Handbook of Psychology- Personality and Social Psychology

Handbook of Psychology Preface
Psychology at the beginning of the twenty-first century has
become a highly diverse field of scientific study and applied
technology. Psychologists commonly regard their discipline
as the science of behavior, and the American Psychological
Association has formally designated 2000 to 2010 as the
“Decade of Behavior.” The pursuits of behavioral scientists
range from the natural sciences to the social sciences and embrace
a wide variety of objects of investigation. Some psychologists
have more in common with biologists than with
most other psychologists, and some have more in common
with sociologists than with most of their psychological colleagues.
Some psychologists are interested primarily in the behavior
of animals, some in the behavior of people, and others
in the behavior of organizations. These and other dimensions
of difference among psychological scientists are matched by
equal if not greater heterogeneity among psychological practitioners,
who currently apply a vast array of methods in many
different settings to achieve highly varied purposes.
Psychology has been rich in comprehensive encyclopedias
and in handbooks devoted to specific topics in the field.
However, there has not previously been any single handbook
designed to cover the broad scope of psychological science
and practice. The present 12-volume Handbook of Psychology
was conceived to occupy this place in the literature.
Leading national and international scholars and practitioners
have collaborated to produce 297 authoritative and detailed
chapters covering all fundamental facets of the discipline,
and the Handbook has been organized to capture the breadth
and diversity of psychology and to encompass interests and
concerns shared by psychologists in all branches of the field.
Two unifying threads run through the science of behavior.
The first is a common history rooted in conceptual and empirical
approaches to understanding the nature of behavior.
The specific histories of all specialty areas in psychology
trace their origins to the formulations of the classical philosophers
and the methodology of the early experimentalists, and
appreciation for the historical evolution of psychology in all
of its variations transcends individual identities as being one
kind of psychologist or another. Accordingly, Volume 1 in
the Handbook is devoted to the history of psychology as
it emerged in many areas of scientific study and applied
technology.
A second unifying thread in psychology is a commitment
to the development and utilization of research methods
suitable for collecting and analyzing behavioral data. With
attention both to specific procedures and their application
in particular settings, Volume 2 addresses research methods
in psychology.
Volumes 3 through 7 of the Handbook present the substantive
content of psychological knowledge in five broad
areas of study: biological psychology (Volume 3), experimental
psychology (Volume 4), personality and social psychology
(Volume 5), developmental psychology (Volume 6),
and educational psychology (Volume 7). Volumes 8 through
12 address the application of psychological knowledge in
five broad areas of professional practice: clinical psychology
(Volume 8), health psychology (Volume 9), assessment psychology
(Volume 10), forensic psychology (Volume 11), and
industrial and organizational psychology (Volume 12). Each
of these volumes reviews what is currently known in these
areas of study and application and identifies pertinent sources
of information in the literature. Each discusses unresolved issues
and unanswered questions and proposes future directions
in conceptualization, research, and practice. Each of the
volumes also reflects the investment of scientific psychologists
in practical applications of their findings and the attention
of applied psychologists to the scientific basis of their
methods.
The Handbook of Psychology was prepared for the purpose
of educating and informing readers about the present
state of psychological knowledge and about anticipated advances
in behavioral science research and practice. With this
purpose in mind, the individual Handbook volumes address
the needs and interests of three groups. First, for graduate students
in behavioral science, the volumes provide advanced
instruction in the basic concepts and methods that define the
fields they cover, together with a review of current knowledge,
core literature, and likely future developments. Second,
in addition to serving as graduate textbooks, the volumes
offer professional psychologists an opportunity to read and
contemplate the views of distinguished colleagues concerning
the central thrusts of research and leading edges of practice
in their respective fields. Third, for psychologists seeking
to become conversant with fields outside their own specialty
and for persons outside of psychology seeking information
about psychological matters, the Handbook volumes
serve as a reference source for expanding their knowledge
and directing them to additional sources in the literature.
The preparation of this Handbook was made possible by
the diligence and scholarly sophistication of the 25 volume
editors and co-editors who constituted the Editorial Board.
As Editor-in-Chief, I want to thank each of them for the pleasure
of their collaboration in this project. I compliment them
for having recruited an outstanding cast of contributors to
their volumes and then working closely with these authors to
achieve chapters that will stand each in their own right as
valuable contributions to the literature. I would like finally to
express my appreciation to the editorial staff of John Wiley
and Sons for the opportunity to share in the development of
this project and its pursuit to fruition, most particularly to
Jennifer Simon, Senior Editor, and her two assistants, Mary
Porterfield and Isabel Pratt. Without Jennifer’s vision of the
Handbook and her keen judgment and unflagging support in
producing it, the occasion to write this preface would not
have arrived.
IRVING B. WEINER
Tampa, Florida
I took from the book. Buy the book for further reading.