Letter from the Editor
Psychology has been defined as the scientific study of the mind and behavior. As such, in addition to behavior, psychological research encompasses cognition, emotion, and volition in both human and non-human animals. As an undergraduate, I remember hearing the claim that everything psychological is biological, and although it would be inaccurate to say that everything biological is psychological, any process that involves behaving, feeling, or thinking is psychological. Thus, psychology is a particularly broad field that overlaps with anthropology, biology, chemistry, physics, sociology, and many other domains of inquiry.
An encyclopedia is a compendium of knowledge, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology (ORE of Psychology) is a compendium of state of knowledge across many branches of psychology. The importance of an accessible resource for psychological information cannot be overstated. Although psychology is one of the most common major in colleges and universities, many people who have not taken psychology courses believe that they know psychological information—after all, it’s just common sense. Common depictions of psychologists at work typically focus on clinical practice or health service psychology, but even individuals who are familiar with health service psychology may not understand the differences among clinical psychology, counseling psychology, and school psychology (also known as educational psychology in some parts of the world). And there are some areas of psychology, such as cognitive neuroscience, comparative psychology, consulting psychology, or conservation psychology, that even some psychologists have not heard of or do not understand well.
And this is the raison d’etre of the ORE of Psychology: to provide one place where much of the broad range of psychological knowledge can be found. Articles in the ORE of Psychology are written by the researchers who are experts on the topic, and these articles are also peer-reviewed by leading scholars and reviewed by the Editorial Board to ensure that they meet the highest level of scientific rigor. As the ORE of Psychology is a digital resource, it is also possible to update the articles as the knowledge base develops and evolves. New articles are also added to the ORE every year, as we want the ORE to be useful to researchers, students, and teachers who want to understand some aspect of psychology.
Finally, although the ORE of Psychology contains a substantial number of articles, there are also areas of psychology that could benefit from more coverage. Thus, I encourage readers to engage with the ORE of Psychology by suggesting topics that you think should be covered if you do not find the topic when you search. We look forward to providing you with the information that you need about psychology when you need it and to hearing from you when you think we need to do more.
Frank C. Worrell, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
Distinguished Professor of School Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
