Upcoming Seminar: Psychology of Science and Technology

When: Nov 17, 2014

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM 

Where: 232 Philip G. Hoffman Hall

Psychologists should have a lot to say about the thinking and social processes that lead to discoveries and new technologies. But very little psychological work has been done on this topic. In this talk, I will cover the major methods that have been used by psychologists and highlight a few of the findings.

Another paradox is that very little psychological work is integrated with the wide variety of approaches to Science and Technology Studies (STS). Because psychologists were not interested in studying science and technology, I gravitated to STS. I will also discuss my efforts to convince at least some STS scholars to take psychological findings seriously, and also how psychological work could be combined with sociology and anthropology to create a better understanding of discovery, invention and the impact of science and technology on society.

I will end with my attempts to revive International Society for Psychology of Science and Technology.

About Professor Michael E. Gorman

Michael E. Gorman earned a PhD (1981) in Social Psychology at the University of New Hampshire. He is currently Director of Science, Technology & Society at the University of Virginia, President of the International Society for the Psychology of Science and Technology (ISPST), and served as an Science and Technology Studies (STS) Program Director at NSF. His research interests include social psychology of science, (Simulating Science, Indiana University Press, 1992); NSF supported work on cognition in the invention of the telephone, and engineering ethics (Gorman, Mehalik & Werhane, Ethical and Environmental Challenges to Engineering, Prentice-Hall, 2000). His current research is in the kind of interdisciplinary trading zones that will be needed for scientists, engineers and other stakeholders to collaborate on the development of new technologies (Trading Zones and Interactional Expertise: Creating New Kinds of Collaboration, MIT Press, 2010).