research on psychology [since 1950s]

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What changes in research have occured since the 1950's that would lead one to agree with this statement?

"Psychological research is better now than it was in the 1950's!"

-- Lisa Her (lisaher24@hotmail.com), September 06, 2001

Answers

Response to research on psychology

It would depend, of course, on who you talked to. Some argue that psychological theory has been made more rigorous and precise by the introduction of computer modeling. Some add that cognitivism's reintroduction of mental representations makes its view of the person more realistic than was that of the behaviorism of the 1950s (of course, lingering behaviorists would disagree). On the clinical side, the introduction of humanism and its descendents (experientialism, constructivism, etc.) view the patient/client/etc. as an active agent, unlike the earlier psychoanalytic tradition, and its research reflects this. Also on the clinical side, one might argue that the introduction of psychopharmaceuticals (made possible by research) has made the treatment of the mentally ill more effective and humane than before (on the other hand, some call them "chemical straightjackets").

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), September 07, 2001.

Response to research on psychology

Hi Lisa, in addition to Chris's comments you could also note that the amount of money pumped into psychological research by the goverment in the 2nd 1/2 of the 20th cen. is much more than before 1950. In the late 1940s the Veterans Administration and U.S. Public Health and psychologists in America joined together to train clinical psychologists, and the V.A. and U.S. Public Health funded the education for lots of psychologists to provide for U.S. public metal hygiene. Those psychologists who trained under this program (the scientist practioner model) radically changed the face of psychology in America. Again with money from the goverment, research into mental retardation took off during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Since 1950 U.S. Public Health has directed and funded a wide variety of psychological studies. For example there is increased spending at present in autism. So one of the major changes in research that has occured since the 1950s to make psychological research better since the 1950s is massive goverment support; with all that green stuff avalible, there is much more research being done on a wider variety of subjects at better appointed institutions by many more psychologists who have received very good training. Best, David

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), September 07, 2001.

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