Center for Applied Psychology Research Now in 25th Year

In 1984 the State awarded $600,000 to the Psychology Department to establish the Center for Applied Psychological Research (CAPR). The grant gave the department the boost it needed to help it become one of the strongest psychology departments in the nation.

Right away CAPR funds were used to add three high profile researchers to the faculty. Two junior faculty members with strong research potential were also hired. More researchers meant more funded grants, frequent publications and greater attendance at conferences, all of which resulted in national and international recognition for the department.

A year after receiving the original grant the department's proposal for an expansion was approved, and funding was bumped up to $1M per year. The Center was subsequently selected as one of the five most outstanding centers of excellence in Tennessee, which meant an extra one-time award of $56,000. In 1988 the Center was designated as an accomplished center of excellence.

Dr. Andy Meyers, vice provost of research and psychology professor, said that CAPR funding brought a cultural change to the department. "The funding added an enthusiasm that wasn't there before, because you struggle along never feeling adequately supported and then all of a sudden, certainly for the first five or six years, I think we felt wonderfully supported. And really while that money has never grown with inflation over the years, it still serves an amazingly valuable purpose."

The Center far exceeded proposed goals and benchmarks. Dr. Will Shadish, a former faculty member who took the lead in writing the grant proposal, says that the department became firmly research oriented. "CAPR funds helped to make the department a very attractive place to be. The atmosphere the Center created of excitement and a valuing of research endeavors cannot be overestimated."

Dr. William Zachry, interim chairman of the department, sees the advantages of CAPR in applied and altruistic ways. "We are producing not only students who go out to benefit the community in so many ways, but also we're producing good, basic research that is applied to the real-life problems of people. We are an applied psychological center. We're not just doing research that gets printed in a journal and is never seen again. The research is on problems that people have in the workplace, in their personal lives, with addictions and medical disease and with consequences of trauma from abuse, grief and military combat."

The department's areas of specialization are clinical health psychology, child and family studies, cognitive psychology, industrial organizational psychology, psychotherapy research and behavioral neuroscience.

Research projects over the years have included gambling addiction, autism, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), smoking cessation, weight loss, sleep disorders, coping with death and dying, drug addiction, traffic safety, fire safety, domestic violence, child and family problems, reading and comprehension problems, suicide prevention, driving under the influence tracking system, study of children's peer relationships in the United States and China and improving psychological testing in schools.

CAPR faculty have expended more than $70 million in extramural funding during the last 25 years. Last year, despite the dramatic downturn in federal funding, faculty were awarded $35 million in grants and contracts. For every $1 invested by the State of Tennessee faculty brought in $3.5.

Unquestionably, CAPR funding has brought tremendous recognition to the University and the Department of Psychology. Zachry says, "In the world of academic research, productivity and reputation in psychology, both nationally and internationally, this department is as well known as the University of Memphis men's basketball team in the world of basketball. We don't show up on the sports pages, but our faculty have put us on the front page in the world of psychology."

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