By Celia Richardson

Helping Give Away Psychological Science, or ‘HGAPS,’ came to the University of Maryland this fall, and is finishing off a successful first semester. 

“The main goal of [HGAPS] is to get more evidence-based information into the hands of people that would benefit from it,” said senior psychology major Morgan Anvari, president of the chapter. 

HGAPS was founded by Dr. Eric Youngstrom and Dr. Mian-Li Ong at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and now has four chapters nationwide. The organization combats what Anvari described as the “leaky pipeline,” through which new information is lost on its way to those it is meant to help, by making information easily accessible via Wikipedia and its sister site Wikiversity.

“Usually people with masters, they get their license and they practise and this new stuff that comes out never gets to them,” Anvari said. 

Anvari works for a community crisis services nonprofit and answers the national suicide prevention lifeline, where she said she sees the detriment of new psychological information not being spread. 

After hearing about Dr. Youngstrom from Dr. De Los Reyes, one of her psychology professors, Anvari found HGAPS and applied to start a chapter. She didn’t hear anything at first, but was eventually able to start one through Dr. De Los Reyes. 

Over the spring and summer, Anvari assembled the chapter’s executive board, and the new group began recruitment in the fall, eventually pulling together a group of around 10 students. 

“At first it was kind of nerve-wracking because it was so new and we didn’t know if people were going to show up, but when people did I realized people actually want to do this. It was exciting,” senior psychology major Cindy Cerritos said. Cerritos serves as the marketing/social media chair for the chapter. 

Over the semester, the chapter split into small groups, each working on a different Wikiversity page. They eventually were able to write and publish four Wikiversity pages: what evidence-based treatment is, as well as individual pages centered on evidence-based treatment for ADHD, bipolar disorder, and substance use. They also worked on building a relationship with the American Psychological Association (APA).

“I got to actually go to the APA and see what they do,” said senior psychology major Grace Chen, the chapter’s secretary. Chen’s team focused on the APA and creating a page, which they pitched to the organization in DC. “It’s really cool, being able to connect with a big organization.”

The actual writing process for each of the articles took place during bi-weekly meetings, or “editing parties,” as Cerritos called them. 

“We don’t want people to think this club is like doing work,” said Chen. “During the meetings, we try to make it really chill and relaxed and we give them food and play some relaxing music […]  You should enjoy coming and it’s not work that you feel like you have to finish.”

Looking forward, she says she would like to see the group expand, aiming to have around 20 members. She also said she would like to diversify the group, which is primarily made up of psychology majors.

“Cross-collaboration is something that needs to increase in every aspect of academia in order to get things done effectively, so it would be really cool to see us become a more interdisciplinary group,” she said, noting that although the group handles psychology content, the skills of disseminating information can be applied to different areas.