Currently when we think of Applied Psychology we think of applied research and actions carried out by graduate psychologists. This paper deals with this same idea but looking at the nature of Applied Psychology as a source of expert power. Expert knowledge cannot be separated from its consequences. When we think of Applied Psychology we think of stable jobs held by graduate psychologists. Most jobs are quite complicated and demand specific work-related knowledge, skills and attitudes. Employed psychologists realize that they cannot insist honestly on the separation of applied science from its applications and strategies. The prestige of this new profession is also linked to the record of successful intervention services or programs and not only to the record of advanced research activities.
The divisional view facilitates the existence of a field of study or a specialty area within the same discipline. When graduate psychologists apply psychological knowledge and skills to actual work settings they are determined to make a success of it. They use a wide variety of tactics to exert influence and show direct results. They are under strong pressure to be successful and competitive. It is the impact of their expert knowledge on everyday issues that is the big question. Thus, they create and follow different professional models to sustain or improve their individual positions. These models provide important means of identifying desired ends, likely scenarios and boundaries that professionalize the workplace practice of Psychology.
As soon as it was decided to provide an overview of Applied Psychology in Spain, it became easy to outline the contents of this special issue. Each paper covers a major area of scientific research and applications. Each author has produced a portrait of contemporary developments and accomplishments in Spain.
This is an acceptable view on the state of the art in this discipline. Psychologists' Associations or Societies (at a national or international level) support equivalent frameworks through the structure of existing divisions. It affords the reader a road map to guide him or her towards gaining a reasonably thorough coverage of professional practice areas in Spanish Psychology.
From this perspective Applied Psychology appears as a field of scientific inquiry through the higher education system. A predoctoral curriculum (five years) of graduate courses in psychology becomes suitable to a particular "specialty track". The unit of analysis is each separate occupational group among psychologists. The guiding question is what facets of Applied Psychology are being used? The structure of existing divisions may be understood as the cognitive strategy in the discourse of legitimisation of Applied Psychology as a science-based profession (Coll & Forns, 1981). It provides an specific scientific status vis-a-vis existing disciplines.
Nevertheless, there is an alternative view which is rarely covered by current associations or addressed by university departments (Ardila, 1978; Buendía, Esteban, & Perez-Olmos, 1985). It points to the social relevance of Applied Psychology on the overall map of rival professions. The professional training in Psychology is not done for the sake of learning alone but for the sake of providing a cultural capital to the applied psychologist to increase his or her competence and performance in existing or future jobs. The unit of analysis are types of practitioners in those surroundings that cultivate psychologists' action and interventions. The emphasis is placed on available jobs and dominant positions held by practitioners in actual work environments (Brante, 1990). The guiding question is who is using the training in Applied Psychology? The taxonomy of existing practitioners may be conceived as a social strategy in the discourse of legitimisation of Applied Psychology since this is a new knowledge-based profession (Prieto, 1990, 1991). It records the specific expert status which has been acknowledged in the labour market (Hernandez, 1982a, 1982b, 1983, 1984; Diaz & Quintanilla, 1992). Stable jobs provide a structure and mould psychologists' identities, actions and relations at work (Lacalle, 1980). They demand a behavioral style to be active, visible, known and have psychologist's approaches and interventions respected.
The behavioral style points out the process by which practitioners build up their understanding of how everyday practice feeds into the production of expert knowledge in applied psychology. It brings up the question of learning readiness and the development of pertinent skills and abilities to perform better in prevailing positions. It denotes the way psychologists prepare themselves ideologically for a successful employment. The critical aspect in workplace practice is that evaluations and decisions, not research, must be made on the basis of uncertain inputs and under conditions of some urgency. Behavioral styles among the different types of applied psychologists set out distinctive "career tracks" (or "work identities" derived from career choices and career transitions) that are influenced by specialized training, on-the-job experience, level of professional achievement, degree of satisfaction as well as existing occupational opportunities.
Often both approaches are viewed separately. No firm boundaries seem to exist among them. The specialty track approach has been the focus of a long debate during recent years (Levy-Leboyer, 1992; Matarazzo, 1987; Rosenzweig, 1992). The career track approach has been set aside regularly. It seems to be the next frontier (Dorken, 1986; Somerville & Hill, 1990) in the struggle to link certified knowledge to markets of services and labour.
Divisions among psychologists are historically specific constructs that promote an aseptic version of what applied psychology is and how it came to be that way. Types among applied psychologists allude to historically specific forms in the development of this profession via existing career tracks. It directs attention to "structural links between relatively high levels of formal education and relatively desirable positions and/or rewards in the social division of labour" (Larson, 1990, p. 30).
Applied Psychology in Spain has emerged as a certified knowledge-based field, based upon conventional divisions, and as a work market, embodying different types of practitioners. The consequence is that it moves in the direction of "a socially idealized occupation organized as a rather closed occupational community" (Collins, 1990, pp. 17-18).
JOSÉ RAMÓN CORREAS GONZALEZ
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