STANFORD SPARQ: IGNITING CHANGE
Stanford SPARQ, the Center for Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions, is a center in the Social Psychology Area of the Stanford University Department of Psychology
Founded by the late social psychologist Nalini Ambady in 2012, SPARQ is not just a think tank. Instead, SPARQ is a “do tank” that partners with practitioners in government, business, and nonprofits to craft solutions to our communities’ most pressing problems.
Mission
Create and share social psychological insights with people working to improve society.
Vision
A world where people understand their behaviors both reflect and reinforce their environments, and where people use this understanding to promote justice, peace, and wellbeing.
Goals
- Help practitioners apply social psychology’s theories, methods, and findings in their work;
- Improve social psychological theories and methods by applying them to real-world issues;
- Train a new generation of social psychologists who bridge basic and applied research;
- Work with media to identify and explain the social psychological forces driving this century’s most pressing problems.
Values
- Compassion
- Empiricism
- Inclusion
- Optimism
- Practice-driven theory, and
- Theory-driven practice.
Programs
* Bimonthly Research Clinics that bring together Stanford social psychology faculty and practitioner organizations to improve change models, intervention designs, and evaluation techniques;
* Special Projects that pair SPARQ faculty and staff with nonprofits, educational institutions, and government agencies to conduct scientifically rigorous research in real-world settings;
* A practitioner-focused, online Solutions Catalog featuring proven-effective interventions in education, health, law & justice, peace & conflict, the environment, relationships, and parenting;
* Advanced Training that teaches undergraduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral students how to bridge theory and practice to address social and environmental issues;
* Annual two-day SPARQworks conferences (coming in 2015) that convene leading social psychologists and practitioners to discuss a target social or environmental problem and then co-create solutions to it.
Donate to SPARQ
We thank the many generous donors who are making tax-deductible contributions to SPARQ either through our online donation system or by mailing checks to the following address:
SPARQ
c/o HAZEL ROSE MARKUS
JORDAN HALL, BLDG. 420
STANFORD, CA 94305
Subscribe to the SPARQ Newsletter
It's quarterly, and we won't share your address.
Contact SPARQ
Send comments, questions, and ideas to alacon at stanford dot edu.
