An Introduction to the Special Issue: From Ideas to Efficacy in Health Psychology

The impetus for the special issue, "From Ideas to Efficacy" was the perceived need to stimulate and support a more vibrant research base that translates basic behavioral and social science research (bBSSR) discoveries to clinical and public health interventions. This special issue presents novel research that advances translational behavioral science, focusing primarily on the early phases of behavioral translation that are not as well recognized as later-phase translational science (e.g., dissemination and implementation research). The special issue includes a series of empirical, conceptual, and methodological papers, and a shining example of translational research that has had important clinical implications for the treatment of obesity and prevention of people with prediabetes from transitioning to Type II diabetes. In this introduction we will first set the context of the special issue and briefly comment on the papers. We end with several ideas in the areas of funding, training and publication of early phase translational behavioral science that can accelerate the process through which new ideas from our deepening understanding of human behavior can be more rapidly and fully brought to bear on the pressing health problems facing our nation and our world.