Historical psychology, utopian dreams and other fool’s errands

Copyright 2008 @ the author. Originally published open access by Birmingham University. Journal now published by Edinburgh University Press.No abstract availabl

Does trait interpersonal fairness moderate situational influence on fairness behavior?

Although fairness is a key moral trait, limited research focuses on participants' observed fairness behavior because moral traits are generally measured through self-report. This experiment focused on day-to-day interpersonal fairness rather than impersonal justice, and fairness was assessed as observed behavior. The experiment investigated whether a self-reported fairness trait would moderate a situational influence on observed fairness behavior, such that individuals with a stronger fairness trait would be less affected by a situational influence than those with a weaker fairness trait. We used an iterated resource game in which participants could withdraw resources as they chose, and we manipulated the number of resources bogus players withdrew. The number of resources participants withdrew was the behavioral measure of fairness. Results confirmed the expected moderation of the unfairness manipulation by a fairness trait on observed behavior. Those reporting a stronger fairness trait were unaffected by the manipulation, whereas those reporting a weaker fairness trait were more strongly influenced

Industrial and organisational psychology

Industrial and organisational (I/0) psychology is concerned with people’s work-related values, attitudes and behaviours, and how these are influenced by the conditions in which they work. I/O psychologists contribute to both the effectiveness of organisations (e.g. improving productivity) and the health and well-being of people working within organisations. The field is related to other disciplines, such as organisational behaviour and human resource management, and also has close links with other sub-disciplines within psychology, especially social psychology and some aspects of human experimental psychology (e.g. cognition)

The economic value of psychology in Australia: 2001

The purpose of this paper was to update the Guldberg & Sivaciyan (1995) estimates of the value of psychology based on 1991 figures. In addition, this paper expands the scope of their work by including comparisons of other related professional groups (those with tertiary training in psychiatry, mental health nursing, social work, counselling, occupational therapy and human resources). Economic modelling indicated that psychology contributes $8.6 billion to the National economy – some 500% more than in 1991, and more than all other related professional groups combined. However, psychology incomes in most sectors have marginally decreased in real terms, and still lag 9.2% behind related professionals. The number of individuals trained in psychology has also risen dramatically to at least 37 978. Many of these individuals (17 364) have only a bachelor degree, and experience a higher rate of unemployment than both their higher qualified peers in psychology, and the national average for individuals with the same level of qualification. The ongoing lack of Federal funding for professional higher degrees, and the training guidelines of the Australian Psychological Society are likely to lead to rises in the cost of postgraduate education in the coming years. There is nonetheless a substantial economic advantage to students undertaking professional higher degrees in psychology. The implications for the profession of psychology are discussed

Behavioral Psychology

Excerpt: Behavioral psychology is concerned with the conditions involved in development, maintenance, and control of the behavior of individuals and other organisms. Behavioral approaches have been developed in many areas of applied psychology. These raise a number of issues important from a Christian perspective

Psychology in Education and Health- Proceedings of the II Leipzig-Évora Scientific Meeting in Psychology

This ebook contains several papers on the application applied psychology in education, health and well-being, personality,family interactions and emotional and epistemological development.The aim of this volume is to inform the scientific community on the research on Psychology mainly made at Évora and Leipzig Universities, but also in other contexts like Mexico or Brazil.FC

Moving Beyond the Enduring Dominance of Positivism in Psychological Research: An Australian Perspective

Almost since its inception, the dominant narrative of modern psychology has embraced positivism through its insistence that psychological science is objective, generalisable, and value free (or neutral). Consequently, quantitative research and in particular, experimental designs, are privileged over other forms of enquiry and other epistemologies, methodologies, and methods remain marginalised within the discipline. Alternative epistemologies and methodologies remain predominantly at the margins within psychological research yet have resulted from the growing dissatisfaction with the dominance of positivism. We argue that the enduring hegemony of positivism needs to be opposed to enable psychology to genuinely understand the antecedents of, and provides meaningful sustainable solutions for, complex human issues without being constrained by a narrow focus on method. We discuss how psychology in Australia can move towards embracing methodological and epistemological pluralism and provide a number of suggestions for change across the interrelated areas of accreditation, curriculum, the Australian Psychological Society, and research

Deterministic Dynamics and Chaos: Epistemology and Interdisciplinary Methodology

We analyze, from a theoretical viewpoint, the bidirectional interdisciplinary relation between mathematics and psychology, focused on the mathematical theory of deterministic dynamical systems, and in particular, on the theory of chaos. On one hand, there is the direct classic relation: the application of mathematics to psychology. On the other hand, we propose the converse relation which consists in the formulation of new abstract mathematical problems appearing from processes and structures under research of psychology. The bidirectional multidisciplinary relation from-to pure mathematics, largely holds with the "hard" sciences, typically physics and astronomy. But it is rather new, from the social and human sciences, towards pure mathematics