Professor Dominic Abrams elected President of SPSSI

Professor Dominic Abrams from the School of Psychology has been elected President of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) for 2013-14.

He will be the first president in SPSSI's 76 year history to be based outside North America. Professor Abrams will serve as President-Elect from September 2012.

Founded in 1936 and based in Washington DC, the SPSSI is an association of over 3000 scientists from psychology, its related fields and others who share a common interest in research on the psychological aspects of important social and policy issues. In various ways, SPSSI seeks to bring theory and practice into focus on human problems of the group, the community and nations, as well as the increasingly important problems that have no national boundaries. SPSSI affords social and behavioural scientists opportunities to apply their knowledge and insights to the critical problems of today's world.

The Society influences public policy through its publications and the advocacy efforts of its members, fellows, and staff. It also encourages public education and social activism on social issues and facilitates information exchange through its newsletter and electronic discussion groups. The Society's mission is extended to the global arena by a team of representatives who cover developments at UN headquarters in New York and Geneva. SPSSI has been represented at the United Nations as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) since 1987. SPSSI serves as consultant to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

An independent society, SPSSI is also Division 9 of the American Psychological Association (APA) and an organisational affiliate of the American Psychological Society (APS).

Professor Abrams is Director of the Centre for the Study of Group Processes at the University. He is also Co-Director of the European Research on Attitudes to Ageing (EURAGE) research group, which designed the 2008 European Social Survey module on attitudes to age, and reports regularly for the government, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Age UK, the UK's largest charity for older people. He currently serves on the Council of the Academy of Social Sciences and is Co-Editor of the journal Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.

He joined the University of Kent in 1989 and was Head of Psychology between 1993 and 1996.

Contact: pressoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 1:11pm 11 July 2012