Bringing Psychologists into the Precollege Classroom: A Correspondence Exercise

Abstract

High school students were assigned to write to an “important” or “prominent” person in psychology in order to appreciate their contributions to the field. The psychologists were asked the following questions: ( a) What is the most important idea or concept to be learned in psychology? ( b) Would you send a picture for a bulletin board display? ( c) Would you send any other salient information about yourself and your contributions to the field of psychology? The students wrote to 113 psychologists and received replies from 72 of them. Thirty two psychologists sent curricula vitae and 26 sent a total of 82 reprints of their published articles.