Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between the natural and social sciences. Psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, linking the discipline to neuroscience. As a social science, psychologists aim to understand the behavior of individuals and groups. Ψ is a Greek letter which is commonly associated with the science of psychology.
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 131,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It has 54 divisions—interest groups for different subspecialties of psychology or topical areas. The APA has an annual budget of around $115m.
Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the processes that underlie it. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, including sensation & perception, memory, cognition, learning, motivation, emotion; developmental processes, social psychology, and the neural substrates of all of these.
Margaret Floy Washburn, leading American psychologist in the early 20th century, was best known for her experimental work in animal behavior and motor theory development. She was the first woman to be granted a PhD in psychology (1894); the second woman, after Mary Whiton Calkins, to serve as an APA President (1921); and the first woman elected to the Society of Experimental Psychologists. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Washburn as the 88th most cited psychologist of the 20th century, tied with John Garcia, James J. Gibson, David Rumelhart, Louis Leon Thurstone, and Robert S. Woodworth.
The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom.
William Edmund Hick was a British psychologist, who was a pioneer in the new sciences of experimental psychology and ergonomics in the mid-20th century.
The Psychonomic Society is one of the primary societies for general scientific experimental psychology in the United States. It is open to international researchers, and almost 40% of members are based outside of North America. Although open to all areas of experimental and cognitive psychology, its members typically study areas such as learning, memory, attention, motivation, perception, categorization, decision making, and psycholinguistics. Its name is taken from the word psychonomics, meaning "the science of the laws of the mind".
American Psychologist is the flagship peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Psychological Association. The journal publishes timely high-impact articles of broad interest. Papers include empirical reports and scholarly reviews covering science, practice, education, and policy. Current editor-in-chief is Anne E. Kazak, PhD, ABPP.
Michael I. Posner is an American psychologist who is a researcher in the field of attention, and the editor of numerous cognitive and neuroscience compilations. He is emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, and an adjunct professor at the Weill Medical College in New York. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Posner as the 56th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Oliver Louis Zangwill FRS was an influential British neuropsychologist. He was Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, 1952–1981, and then Professor Emeritus. His father was author Israel Zangwill; his mother was author Edith Ayrton, whose parents were physicist William Edward Ayrton and physician Matilda Chaplin. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1977.
Neal Elgar Miller was an American experimental psychologist. Described as an energetic man with a variety of interests, including physics, biology and writing, Miller entered the field of psychology to pursue these. With a background training in the sciences, he was inspired by professors and leading psychologists at the time to work on various areas in behavioral psychology and physiological psychology, specifically, relating visceral responses to behavior.
The Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) is an academic society for personality and social psychologists focused on promoting scientific research that explores how people think, behave and interact. It is the largest organization of social psychologists and personality psychologists in the world. SPSP was founded in 1974 and it manages the activities of Division 8 of the American Psychological Association.
The American Psychology–Law Society (AP–LS) is an academic society for legal and forensic psychologists, as well as general psychologists who are interested in the application of psychology to the law. AP–LS serves as Division 41 of the American Psychological Association and publishes the academic journal Law and Human Behavior.
Michael A. Hogg is a British psychologist, and Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles. He is also an honorary Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Kent in the UK.
The Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP) is a scientific organization of social scientists founded in 1965 with the goal of advancing and communicating theories in social psychology. Its first chairperson was Edwin P. Hollander. To expand the knowledge of social psychology, Edwin P. Hollander and his colleague Edgar Vinacke wrote 35 other social psychologists in the interest of a research-oriented social and personal psychology society. This focus was to develop a smaller group of research-oriented scientists with similar interests within the field of social psychology. The society meets annually for discussions that vary in topic. These topics usually include its membership, content of the society, and research interests among its members. To become a member, one must be a social psychologist, show evidence of contribution to social psychology, receive a nomination, and complete an application. SESP publishes the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Alexander Allan Innes "Zander" Wedderburn was a British psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the Heriot-Watt University.
Florence Harriet Levin Denmark is an American psychologist and a past president of the American Psychological Association (APA). She is a pioneering female psychologist who has influenced the psychological sciences through her scholarly and academic accomplishments in both psychology and feminist movements. She has contributed to psychology in several ways, specifically in the field of psychology of women and human rights, both nationally and internationally. Since childhood, Denmark was academically successful. She received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Monte B. Shapiro was considered to be one of the founding fathers of clinical psychology in the United Kingdom, along with Hans Eysenck. He is credited by King's College London as developing the scientist-practitioner model in the UK.
G. C. Grindley (1903-1976) was a British psychologist, best known for pioneering work in what later became known as operant conditioning.
