2019 APA President-Elect Candidate Statement - Steven D. Hollon

My research focuses on the treatment and prevention of depression, which is twice as prevalent in women as in men. Both genders face problems in living, but in a society that pays women 80¢ on the dollar it pays men, women face more obstacles with fewer resources. Women provide the bulk of the care for our offspring, particularly when relationships dissolve, and women are more likely than men to forgo career opportunities because they put the needs of others first. The playing field needs to be leveled and I will do whatever I can to promote a social order that recognizes and celebrates the significant contributions of women to psychology and to society as a whole.

Given the higher prevalence of depression in women than men, most of the clients with whom I have worked are female. My work has shown that cognitive behavior therapy can be as efficacious as medications and longer lasting (see Hollon 2005, Archives of General Psychiatry). The key mechanism underlying this approach is to help clients learn to use their own behaviors to test the accuracy of any self-defeating beliefs (often a by-product of societal biases); in effect, for them to take control of their own lives for their own purposes. In a recent collaboration with colleagues in India we found that a culturally-adapted version of behavior therapy delivered by lay counselors was not only superior to enhanced usual care in a general practice setting, but it also helped female participants reduce rates of intimate partner violence in a culture that is even more misogynous than we are in the West (see Patel 2017, Lancet). My wife is a developmental psychopathologist and in collaboration with her colleagues, we have shown that the same cognitive and behavioral strategies can be used to prevent onset of depression in at-risk adolescents (see Garber 2009, in JAMA).

I have been honored to work with a number of truly outstanding female and minority protégés across the course of my career including Kelly Bemis Vitousek at the University of Hawaii, Michele Carter at American University, Lisa Najavits at the Harvard Medical School, Mary Beth Connolly Gibbons at the University of Pennsylvania, Sona Dimidjian at the University of Colorado, Ellen Driessen at the Vrije University in Amsterdam, and Daisy Singla at the University of Toronto. I learned more from them than they ever learned from me and I value their friendship and collegiality. I am committed to expanding training opportunities as well as leadership roles for women and minorities in psychology.

My work is not explicitly feminist in nature but it has implications for improving the lives of women. It also has become increasingly cross-cultural. I have a strong and abiding interest in equal opportunity for all. Society functions best when all its members have the opportunity to develop to the best of their abilities. I fully endorse and pledge to pursue the mission and values of the Division 35 and I look forward to working with its members.

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