Why Attend an International Congress of Psychology?

Abstract

The International Congresses of Psychology continue to attract large numbers of participants-there were about 3,600 at the Congress in Sydney in 1988. In spite of the impressive behavioral phenomenon of convergence of thousands of psychologists from all over the globe to a single site, we still do not know in any precise fashion what par-ticipants gain to compensate them for the effort and expense of their trip. To provide some information on this topic, I would like to share with you some of the responses to this question given by psychologists from the United States and Canada who attended the XXIV Interna-tional Congress of Psychology at Sydney, 1988. These are psychologists who received partial travel grants from a program set up by the U.S. National Committee for IUPsyS in collaboration with the American Psychological Association. These psychologists were asked to provide a brief report of their participation and to offer observations about the Congress. Some also added suggestions for improvement of future Congresses, a subject to which we will return soon.