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A Profession Awry or Poised for the Future? Work Psychology and Professional Identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

Ann Marie Ryan  and
J. Kevin Ford
Ann Marie Ryan*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
J. Kevin Ford
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
*
E-mail: ryanan@msu.edu, Address: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, 333 Psychology Bldg., East Lansing, MI 48824-1116
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Abstract

The commentaries provided an array of perspectives on identity management in our profession. However, there was general agreement on what should be central and distinctive about our field and on the need to cultivate a positive identity for the profession. The commentators also suggested a number of ways to cultivate this identity. For us, the commentaries also stimulated further reflection on our approach to training graduate students. We share our reflections and encourage readers to take the time to reflect on their own efforts to contribute to the profession's management of identity.

Type
Response
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 300 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2010 

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Footnotes

*

Department of Psychology, Michigan State University.

A lack of agreement over our name most definitely does reflect something about an evolving identity. We most often hear organizational psychologist adopted by our colleagues, so we adopted it in our initial article. For the sake of trying out another advocated alternative that we like, we use work psychology here.

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