Stanford Report, Jan. 14, 2004

Psychology center wins innovation award

BY LISA TREI

The National Center on Disaster Psychology and Terrorism, a collaboration of Stanford and the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, has been honored by the American Psychological Association for its innovative and creative approach toward training psychologists in combating terrorism and coping with its consequences. The center will receive $2,500 through a new Award for Innovative Practices in Graduate Education given by the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology at its annual meeting next month in Austin, Texas.

Psychology Professor Philip Zimbardo, one of the center's directors, said the program, based at the Menlo Park Division of the Veterans Affairs (VA) Palo Alto Health Care System, seeks to integrate effective clinical treatment, education and research. In addition to holding conferences and training programs, the center plans to teach appropriate interventions for specific types of incidents, train VA clinicians nationwide and set up data-gathering. "The point is, the Department of Homeland Security has minimized the [effect of the] psychology of terrorism," Zimbardo said. "They've emphasized big-ticket items. They've ignored the impact of the psychology of fear and how a small group of people can spread fear in a large population. We're really fortunate we've had no terrorist attacks [since 2001] because no one is ready for it."