Background

The Anthony Marchionne Foundation for the Scientific Study of Human Relations and Psychological Processes was established by Dr. Anthony Marchionne, a clinical psychologist practicing in the San Francisco bay area.  Dr. Marchionne was committed to the application of research to helping people make individual lifestyle choices and deal with the consequences of those choices.  Dr. Marchionne was especially interested in two lifestyle issues.  First, he had a longstanding commitment to the promotion of awareness and understanding of the lives of single persons, in particular people who, independent of sexual orientation and for whatever reason, are unmarried, uncoupled, and uninvolved in an intimate love relationship.  He saw a need for systematic research on the demographics of single persons; why people do not enter into a long-term relationship; and the psychological, behavioral, and physiological consequences (both positive and negative) of such a choice.  Dr. Marchionne was also interested in connections among, health, medicine, and behavior; how those connections foster healthy or unhealthy lifestyles; and such information might be used to promote healthier living among people.  Though Dr. Marchionne was a psychologist by training, he saw the value of interdisciplinary approaches to these questions, and so the Foundation awards funds to researchers in many disciplines.  The Foundation Board of Directors places no higher priority on psychology-based research than on any other emphasis.