Editor’s Corner

Dana Litt, PhD
SoAP Box Editor

Victoria Votaw, MS
Student Editor

As we near the end of what has been an unprecedented year due, in part, to both the profound impacts of COVID-19 on our professional and personal lives and the ongoing and incredibly important discourse related to racism, social inequity, and injustice, I would like to reflect on how proud I am of our division for navigating these incredibly difficult times.  The work that our division has undertaken to ensure that the incredible work we do can still shine has been noteworthy and the amount of work it has taken for our leadership to adjust our offerings to best meet member needs is certainly no small task. I mentioned this in the last issue, but I remain impressed and proud of how resilient and strong we are as a division.  The issues we are currently grappling with in this country right now are likely to remain with us for quite some time, but I believe that with such hard-working, intelligent, and compassionate members in our division, that we will come out from this even stronger in the end.   

For this issue, be sure to start with Dr. Joel Grube’s first President’s Column, where he introduces his chosen presidential theme, Contexts matter: The who, what, where, and when of addictive behaviors.  In addition, Dr. Grube discusses important initiatives that he and the SoAP Board will be taking this year related to increasing both diversity and the involvement of early career psychologists in our division.  Speaking of early career psychologists, we are fortunate enough to have several Early Career Psychologist (ECP) spotlights in this issue, which further reflects the growth and excitement among ECPs in our division.  Specifically, be sure to learn more about the Addiction Psychologist Podcast and our newest student representative, Samuel Acuff.  In this issue, Dr. Eric Pedersen also provides useful insight via our Finding Success Through Failure column on being persistent when trying to find the right publication outlet for important scientific work. In addition, we have an excellent submission for the Clinical Translation column by Cassandra Boness and Dr. Ken Sher that suggests cognitive interviewing as a method to increase the validity and reliability of AUD assessment items and resulting diagnoses.  In this issue, we also provide a book review courtesy of Dr. F. Michler Bishop that may be of interest to many of our readers.  As always, we received great submissions for SoAP Box Sound Bites and Show and Tell which highlight the opinions and contributions of the members that make SoAP what it is today.  In particular, the Show and Tell column features both interesting work coming from our members as well as highlighting the 2020 Division 50 Student Research Grant recipients.  Please be sure to read the several important division announcements appearing in this issue. First, check out the SoAP Call for Nominations as this this is your once-a-year opportunity to get more involved in the Society of Addiction Psychology. In addition, this issue has information on call for SoAP awards provided by the SoAP Fellows and Awards Committee. Finally, we also have preliminary information on APA programming for the next annual convention.

In addition to all the above content, we are also proud to tell you about a new column debuting in this issue, named the Diversity Science Spotlight.  The goal of this new column is to highlight recently published work or accomplishments by members from backgrounds that are underrepresented in psychological science and to promote research focusing on improving health equity and social justice in historically disadvantaged groups.  Thanks to the DEI committee for providing input related to the creation of this new column.  Although we know that our division still has a great deal of work to do, we hope that the creation of this new column is an important step toward pursuing justice and equity, promoting the representation of underrepresented groups, and amplifying underrepresented voices in addiction psychology. 

Last but not least, I am pleased to announce that after receiving and reviewing several strong applications, Dr. Angelo DiBello, Assistant Professor at CUNY Brooklyn College has been selected as incoming SoAP Box editor.  Dr. DiBello will begin working with Victoria Votaw, Student Editor, and myself on the Spring Issue of the SoAP Box.  Dr. DiBello is an impressive investigator who has already made substantial contributions to the division and we are so pleased to have him on board to take over when my term ends.  Please join me in congratulating Dr. DiBello!

For the next issue, I am hoping to continue soliciting new content. I am so excited about the submissions we received this time and I am hopeful that more people will feel comfortable submitting content in the coming issues. Please submit any of the content requested below to me (dana.litt@unthsc.edu) by February 1, 2021.

-Diversity Science Spotlight. In this column, we are looking to highlight recently published work or accomplishments by members from backgrounds that are underrepresented in psychological science. We are also interested in promoting research focusing on improving health equity and social justice in historically disadvantaged groups. Send us a link and description of your current projects, awards, or media attention you have received, and any other information that you would like to share with our readers. If you are discussing research focused on improving health equity and social justice, you can also provide additional information about the implications of your research. Please limit responses to 500 words.

-SoAP Box Sound Bites. In 50 words or less, please respond to the following prompt—In what ways can we ensure that we continue to provide excellent addictions training during the COVID-19 pandemic?

-Show and Tell. This is the place to show off your recent accomplishments, accolades, awards and/or to and highlight the cool ways in which you promote your lab (websites, Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, etc.). Send us a link and description of your current projects, awards, or media attention you may have received, and any other information that you would like to share with our readers. Please limit responses to 200 words.

-Community Corner. We would love to hear about ways in which you share your research and/or clinical work to the broader community. Please limit responses to 200 words.

-Clinical Translation. Do you have any recently published work that you wish you would have had more room in the manuscript to discuss clinical implications and applications? For this issue, we would like to focus on any cutting edge work you might have related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We would love for you all to share recently published work in this area and give us more information about how your research findings could be useful for clinicians. Please limit responses to 1,000 words.

-Finding Success in Failure. In line with the recent trend of prominent academics and clinicians sharing their “CVs of Failures”, we want to hear about a time in your career that things didn’t go your way. For this next issue, I am hoping someone will provide insights into how to deal with receiving critical feedback from a mentor or colleague.  We are interested in learning how you handled this feedback, what you learned from receiving this feedback, and what advice you might have for others who find themselves navigating this same situation. Please limit responses to 500 words.

-Ethical Issues. In this column, we are looking for articles focused on describing ethical issues you may come across in your research and/or addiction-related clinical practice. Specifically, we want to hear what the ethical issue was, how you handled it, and lessons learned. Some examples could be issues related to googling patients, how you handled it when a patient contacted you on social media, or what happens when you run into a research participant out in the real world. Please limit responses to 500 words.

If you have any suggestions for how we can make the SoAP Box more relevant and impactful for you, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Wanting to see articles on a specific topic? Send your topic ideas to me for upcoming issues. I am always open to ideas for new columns, hot topics to cover, or anything else you think would be useful for our readers.