.

Members are invited to serve on the Council annually through a call for nominations. The call will be circulated through the Division listserv and through the Early Career Professionals group.

Chair:

Sherry L. Grace, PhD
York University and University Health Network
(416) 340-4800 ext. 6455
sgrace@yorku.ca

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