Keynote Speakers | APA 2025 Convention

Churn: The Psychological and Physical Stress that Divides Us and How We Can Overcome It

Colorado Convention Center, Four Seasons Ballroom 2-4

“Churn” is the stress we can all feel over how our identity (racial, sexual, sexual orientation, etc.) will affect our experience in the important, integrated settings of our lives—e.g., schools and workplaces. Its role in making it difficult for us to trust each other in these settings is explored. And, in offering a new route to better intergroup relations, strategies that both individuals and institutions can use to reduce churn and enable trust between identities are described.

Humans First: Putting AI In the Service of the Therapeutic Alliance

Colorado Convention Center, Four Seasons Ballroom 2-4

This session will examine the possibilities of using artificial intelligence, in support of the therapeutic alliance. With the advent of large language models, conversational agents are commonly positioned as inexpensive alternatives to therapy with a clinician. However, these agents have known limitations such as a sycophantic response style that can support externalization of responsibility and, in particularly damaging cases, collude with delusional thinking and encourage pathological behavior. Trained on publicly available data of questionable quality, these agents respond in a less nuanced way than a skilled therapist and cannot draw on emotional reactions in session to understand a patient’s relationship dynamics as a therapist is trained to do. Despite these limitations, AI does have abilities that could enhance a therapist’s work with a patient. Morris will describe an ongoing research collaboration exploring how therapists could leverage AI to gain a fuller understanding of patients’ daily lives and illuminate patterns that may help patients see new choices for themselves.

How Can Psychological Science Contribute to Sustainability?

Colorado Convention Center, Four Seasons Ballroom 2-4

A significant challenge in environmental programs and policies is the lack of a deep understanding of human behavior. Thus, there is an immense space in which psychology can contribute to the successful transition to a more sustainable world. In this talk, Dr. Zhao will demonstrate how psychological insights can be leveraged to design effective behavioral solutions to address sustainability challenges. In a series of lab and field experiments, we designed and tested a number of innovative cognitive and behavioral interventions to increase climate and pro-environmental action using principles of ease and reward. Theoretically, our studies provide novel insights on the efficacies and limits of behavioral interventions to enact behavior change. Practically, the psychological insights gained from these studies help inform the design and implementation of environmental policies to advance sustainability.