August 23, 2008
XXIX INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF PSYCHOLOGY
The International Congress of Psychology is for all psychologists worldwide one of the most exciting and celebrated opportunities for meeting their colleagues and sharing their most recent findings and professional experiences. This year and for the third time in its history the ICP took place in Berlin and was hosted by the German Federation of Psychologists’ Associations under the auspices of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS).
As always, the congress attracted numerous participants from all around the Globe and, expecting the visitors, was the perfect setting for this massive assembly: the International Congress Centre in Berlin. About 9.000 participants from more than 100 countries have been welcomed to Germany, a country acknowledged as the birth-place of scientific psychology with over 130 years of history in the field started by great names such as Wundt, Fechner and Ebbinghaus. Also Berlin, a great and vibrant city, situated in the heart of Europe, offered everyone many occasions to relax, to visit or simply enjoy each evening after a full congress day.
Image 1. The International Congress Centre (ICC), the venue of ICP 2008
Above all, ICP 2008 will be remembered for its exceptionally rich scientific program that, beside plentiful paper and poster sessions, included more than 75 invited addresses and 160 invited symposia. Practically no branch or topic in psychology was missing and everyone could find the latest discoveries in his/her personal field of work: from general psychology to research methods, from cognition and language to emotion and motivation, from educational to organizational psychology. The emphasis has been put on both theory and practice, both basic and applied psychology, and most of all on inter-disciplinary dialogue and open exchange of ideas.
Interestingly, the congress introduced new presentation formats such as the “Controversial Debates” focusing on topics of general interest for psychologists and not only: Functional neuroimaging has already told us a lot about cognition: yes or no? Managing diversity at school: should students be grouped by their ability? Do evidence-based psychotherapy and education require randomized trials? Should psychologists adopt the experimental practices of economics? Do chimpanzees have culture? These were the five main questions raised and debated by prestigious scholars at the ICP, a successful practice that is most likely to be introduced in the programs of many other scientific meetings from now on.
Image 2. The Opening Ceremony
Young scientists were not forgotten either and the program for them included activities such as: the Networking Market, panel discussion on developing an academic career as well as an appealing “meet your favourite scholar” session. Training opportunities for low-income countries were also considered and the advanced research training seminars this year covered topics such as structural equation modelling with EQS 6.1 and managing large-scale international data sets for research in educational and developmental psychology.
Undoubtedly the ICP 2008 has been a success and a great achievement not only for the organizers but also for the participants. It offered one of the most wide-ranging panels of scientific activities and covered virtually very important psychological field of inquiry. By studying only the program of the reunion one could easily get an idea of the state of affairs in the discipline, its main concerns, the chief questions psychologists are preoccupied with and also the answers they have formulated until now. Above all, the International Congress of Psychology has been a unique opportunity to interact, to communicate, to learn, things we may have very little of in our everyday professional experiences. For all those eager to grab this kind of opportunities the next ICP will take place in 2012 in South Africa, a reunion that is worth planning for in advance.
By Vlad Glaveanu,
EJOP Editor