To what extent is applied psychology influenced by social, cultural and political contexts?

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To what extent is applied psychology influenced by social, cultural and political contexts? i.e how do societies values affect applied psychology.

-- Rachel wall (heidicropper@Hotmail.com), November 29, 2001

Answers

One of the most obvious ways is that political contexts influence government funding of research in applied psychology. One approach is to look at histories of funding agencies such as NIMH, NIH, NSF to see what sorts of things. You can look for similar tendencies for private funding agencies such as the Templeton Foundation (big on positive psychology, for example), the PEW charitable trusts, Lilly, Rockefeller, etc. After 911 there were immediate inquiries by scientists regarding the availability of special grants and deadlines for research related to terrorism, for example. 911 has also focused interest on issues of violence. Another example which has been discussed at length in the literature is the way health insurance policies and managed care have affected clinical practice, changing approaches to psychotherapy, hospitalization, and the use of psychotropic drugs. There's a lot of writing about all of this in the professional journals.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), November 29, 2001.

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