369 



^' American 



Psychological 

 ifll^ Association 



BRIEFING STATEMENT BY 



WAYNE H. HOLTZMAN, PH.D., 



PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL UNION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



CHAIRMAN (1983-A), COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGY, 



AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, 

 and PRESIDENT, HOGG FOUNDATION FOR MENTAL HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 



BEFORE THE STAFF OF THE TASK FORCE ON SCIENCE POLICY 

 HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



June 7, 1985 



General remarks on international science 



The Task Force on Science Policy and the Committee on Science and 

 Technology are to be commended for undertaking their ambitious study of 

 science policy. I am pleased to have been asked to contribute, on behalf of 

 the International Union of Psychological Science (lUPsyS) and the American 

 Psychological Association (APA) , to this important endeavor. At the outset, I 

 would like to say that both the Union and APA stand ready to lend assistance 

 to the Task Force as it begins to break its mission down into manageable 

 pieces. In particular, we hope that this meeting, and the hearings to be held 

 later this month, will enable the Task Force to refine its sense of the 

 long-term issues in international cooperation In basic and applied research. 



It is no simple matter to develop a meaningful view of something as 

 immense and inchoate as "international science," while at the same time 

 formulating recommendations for action as implied in the phrase "science 

 policy." International science does Indeed include "big science," as 

 recognized in the Task Force's December 1984 agenda, but it contains a great 

 deal that is more modest, but no less worthwhile. Indeed, International 

 science embraces all of the disciplines found at the national level, and it is 

 practiced in the same great variety of ways. In addition, it suffers from all 

 of the same drawbacks, and more. 



The vexations of differing languages, cultural practices, and levels of 

 training across nations, while pervasive and troublesome, are perhaps not so 

 harmful to the pursuit of ideal scientific endeavor as is the jealously 

 guarded sovereignty of nation-states. Indeed, we have detected in recent 

 years an unfortunate trend toward protectionism and neoisolatlonlsm In 

 International scientific exchange, exemplified in particular by abortive 

 government efforts to place limits on the dissemination of research in 

 scientific journals or at international meetings. We regard this as 

 unfortunate. An overly narrow pursuit of "science in the national interest," 



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