Subfields Of Psychology Research Articles

Toward Integration

The manner in which a particular theoretical approach (the holistic, developmental, systems-oriented perspective) operates to integrate environmental psychology with other subfields of psychology-including clinical, developmental, health, organizational, personality, and social-is described. This serves to advance these and other subfields of psychology and to mitigate the ongoing fragmentation in psychology. Integration is evident in the implications of the assumptions of the perspective for empirical studies, originating largely as theoretical and practical problems for environmental psychology, that have impact on and are of interest to a variety of subfields of psychology.

The professional practice of educational psychology

This paper discusses the potential for the field of educational psychology to move beyond “psychology-applied-to-education” to develop a unique professional practice component. We argue that many of the things educational psychologists are trained to do and have been doing for years fall within the “service provider” domain. Educational psychology is the only subfield of psychology to focus on the design of instructional systems, and many valuable psychological services derived from the knowledge base of instruction are worthy of professional recognition. We also discuss components of professional training for educational psychologists.

A Method for Analyzing Sentence-Level Differences in Disciplinary Knowledge Making

This article proposes a method for examining how disciplinary differences in knowledge making are created or reflected at the sentence level. The method focuses on the grammatical subjects of sentences as key indicators of disciplinary knowledge making. Grammatical subjects of all sentences in sample academic journal articles were classified by a system identifying (a) the kind of abstraction or particularism involved and (b) the ways in which the researcher may or may not have foregrounded research methods and warrants. Findings from the sample articles in subfields of psychology, history, and literature indicated that psychology articles were more likely to foreground research methods and warrants and least likely to be particularistic. History articles tended to be intermediate. Literature articles were most likely to be particularistic and least likely to focus on research methods and warrants.

Toward a Synthetic Physiological Psychology

The word “synthetic” in the title of this paper has three meanings, each of which highlights a fundamental problem with physiological psychology, and. at the same time, offers a solution. (1) Synthetic means artificial—made by man, not by nature. To separate physiological psychology from medicine, and to build a science of pure function in humans (which is what psychology is), apart from a science of the mechanics of living human tissue (which is what medicine is), synthetic physiological psychology adopts a physically achieved analytic approach to the design, not of people, but of robots that behave like people. This avoids the misuse of reductionism. (2) Analysis by itself is not adequate; every analysis must be validated immediately by synthesis. Some forms of physically achieved analysis and resynthesis, particularly appropriate for synthetic physiological psychology, are contrasted with the hypothetico-deductive method, as a complementary scientific method of arriving at simple facts about complex living systems. (3) Synthetic also means integrative—at present, the various subfields of psychology are not united by principles based on the action of common units of function, derived by a physically achieved analysis. A simple procedure is described that can provide them.

Transactionism in Person-Environment Theory

Environmental psychology is described as a sub-field of psychology which busies itself with the analysis of relationships between human activity and the external contexts in which it takes place. A brief overview of personologist, interactionist and situationist positions in person-environment theorizing is provided. The recent development of transactionism as an offshoot from interactionist views is illuminated by providing a synopsis of the basic assumptions of a transactional approach to person-environment relations. In conclusion it is suggested that this approach also emphasizes the role of change, human use of technology and the psychological nature of artifacts as central to the study of human-environment relations.

Psychological status of the script concept.

Suggests that there has been growing interest within several subfields of psychology in the schematic nature of mental representations of real-world objects and events. One simple form of schema is the “script,” embodying knowledge of stereotyped event sequences. The present author traces applicatio

Psychological status of the script concept.

Suggests that there has been growing interest within several subfields of psychology in the schematic nature of mental representations of real-world objects and events. One simple form of schema is the “script,” embodying knowledge of stereotyped event sequences. The present author traces applicatio

Psychology and Women

As a subfield of psychology, the psychology of women is acquiring many of the organizational and substantive characteristics of normal science.' Researchers in the field are gaining strength in their professional association. The Division on the Psychology of Women of the American Psychological Association is well represented on the association's governing council, and if its representatives are not always welcomed for the insights they provide, they are at least respected for the size of their constituency. The division's journal, the Psychology of Women Quarterly, continues to grow, as does representation of the field on the programs of regional and national conventions. This year a past-president and founder of the Division of the Psychology of Women was elected president of the APA, the fourth woman to serve in that office in the association's eighty-seven-year history. This increasing organizational strength reflects and is reflected in the continued development of teaching and research in the field. Recent

Structure of the psychological literature

AbstractThe structure and interrelations of the psychological journal literature are investigated as a preparatory step for studies of psychological research activity. Newly developed techniques of bibliographic citation analysis are used to construct influence measures for individual journals and for the subfields of psychology into which the journals have been classified. Hierarchical influence diagrams are presented to display the influence and interrelations of the psychological subfields and of the individual journals themselves.

An empirical description of the subfields of psychology.

An empirical description of the subfields of psychology.