Below are brief introductions to current projects within PsySR’s Program on Social Health, Justice, and Well-Being, along with links for those interested in more information about how to get involved.
In some cases, participation in projects is limited to PsySR members only; in other instances, PsySR works with outside organizations to pursue projects of mutual concern. If you have an idea for a new PsySR project, you can learn more about how to submit a member-initiated project proposal HERE.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Social Health in a Global Community
Today we are facing a crisis that requires a fundamental re-thinking of the moral and environmental foundations of our societies. This need is evident in a rapid rise in mental dysfunction and suicide among increasingly younger populations; the disintegration of family and other social institutions; a pervasive loss of confidence in society; overwhelming evidence of our environmental unsustainability; and the current collapse of financial institutions; and the overall instability of a tensions-fraught globalizing world. To help address these issues, PsySR is developing a project that will examine the nature and dynamics of social health in a global community.Learn More »
Poverty and Inequality
Poverty is the single greatest threat to individual human development and it simultaneously creates profound social disruption in the United States and around the world. Unless institutions and citizens take steps now to reduce and prevent poverty--and the growing inequality that deepens and widens its damaging repercussions--we will face a nightmarish future that can be measured in untold numbers of destroyed lives, communities, and institutions. PsySR's Poverty and Inequality Project aims to contribute to these tackling challenges.Learn More »
Coalition for Constructive and Sustainable National Dialogue on Health-Care Reform
The current public debate on health-care reform has disintegrated in recent months into growing polarization, hate speech, and a general closing of minds to the possibility of constructive shared solutions. This critical national situation, fed by self-serving and inflammatory statements by people in positions of power – political, corporate, and religious - and largely uncontested by the mainstream media, has escalated into intensifying violent threats. This PsySR project aims to make a key positive contribution at this challenging time. Learn More »
Status of Women
The psychological repercussions of women's continuing struggle for justice affect everyone profoundly. From isolated homes to the halls of international policy forums, women and men from many circumstances have made notable progress in recent years in achieving greater gender equity and civil rights. When women’s status improves, the well-being of their families and societies also improves; a mother's education level is the best predictor of her children's achievement. But the struggle for social equity, economic justice, and respect for half of humanity continues worldwide. Toward these ends, PsySR is developing a range of public education and advocacy efforts that apply psychology to transform the lives of women and girls.Learn More »
Trauma, Recovery, and Resilience
Human beings are remarkably resilient in the face of adversity. Yet human actions are often the cause of many of the most common and most severe traumatic reactions, as seen in child abuse, gender-based violence, torture, slavery, forced displacement, and war. All take a profound toll on psychological well-being, ranging from individual reactions--including depression, acute stress reactions, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other anxiety disorders—to the disruption of crucial support networks within communities. PsySR is working to develop effective ways that as an organization we can help meet the urgent and growing needs in this area.Learn More »
Return to PsySR's Program on Social Health, Justice, and Well-Being.