Gerald Koocher

Gerald Paul Koocher (born March 13, 1947) is an American psychologist and past president of the American Psychological Association (APA). His interests include ethics, clinical child psychology and the study of scientific misconduct. He is on the faculty at Simmons College and had a previous academic appointment at Harvard Medical School. Koocher founded a psychological journal after serving as editor for two other journals.

Biography

Career

Gerald Koocher earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from Boston University in 1968. He completed a masters degree (1970) and Ph.D. (1972) in clinical psychology from the University of Missouri. He worked full-time at Boston's Children's Hospital from 1971 to 2001, ultimately serving as chief of psychology. While at Boston Children's, he was an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. In June 2001 he became a professor and dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies at Simmons College in Boston.^[1] He later served as associate provost at Simmons, while continuing part-time service at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.^[2] He began serving as dean of the College of Science and Health at DePaul University on July 1, 2013.^[3]

Koocher is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was elected a fellow of thirteen APA divisions. He is the first person to be awarded five specialty diplomas from the American Board of Professional Psychology. In 2006 he became president of the APA.^[4] He served on the APA's board of directors for several years.^[1] Koocher is the founder and editor of the journal Ethics & Behavior.^[5] He is a past editor of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology and The Clinical Psychologist.^[1]

APA presidency

During Koocher's term as APA president (2006), his priorities included psychological aspects of immigration, mentoring, and support for families of deployed military personnel. During the same period the organization experienced disagreements over a report issued the prior year regarding whether the organization should dictate the role of psychologists in coercive interrogations. Koocher stated in interviews that the APA's ethical code had never instructed psychologists that they could not work for specific employers. He also highlighted that psychologists had brought about positive change at prison sites.^[6]

Works

• Gerald P. Koocher (Ed.). Children's Rights and the Mental Health Professions. Wiley, 1976. ISBN 0-471-01736-1.
• Patricia Keith-Spiegel, and Gerald P. Koocher. Ethics in Psychology: Professional Standards and Cases. Erlbaum, 1985. ISBN 0-8058-2128-7.
• Gerald P. Koocher and Patricia Keith-Spiegel. Children, Ethics, and the Law: Professional Issues and Cases. University of Nebraska Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8032-4731-1.
• Michael C. Roberts, Gerald P. Koocher, Donald K. Routh, Diane J. Willis (Eds.). Readings in Pediatric Psychology. Plenum Press, 1993. ISBN 0-306-44423-2.
• Gerald P. Koocher. Whistleblowing And Scientific Misconduct: A Special Issue of Ethics & Behavior. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1993, ISBN 0-8058-9986-3.
• Gerald P. Koocher. Ethics in Cyberspace. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. ISBN 0-8058-9891-3.
• Gerald P. Koocher, John C. Norcross and Sam S. Hill (Eds.). Psychologists' Desk Reference. Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-511186-9.
• Gerald P. Koocher (Ed.). Protection of Participants in Sensitive Social Research: A Special Issue of Ethics & Behavior. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998. ISBN 0-8058-9819-0.
• Gerald P. Koocher. The Science And Politics of Recovered Memories: A Special Issue of Ethics & Behavior. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998. ISBN 0-8058-9825-5.
• Steven N. Sparta and Gerald P. Koocher (Eds.). Forensic Mental Health Assessment of Children And Adolescents. Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-19-514584-7.
• Gerald P. Koocher and Patricia Keith-Spiegel. Ethics in Psychology and the Mental Health Professions: Professional Standards and Cases. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 0-19-500201-5
• Kenneth S. Pope, Janet L. Sonne, Beverly Greene and Gerald P. Koocher. What Therapists Do Not Talk About and Why: Understanding Taboos That Hurt Us and Our Clients. American Psychological Association, 2006. ISBN 978-1-59147-411-1.
• Gerald P. Koocher, John C. Norcross and Beverly A. Greene (Eds.). Psychologists' Desk Reference, 3rd Edition. Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-19-984549-1.

References

External links

• Official website