Awards & Recognitions

Each award or recognition committee is made up of approximately 5 to 7 members. Members are asked to serve a 3-year term, with some exceptions to ensure staggered terms. The chair of each committee is appointed year-by-year from among continuing committee members.

James S. Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award Committee

The APS James S. Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award for Transformative Scholarship honors APS Members for their lifetime of outstanding psychological research that advances understanding of historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups and/or understanding of the psychological and societal benefits of racial/ethnic diversity, equity, and inclusion. The type of scholarship honored by the award is broad in scope and research methodology, and encompasses research on historically disadvantaged racial/ethnic groups residing anywhere in the world. Recipients must be APS members, and their contributions may be in any field or area of psychological science. Nominations for the award are due in January, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.

William James Fellow Award Committee

The William James Fellow Award honors APS members for their lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology. Recipients must be APS members recognized internationally for their outstanding contributions to scientific psychology. Nominations for the award are due in January, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.

James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award Committee

The James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award recognizes APS members for their outstanding lifetime contributions to the area of applied psychological research. Recipients must be APS members whose research addresses a critical problem in society at large. Nominations for the award are due in January, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.

APS Mentor Award Committee

The APS Mentor Award recognizes those who have significantly fostered the careers of others, honoring APS members who masterfully help students and others find their own voice and discover their own research and career goals. Nominations for the award are due in January, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.

Janet Taylor Spence Award Committee

The APS Janet Taylor Spence Award was established to recognize transformative early career contributions to psychological science. Award winners should reflect the best of the many new and cutting-edge ideas coming out of our most creative and promising investigators who, together, embody the future of psychological science. Recipients of the Spence Award automatically receive APS Fellow status. Nominations for the award are due in October, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.

Fellows Committee

Fellow status is awarded to APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application. Fellow status is typically awarded for one’s scientific contributions, but may also be awarded for exceptional contributions to the field through the development of research opportunities and settings. Researchers who have an outstanding record of mentoring students from diverse backgrounds, working with research participants from diverse backgrounds, and making outstanding contributions to diversity and inclusion within the field of psychological science qualify for consideration.  Candidates will be considered after 10 years of postdoctoral contribution. Nominations for the award are due in October, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.

Rising Stars Committee

The Rising Star designation recognizes outstanding psychological scientists in the earliest stages of their post-PhD research career whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions. Nominations for the award are due in October, and the committee’s work generally takes place over the following four months.

Annual Convention Program Committee

The APS Convention Program Committee comprises approximately 10 members representing major fields of study within psychological science. Members are asked to serve a 3-year term, with some exceptions to ensure staggered terms. The chair is appointed year-by-year from among continuing committee members. The Program Committee develops the scientific program of the APS Annual Convention. The committee invites presentations from leading researchers and academics and accepts submissions for consideration for inclusion in the program. Proposals are submitted and reviewed through an online Call for Submissions. Committee membership is balanced among various areas of research. This is a year-round committee, with work for the following year’s convention usually beginning each May at the convention itself.

Election Committee

APS elections are held in the first part of each year for a president elect and two member-at-large seats. The Election Committee assembles slates that are balanced among various areas of research and interest within psychological science and strives to ensure that the pool of candidates represents diversity along multiple dimensions. The bulk of the committee’s work takes place from January to April each year.

Finance Committee

The Finance Committee consists of the APS President, President-Elect, Immediate Past-President, and Treasurer, who serves as chair.  The duties of the Committee include reviewing the proposed annual budget and financial reports prepared by the Treasurer and advising the Board of Directors on the management of the association’s assets.

Membership Committee

The Membership Committee advises the APS board and staff on topics including APS’s suite of member benefits, member onboarding and engagement initiatives, categories of membership, dues pricing, and tactics for ensuring that APS membership represents the breadth of the science, including across various geographies and fields of research, as well as across various sizes of institutions and underrepresented groups. Committee members also work to help recruit new members and engage existing members in APS’s work. The committee meets quarterly and is in touch as needed throughout the year.

Publications Committee

APS publishes seven journals: Psychological Science, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Clinical Psychological Science, Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, and Advances in Psychological Science Open. 

The Publications Committee performs such activities as assigned by the APS Board of Directors, ranging from overseeing searches for journal editors to evaluating proposals for new journals to making recommendations on future directions in the area of publications. The chair is the first point of escalation for questions of publication ethics and policy that rise above routine issues handled by the journal editors. 

Ad-Hoc Committees

The following committees support various programs and initiatives. Terms are generally 3 years, with some exceptions to stagger rotations. Chairs are typically invited year-by-year from among continuing members.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

The Association for Psychological Science is committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in all areas of our leadership, membership, activities, staff, and field. Including members of underrepresented groups in meaningful ways is a vital part of this commitment. As the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee pursues short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals to promote diversity and inclusion in all areas of APS, it identifies strategies to achieve those goals and explores how APS can contribute to increasing diversity of the field more broadly.

Committee on Global Engagement

The APS Ad-Hoc Committee on Global Engagement is charged with engaging individuals from across the APS membership in discussions that contribute to the acquisition of data and insights that inform APS efforts to cultivate and catalyze a global scientific community dedicated to fostering the development and furtherance of psychological science around the world. This Committee is responsible for planning the inaugural APS Global Psychological Science Summit by organizing sessions, inviting speakers, and reviewing submissions. 

Teaching Fund Committee

The APS Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science was established in 2004 with an endowment from The David and Carol Myers Foundation. Under the auspices of the APS Board of Directors, the Teaching Fund Committee plans and implements initiatives to enhance the teaching of psychological science. The Teaching Fund Small Grant Program provides seed support for projects aimed at strengthening the teaching enterprise in psychological science in the United States and abroad. The Translating Research to Improve the Teaching of Psychological Science Program provides grants to support the development of evidence-demonstrated interventions that apply well-established principles to improve the teaching of psychological science. Also supported by the fund is the annual APS-David Myers Lecture on the Science and Craft of Teaching Psychological Science, delivered at the APS Convention, as well as APS activities, such as internships, related to the public understanding of psychological science. Applications for the Teaching Fund Small Grant Program are reviewed by the committee in March-April and October-November each year.

William K. and Katherine W. Estes Fund Committee

The William K. & Katherine W. Estes Fund was established to extend the legacy of one of the most influential psychological scientists of the past century, William K. Estes. Jointly overseen by APS and the Psychonomic Society, the Estes Fund supports a variety of activities aimed at strengthening methodology in mathematical, quantitative, and experimental psychology and related areas. Most notably, the Fund awards grants to support workshops and summer schools that train psychological scientists in mathematical and computational modeling methods. Initial proposals are reviewed by the committee in September and October, and full proposals are generally reviewed in December and January.