Understanding the Science-Practice Gap

Summary

The speaker, a community psychologist with a PH.D. from Michigan State University, emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in bridging the gap between science and practice. They discuss their experience at NIJ, where they learned about the role of research intermediaries in connecting researchers with practitioners. The speaker highlights the need to address internal and external science-practice gaps and the value of drawing from various disciplines to guide work effectively. They plan to apply these lessons in their future career, utilizing insights from team science, communications, and implementation science.

Takeaways

• 🎓 The speaker is a community psychologist with a Ph.D. from Michigan State University.
• 🌟 Community psychology is defined by its commitment to social justice and change, not specific areas.
• 🔗 The change requires interaction with individuals, organizations, systems, and communities to understand their needs.
• 🤝 The goal is to produce actionable research through partnerships and collaborations.
• 🔄 The speaker's background aligns with the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ) mission of bridging science and practice.
• 🛠️ The fellowship taught about research intermediaries, which connect researchers to practitioners.
• 💡 Intermediaries are organizations or individuals that mediate between research, policy, and practice.
• 🔍 The speaker learned to identify and address both internal and external science-practice gaps.
• 📚 Specialization leads to depth in one area but can create gaps in others, necessitating interdisciplinarity.
• 🧠 Interdisciplinarity is key to addressing internal gaps and guiding work across various disciplines.
• 🚀 The speaker will apply the importance of interdisciplinarity in their future career, drawing from various fields like team science, communications, and implementation science.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of community psychology?

Community psychology is defined by its commitment to social justice and change, requiring interaction with individuals, organizations, systems, and communities to understand their perspectives and needs.

How does community psychology aim to bridge the gap between research and practice?

Community psychology seeks to produce practice and policy-relevant research that is actionable through researcher-practitioner partnerships and community collaborations.

What is the role of NIJ's translation criminology mission?

NIJ's translation criminology mission is to bridge science and practice, ensuring that both practitioners and researchers benefit from each other's work.

What are research intermediaries and how do they function?

Research intermediaries are organizations or individuals that connect the world of research, policy, and practice, aiming to improve the processes of connecting researchers to practitioners.

Why is it important for research intermediaries to address their own internal science practice gaps?

Addressing internal science practice gaps is crucial as it ensures that the work done is guided by a wide range of disciplines, thus avoiding the limitation of expertise in a specific area.

What does the term 'science practice gaps' refer to in the context of the script?

Science practice gaps refer to the disconnection between science and practice where they aren't always communicating effectively, leading to a lack of integration between research findings and practical applications.

How can an organization or individual with deep expertise in a specific area avoid creating internal science practice gaps?

By committing to interdisciplinarity and drawing upon a wide range of disciplines to identify relevant theories, methods, and research to guide their work.

What impact did the speaker's fellowship at NIJ have on their understanding of interdisciplinarity?

The fellowship solidified the importance of interdisciplinarity for the speaker, influencing their approach to building research teams and collaborating with community partners.

How does the speaker plan to apply the concept of interdisciplinarity in their future work?

The speaker plans to draw on research from various fields such as team science, communications, and implementation science when building research teams, working with community partners, and ensuring the adoption and implementation of new ideas.

What is the significance of the speaker's background in community psychology for their work at NIJ?

The speaker's background in community psychology ties well with NIJ's mission, as it emphasizes the importance of social justice, change, and the bridging of science and practice.

How does the speaker's experience at NIJ influence their approach to future research and collaboration?

The experience at NIJ reinforced the importance of interdisciplinarity and the need to draw from various fields to guide research and ensure effective collaboration with diverse stakeholders.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Embracing Interdisciplinary Approach in Community Psychology

The speaker, a community psychologist with a PH.D. from Michigan State University, discusses the core values of community psychology, which are social justice and change. They emphasize the importance of understanding different perspectives and needs through partnerships and collaborations. The speaker's experience at NIJ (National Institute of Justice) has deepened their understanding of research intermediaries and the need to bridge the gap between science and practice. They highlight the significance of addressing internal science practice gaps within organizations and individuals, advocating for an interdisciplinary approach to guide work effectively. The speaker's fellowship experience solidified their belief in the value of drawing from various disciplines, such as team science, communications, and implementation science, to enhance research and its application in real-world scenarios.

Keywords

💡Community Psychology

Community Psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on understanding individuals within the context of their communities and societal issues. It is characterized by its commitment to social justice and change. In the script, the speaker identifies as a community psychologist and emphasizes the importance of this field in understanding and addressing the needs of communities through research and practice.

💡Social Justice

Social Justice refers to the fair and just relations between individuals and groups within a society. It is a central theme in the video, with the speaker highlighting the role of community psychology in advocating for social justice and driving change within communities. The concept is integral to the speaker's work and the mission of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).

💡Researcher Practitioner Partnerships

Researcher Practitioner Partnerships are collaborative relationships between researchers and practitioners aimed at producing research that is both scientifically rigorous and practically relevant. The speaker discusses the importance of these partnerships in the context of community psychology and NIJ's mission to bridge science and practice.

💡Actionable Research

Actionable Research refers to research findings that can be directly applied or used to inform decisions and actions. The speaker mentions the goal of producing such research through community collaborations, emphasizing the need for research that can be put to practical use in the real world.

💡Translational Criminology

Translational Criminology is an approach that seeks to connect scientific findings in criminology with practical applications in the field. The speaker's background in community psychology aligns with NIJ's mission of translational criminology, aiming to benefit both researchers and practitioners.

💡Research Intermediaries

Research Intermediaries are organizations or individuals that facilitate the connection between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. The speaker discusses the role of such intermediaries in improving the processes of research translation and the importance of addressing internal and external science-practice gaps.

💡Science Practice Gaps

Science Practice Gaps refer to the disconnect between scientific knowledge and its application in practice. The speaker identifies these gaps both within organizations and within individuals, emphasizing the need to bridge these gaps for effective research translation.

💡Interdisciplinarity

Interdisciplinarity is the approach of integrating knowledge and methods from multiple disciplines to address complex issues. The speaker advocates for this approach to solve internal science-practice gaps, drawing on a wide range of disciplines to guide research and practice.

💡Expertise

Expertise refers to a high level of skill or knowledge in a specific area. The speaker discusses the depth of expertise that can be developed in a particular field and the potential breadth limitations that may arise as a result, which can contribute to internal science-practice gaps.

💡Team Science

Team Science is an interdisciplinary approach to research that involves collaboration among scientists from different fields. The speaker mentions drawing on research from the field of team science when building a research team, illustrating the application of interdisciplinarity in practice.

💡Implementation Science

Implementation Science is the study of methods to promote the uptake of research findings into practice. The speaker refers to relying on this field when considering how ideas are adopted and implemented in communities, showing its relevance to the translational mission.

💡Communications

Communications in this context refers to the strategies and techniques used to effectively disseminate information and ideas. The speaker plans to draw from the field of communications when working with community partners to ensure that new ideas are effectively communicated and adopted.

Highlights

The speaker is a community psychologist with a PH.D. from Michigan State University.

Community psychology is defined by its commitment to social justice and change.

Change in community psychology requires interaction with individuals, organizations, systems, and communities.

The goal is to produce actionable research relevant to practice and policy.

The speaker's background aligns with NIJ's mission to bridge science and practice.

Fellowship experience taught about research intermediaries connecting researchers to practitioners.

Research intermediaries are crucial for bridging the gap between science, policy, and practice.

Internal science practice gaps within organizations or individuals need attention.

Science and practice often do not communicate effectively.

Specialization in one area can lead to gaps in other areas of expertise.

Interdisciplinarity is essential to address internal and external science practice gaps.

Drawing from various disciplines helps in guiding work effectively.

The importance of interdisciplinarity was solidified through the speaker's experience at NIJ.

The speaker will apply interdisciplinarity in building research teams and working with community partners.

Team science, communications, and implementation science are fields to draw from for effective work.

The speaker plans to use knowledge from various fields to improve community engagement and idea implementation.

Transcripts

I'm trained as a community psychologist and received my PH.D. from Michigan State University.

Community psychology isn't so much defined by specific substantive areas but rather to its commitment to-

social justice and change. This change require interacting with: individuals, organizations, systems and really whole communities-

to understand their perspectives and their needs. And through working in these researcher practitioner partnerships,

and community collaborations, the idea is to produce practice and policy relevant research that is actionable -

that can be put to use. My background really ties in well with NIJ's translation criminology mission -

to bridge science and practice. So both practitioners and researchers can benefit from the other's work.

During my fellowship, I learned a lot about research intermediaries like NIJ,

that try to connect researchers to practitioners. And also how to improve the processes of research intermediaries.

By research intermediaries I mean, organizations or even individuals that connect the world of research, policy and practice.

I learned that, if we are in this role of mediating or intermediating, between the worlds of science, practice and policy,

we need to attend to our own internal science practice gaps.

as well as attending to science practice gaps out in the real world.

And what I mean by that is when we talk about science practice gaps in the real world again -

we have science on one side and practice on the other, they aren't always talking to each other.

We might have similar gaps within our organization or within ourselves as individuals.

Any organization or any individual frequently spends their time developing expertise in a specific area, a certain field.

We have a lot of depth in this area. We know the history of a particular phenomena, the context in which it operates,

its nuances and intricacies, and so on.

As a result, because we have so much depth in one area, we necessarily don't have breath in other arenas.

So what that means is, the work that we are doing is best guided by an areas we simply don't have expertise in.

We have our own internal science practice gap. So to help solve that we need to commit to interdisciplinarity.

Drawing upon a wide range of discipline to identify the most relevant theories, methods and research

to guide the work that we are doing. I learned that this holds true whether we are working in an

organization, like the time I spend here at NIJ, or really just working in an independent research team

while these were things I thought about to some degree during my fellowship,

my experience at NIJ really solidified the importance of interdisciplinarity for me.

This is something, I'll take forward as I move through my career.

For example, when I start building a research team, I'll really draw on research from the field of team science.

When I think about working with my community partners,

in trying to disseminate a new idea get adopted in a community, I'll draw from the field of communications.

And I'll rely on implementation science when I'm thinking about how that idea really gets picked up and implemented.