World of Psychology

What Could You Do With $7.6 Million?

By John M Grohol PsyD
September 19, 2007

That is the enormous budget the American Psychological Association approved to “upgrade” its current website over the next 2 years. $7.6 million. That’s $3.8 million per year to redesign a website. You know, like this one.

Nobody I’ve talked to in the past decade believes the APA’s website does a good job with what it has access to, which is literally tens of thousands of resources, articles, journals, books, etc.

But the biggest problem isn’t the lack of technical resources to design good stuff over at the APA. The biggest problem is the APA’s huge bureaucracy that makes it virtually impossible for each stakeholder to agree on things. The APA, I’ve been told, operates as virtually independent fiefdoms, controlled by entrenched leaders of each division or business unit. Their online presence is a simple reflection of that reality.

So unless this crazy $7.6 million is paying for an overhaul of the APA’s organizational structure itself, I expect that the redesign won’t actually accomplish much in terms of increased usability and tools available to both consumers and its members.

I wish that they had spent $1 million on the redesign and the other $6.6 million on helping psychologists be more effective therapists, businesspeople, researchers, teachers and advocates for people’s better mental health. But, as with many things at the APA, these sorts of appropriations don’t go to the membership for any sort of vote or input — they are simply approved without much debate in a business meeting.

Hat tip: The National Psychologist


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World Wide Web Resources (9/26/2007)

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2 Comments to
“What Could You Do With $7.6 Million?”

who ever wins i hope they realize that they need to do things for the people of the usa and not always for they own personal gain. also the other country might need help, but they need to be taught how to make their own countries prosper with our help.
also the children of america needs attention and not just discarted to the wayside.
if i had this 7.6 millian dollars i wqould give 75- 80% to charity in the usa.
just my opinion that doesn’t really matter to the government
justme bill
thank you all

This is so intresting!!However we have major problems

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 19 Sep 2007

 


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