Hi Scott:
I am not aware of any systematic survey but my N=1 experience is
that the attitude towards psychology is good in many of the other
so-called "hard sciences." The reason varies among individual
faculty members ("you are investigating the brain; you help
people with learning difficulties or depression or drug abuse;
you investigate color blindness or deafness or amnesia...) but,
in general, I find that many in the other sciences consider our
questions to be fundamentally important and are looking to see
how we deal with the issue.
I think one issue is whether some particular faculty member
distinguishes between academic work and a "media psychologist."
[If I were designing a survey then knowledge of the distinction
would be an important line of questions. A related issue is
whether a faculty member even knows of the work of a fellow
faculty member in a psych department.]
There is a second internal-academic reason that psychology seems
to get respect among departments. Having dipped into
administrivia and talked to colleagues at other institutions, I
have been surprised at how impressed are other disciplines when
the issue come to dealing with human-behavior/environment issues.
The question of how to evaluate faculty/staff/people for
tenure, promotion, retention, reward, punishment, expulsion,
remediation and other such issues touches on the core of our
training -- how to measure and evaluate behavior. When people
ask questions on issues like "How can one measure/detect ...
exceptional/adequate/inadequate performance" then psychologists
are there to speak up with a reasoned answer. We may not agree
on the answer but the question leaves many chemists and
physicists boggled.
Ken
Lilienfeld, Scott O wrote:
Hi Fellow TIPSters…Is anyone out there aware of any systematic survey
data on how psychology (or psychologists) are viewed by those in the
“hard” sciences, like physics and chemistry?
Have found some surveys (Webb, Benjamin) on how psychologists are
viewed by members of the general public, but have looked in vain for any
data on how psychology – and various facets of psychology (e.g.,
psychological research, psychotherapy, assessment) - are perceived by
our colleagues in other sciences. Any “tips” to such data, assuming it
exists (which it may not), would be much appreciated. Thanks in
advance….Scott
Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D.
Professor
Editor, Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice
Department of Psychology, Room 473 Psychology and Interdisciplinary
Sciences (PAIS)
Emory University
36 Eagle Row
Atlanta, Georgia 30322
[email protected]
(404) 727-1125
Psychology Today Blog:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-skeptical-psychologist
50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology:
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-140513111X.html
Scientific American Mind: Facts and Fictions in Mental Health Column:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/sciammind/
The Master in the Art of Living makes little distinction between his
work and his play,
his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his
recreation,
his love and his intellectual passions. He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does,
leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.
To him – he is always doing both.
- Zen Buddhist text
(slightly modified)
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [email protected]
Professor
Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
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