Handbook of Psychology - volume 12: Industrial and Organizational 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 em- brace a wide variety of objects of investigation. Some psy-chologists 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 col leagues. Some psychologists are interested primarily in the be-havior 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 practi-tioners, who currently apply a vast array of methods in many different settings to achieve highly varied purposes.
Psychology has been rich in comprehensive encyclope-dias 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 Psychol-ogy 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 em-pirical 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 philoso-phers 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 sub-stantive content of psychological knowledge in five broad areas of study: biological psychology (Volume 3), experi-mental psychology (Volume 4), personality and social psy-chology (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 psy-chology (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 is-sues and unanswered questions and proposes future direc-tions in conceptualization, research, and practice. Each of the volumes also reflects the investment of scientific psycholo-gists in practical applications of their findings and the atten-tion of applied psychologists to the scientific basis of their methods.
The Handbook of Psychology was prepared for the pur-pose of educating and informing readers about the present state of psychological knowledge and about anticipated ad-vances 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 stu-dents 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 knowl-edge, 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 concern-ing the central thrusts of research and leading edges of prac-tice in their respective fields. Third, for psychologists seeking to become conversant with fields outside their own specialty and for persons outside of psychology seeking informa-tion 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 plea-sure 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
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