Convergence: Connecting Levels of Analysis in Psychological Science In the past, our field harbored distinct, and often competing, schools of thought that tackled different problems and produced findings that often appeared to diverge. Today, investigators attack shared problems at complementary levels of analysis and produce results that converge. Studies of people in a social world; mental systems of cognition and emotion; and biological mechanisms of the genome and the nervous system interconnect and yield an integrated psychological science. The APS 23rd Annual Convention displays, and celebrates, these advances in our field.

Keynote Address/Opening Ceremony

The Masquerade of Racial Group Differences in Psychological Sciences

Thursday, May 24, 2012, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Chicago Ballroom VI & VII

James S. Jackson

James S. Jackson
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Racial group disparities are common and widely accepted in many areas of psychological and biological sciences. Rarely is the basic underlying nature of these differences questioned. The growing emphasis in the social and behavioral sciences on biological and neurological processes creates a need to examine the “easy” assumptions of racial group differences. The Environmental Affordances Framework of Health Disparities is used to illustrate the intersection of the environment, stress, and self-regulatory behaviors, which may account for observed racial group disparities in physical and mental health statuses that, in the final analysis, are fundamentally only a masquerade.

Jackson’s research focuses on how culture influences our health during our lives, attitude changes, and social support. He has contributed enormously to our understanding of such diverse perspectives as race relations and racism around the world. For example, his research has highlighted how racial discrimination can affect physical and mental health and treatment. Jackson is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academies, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a founding member of the Aging Society Research Network of the MacArthur Foundation. He is a recipient of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award for his lifetime of significant intellectual achievements in applied psychological research.

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