HANDBOOK of PSYCHOLOGY

Abstract

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.