Bulletin Number Two 1982

The New Depar tmen t of Psychology AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. FANNY M.C. CHEUNG The long-awaited major programme in Psychology has finally been introduced this year . The former Psychology Section of the Sociology Department which offered a minor programme has now becom e the Psychology Department, with seventeen potential majors initially. There is n o fixed quota for minor students and application is open to qualified undergraduates of all Faculties. In the past few years, when only a minor programme was offered, our students were often highly commended by the External Examiners, and some of our graduates furthered their studies in Psychology at very competitive Graduate Schools in America. In order t o present to our readers a clearer picture of this newly established Department, the editor interviewed Dr. Fanny Cheung, Lecturer of the Department and Head of the former Psychology Section. A Behavioural Science Q. Would you please tell us what kind of science Psychology is? A. Psychology is a behavioura l science. Its subject matter covers topics from the natural sciences to the humanities. The two universities in Hong Kong list Psychology under the Social Science Faculty, but many universitie s overseas and in China consider it a science. Psychology covers a wide field: behaviour ranging from those of biological systems to social interactions all falls within its scope of investigation. As an academic discipline it originated in experimental laboratories: its formal history may be said to begin with the German Psychologist Wundt in his Leipzig Laboratories about one hundred years ago. What Wundt really attempted was to find answers to philosophical questions by using the methods of Physics and Physiology. Thus was established an independent discipline which dealt in a scientific manner with what were classified as metaphysical concerns of the day, like 'Why do we have sensations ?', ‘How do we know what we know is real ?', and so on. Many people have confused Psychology with psychoanalysis. It is true that abnormal behaviour and therapeutic processes are close concerns of Psychology, but they constitute only one aspect of applied Psychology. Psychology is a much wider field, which encompasses many basi c components like basic psychological processes, developmental processes, research and experimental methods, personality and social psychology, etc. Thorough understanding of these basic components is necessary for any one to proceed to the applied aspects of Psychology. Q. Is Psychology a multi-disciplinary subject then ？ A. Well, academic divisions are, after all, arbitrary. In fact, many disciplines in university studies share the same goal or subject matter, and only differ in perspective, research method, and emphasis. Psychology certainly is a wide field related to, and often working conjointly with, many other disciplines. Q. What are the branches of Psychology ？ A. Perhaps we can take a look at professional associations of Psychology. Well-established psychological associations, say for example the American Psychological Association, have over forty divisions ranging from broad topics like General Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Social Psychology, to applied ones such as Clinica l Psychology, Counselling Psychology, School Psychology, to specialized topics like th e Psychology of Religion, the Psychology of Women, Psychology and Law, etc. This complexity is, of course, not fully reflected in an undergraduate curriculum. However, 8 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS