Hello! After going through the emails and comments I received last time, I have decided to devote this entry to the question:

“Ian, what exactly is it that you do?”

And what a fine question, y’all. I do work at the intersection of law and social psychology – a field called legal psychology.Before I get too ahead of myself, I should make sure I have cleared up the components of that statement.

The legal aspect of the work is quite broad. I deal with the law in all its’ forms; those being the practice, procedures, and policies that govern our nation and where abstract terms like justice and rights are debated, defined, and derived. Much of the law that I work with now is very courtroom-oriented, as is the predominance of legal psychology today. Eventually, I will span out beyond the courtroom and add on a policy-oriented facet to the research that I do.

Defining social psychology is a little bit more rough, as many people have an idea in their head that psychology is all about couches, Freud, psychoanalysis, hot dogs chasing doughnuts, and the ilk. That is clinical psychology, which is not too far from it is its’ medicated cousin psychiatry. Social psychology is the study of how we as people interact with each other in the groups that we form. It is the study of humanity as a social animal. It is the most far-reaching type of psychology out there, as it touches on every aspect of the human experience. From mating to shopping, from families to political organizations, from religion to conflict – social psychology studies all these things and more. My training in social psych has come mostly in terms of looking at how we as people try to influence eachother and the groups that we are a part of. More recently, I have started learning how to look at culture and morality through a critical lens.

Now, on some level, people are also familiar with forensic psychology - the use of clinical psych and psychiatry in criminal investigations. While the media has done an exemplary job of blowing the predictive power, usability, and ease of use of such things way out of proportion, it also has done something else - subsumed the field of legal psychology into forensic psych. Forensic psych is to legal psych what psychiatry and clinical psychology are to the rest of psych: people think that forensic psych is all that psychology can do for law and justice; but I assure you, we are not profilers or anything of the like.

That said, a gander ASU Social Psychology and Law website might be useful. Other than having snazzy photos of myself and David, it also lists some of the recent research we have done, and can give you a better idea of what we do. Though by no means exhaustive, it is a good starting place. If you want to see a paper, I would recommend my compatriot Nick's paper on the CSI effect - it has become quite the rage in law enforcement circles around the nation.

I think that is about it for this go 'round. Next time, I'll be giving some examples of how the evolving science of legal psychology is going to impact your lives, and how it already has. As always, questions and comments are welcome! 

- Ian

Thanks for coming over to the newly reformatted science, policy, etc. blog! I appreciate it.

Today's first item: lay understanding of science. America still holds a tenuous grasp at best on the claim to best post-secondary science education in the world. Sadly, this is not the case for our high schools and below. Some blame religion, some blame standardized testing; I cannot help but wonder if these are only part of the problem. The lack of emphasis on method and logic has to stem from somewhere, but where?

So, here's the first Question of the Day: how did you learn science? What kinds of things were you prepared for? Was it useful?

Today's second item: I am soliciting ideas for the blog. I don't expect high readership or anything of the sort (at least not right now), but I want to write about things that are interesting to YOU. If you have ideas, please email them to me and I will get to putting together a day's worth of that topic info.

Tiny to begin with, I know, but it will grow, as we will. Tell your friends!

- Ian