Throughout the history of the entertainment industry there has been many tragic losses, which include: Marlyn Monroe, James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Janis Joplin. More recently: River Phoenix, Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Cory Monteith.

Your support of this petition will help to create a new division in the American Psychological Association called Entertainment Psychology, whose mission will be to address the unique psychological needs of those in the entertainment industry by facilitating relevant research and overseeing the specialized training of psychologists.

Considering the enormous wealth surrounding the entertainment industry, one might hope that an APA Division of Entertainment could help legitimize increased funding for scientific study which has been sorely lacking to date. Areas of potential interest that I would like to see addressed within this new Division include such topics as: occupational stress and coping processes over the career life span (including similarities and differences amongst artistic professions and subgenres); the dynamics between performer health and development and the corporate interests and demands of the entertainment industry; the influence of cultural portrayals of artists on artists themselves and the Public, particularly adolescents, and the breakdown of such stereotypes (Raeburn, 2013).

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