You've heard of SciComm. What about PsychComm?
You've heard of SciComm. What about PsychComm?
Can communicating about psychology solve the ongoing mental health crisis?
Here in Oklahoma, we have a new mental health hotline. If one dials 988, they can be connected to a mental health specialist that can help you get the resources you need to deal with the stressors in your life, whatever they may be. The emphasis on mental health is much needed after three years of a pandemic. I (Sheeva) just wrote about tackling burnout as a science communicator last month.
There are billboards all over the city and radio ads informing Oklahomans about this new service. It’s refreshing to finally see my state prioritizing mental health and talking about it so publicly. The United States is in the midst of a mental health crisis. It’s sad to see that young people are at the forefront of this crisis, though they are not the only ones. Experts now recommend regular anxiety screenings for everyone. In the politics world, Senator John Fetterman recently went public about his clinical depression.
As a neuroscientist, the extent to which we do not, as a society, talk about mental health exhausts me. To me, everything revolves around the brain, which means we should do everything we can to keep our brains and minds as healthy as possible. What’s more, our mental health is a huge part of our physical, emotional, and social health, and I feel like I often end up explaining this to people. Make sure to get enough sleep, I have told countless people in my life, because you’ll be able to think and live better. The link between the brain, sleep, and mood is very complex in some ways — in terms of neurochemistry and brain circuits, for instance (all the subjects that I loooove to think about as a neuroscientist!) — but the idea that if one sleeps more, their mood is much improved is not complex at all.
It got me thinking: Are we failing to talk about mental health because we don’t know how to communicate about it?
In this issue of the Fancy Comma newsletter, Kelly Tabbutt talks about the meaning and value of public psychology communication, or PsychComm. Read on to learn more about PsychComm and how to use it effectively!
Psychology in Everyday Life
Psychology explains attitudes, qualities, and behaviors; why people procrastinate, why people have insomnia, why people have biases, why people fear clowns. It helps us understand ourselves and others. The more publicly accessible and comprehensible psychological sciences and practices become, the more the public will take advantage of services and follow professional advice.
Psychology in Popular Culture
Unfortunately, psychology is too often represented as an obscure, even pretentious field involving jargon that is literally “Greek,” strange methods, and over-intellectualized theories revolving around early childhood. Nonetheless, psychology has become a household topic, with terms like “psychosomatic,” “gaslighting,” and “neurotic” becoming common catchphrases.
Further, while there are useful depictions of psychology in popular culture, many representations have led to misconceptions, bias, and discrimination against those with mental illnesses. While stigma associated with mental illness and seeking psychiatric counseling has decreased over time, it has not disappeared. This decreasing stigma and the proliferation of virtual therapy options have helped more people benefit from psychology and related mental health disciplines.
What is Public Psychology Communication, or PsychComm?
SciComm is the field of science research and writing whose goal is to bring scientific knowledge to the broad public; a form of communication to break down complex science. Thanks to SciComm, anyone can understand scientific research and discoveries regardless of their level of scientific understanding. Keys to this are practices like avoiding jargon, breaking down complex processes, and restating results as digestible take-home points.
We can think of PsychComm, more commonly talked about as “public psychology communication,” as an analog to, and perhaps a subset or combinations of SciComm and social science communication, or SocSciComm. PsychComm breaks down psychological research, methods, and results so that everyone — including those who don’t know much about psychological methods, theories, or facts — can understand it and apply it accurately and meaningfully.
Why Do We Need PsychComm?
There are three reasons why PsychComm should be commonplace in everyone’s life: it helps us understand our own and others’ behaviors, traits, and attitudes, it helps us understand how psychology is used to influence us, and it helps psychiatric professionals communicate important information to the public effectively. Let’s discuss each of these reasons in more detail.
1. PsychComm to Help Us Understand Ourselves and Others
As mentioned, popular representations of psychology often promote misunderstanding, distrust, and dismissal of psychological theories and research, leading to bias and fear about mental illness. PsychComm can correct misled or false impressions. Further, PsychComm can help people accurately apply psychology to everyday life and understand the nature and extent of mental illness in society.
Psychology is directly valuable as a tool to help us understand our behaviors and work toward healthier, more balanced lifestyles. Further, perceptions of mental illness and questions of mental state in criminal cases are a serious social issue. An accurate understanding of psychology helps us understand and destigmatize mental illnesses and treatment, and helps us understand the relationship between mental illness and crime (for example, studies indicate violence is rare among people suffering from serious mental illness).
2. PsychComm to Understand How Psychology is Used to Influence Us
Marketing strategies are largely reliant on psychology. Successful marketers understand the basic psychology of consumption. They understand that emotions drive consumer choices and that people tend to be impulsive. Marketing professionals use their knowledge about consumer psychology to stir emotional or instinctive responses (like happiness, self-consciousness, hunger, fear, or desire) that will drive consumers to their products.
PsychComm is the ideal resource to help the broad public understand the ways that our behaviors are influenced by messaging that targets and conjures emotional and instinctive, unconscious, responses. This awareness and understanding can help us make more conscious and informed decisions.
3. PsychComm to Help Psychiatric Professions Reach the Public
The value of PsychComm for psychiatric professionals is two-fold: it helps them reach — and help — more people. PsychComm can also help more people appreciate the value of mental health care.
Increased Access
The value of PsychComm per helping more people is dual. First, focusing on making psychological practices and research broadly available and approachable means more people have access. Second, psychiatric professionals employing the skills required for public psychology communication (PsychComm) in counseling would translate to a more accessible and humanistic experience for those seeking help.
Decreased Stigma
The value of PsychComm for the mental health profession cannot be understated. Making the theories, methods, conclusions, services, and advice of mental health professionals available and comprehensible increases its legitimacy and respect among the public. The more legitimacy and respect individuals have for the mental health profession, the less stigmatized mental health care will become and the more likely they are to employ the services and advice of mental health care providers.
PsychComm Resources – for PsychCommers
There are several resources for those who are currently involved in, and those who want to get involved in, public psychology communication. Here are a few resources for successful PsychComm to get you started:
Association for Psychological Science “Communicating Psychological Science with the Public: Interview Series” – a panel of mental health professionals discuss the value and methods for effective PsychComm.
American Psychological Association special issue “Public psychology: Cultivating socially engaged science for the 21st century” in the journal American Psychologist – explains the challenges and value of PsychComm and provides basic standards to practice.
American Psychological Association “Psych Learning Curve” site – provides learning resources for PsychComm including readings and activities to improve communication skills.
Conclusion
Public psychology communication, or PsychComm, provides a bridge between the mental health profession and the public. This bridge is the gateway to public appreciation and accurate application of psychological principles and advice. PsychComm is one of the most important tools for public well-being. The more available and approachable mental health information and services become, and the less they will stigmatize mental health challenges and the more they will use mental health resources.
Thanks, Kelly!
What we’ve been reading and writing:
We’ve been blogging about improving policymaking using SciComm and 10 different forms of SciComm.
Biomedical PhD student Chandler McElrath, known as @gproteincoupledresearcher on Instagram, blogged about why she started a SciComm instagram for the Fancy Comma blog (you, too, can pitch us!).
If you’re a freelancer and you’re not subscribed to the Winning Solo newsletter, you’re missing out. I loved this post about a conversation with the worst freelancer he’s ever known.
Here are some tried-and-true communication lessons for freelancers from BlackFreelance. Follow BlackFreelance on Twitter for insights into toxic work culture, work/life balance, and more that somehow never get talked about — I always learn a lot reading their tweets!
Sheeva was a featured contributor on SAiTV, the YouTube channel for the Stem Advocacy Institute or SAi. Check out her interviews below about ChatGPT and finding funding for your SciComm ventures!
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