FPR: Mission

MissionStrategyFoundersStaff

The mission of the Foundation for Psychocultural Research (FPR) is to support and advance interdisciplinary research projects and scholarship at the intersection of psychology, culture, neuroscience, and psychiatry, with an emphasis on cultural factors as central, not peripheral.

At the theoretical, conceptual level:

Increase the quantity and quality of research that integrates Psychocultural factors and neurosciences.

At the concrete, topical level:

Support programs and scholarly efforts that provide models of integrative cultural and neuroscientific research.

First 3-year topical focus:

The cultural, neurobiological, and mental health determinants and consequences of
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety disorders.

Second topical focus (2004-2006):

Trauma and the Interaction of Early Relational Experiences, Social Context, and Developmental Trajectories.

Third topical focus (2006-2009):

Culture, Brain, and Emotion.

Current topical focus (2009-2012):

Culture, Brain, and Mental Illness.

Examples of possible future research foci:

• Neuralization of social experience.
• Political, cultural and neurobiological effects of poverty.
• Subjective experience and consciousness.
• Cultural perspectives on neuropsychiatric disorders.
• Neurotransmitter systems and their relation to culture, mental illness, deviancy and normality.

The FPR is a non-profit corporation (501(c)(3)).

The FPR Goals

• Change the culture of research by funding programs and scholars who attempt to link levels of analysis;
• Increase the degree to which research on human health, development, and well-being integrates Psychocultural and neurobiological influences;
• Strengthen the theoretical and methodological tools required to facilitate the integration of Psychocultural and neuroscientific measures and constructs;
• Increase the visibility of such integrative research, both within the academy, and outside;
• Train the next generation of scientists capable of conducting research that integrates Psychocultural and neuroscientific influences;
• Increase the public awareness of the importance of such integrative research