psychology reached maturity during this decade, and
today it remains integral to the field as a whole.
As mid-decade approached, psychologists contin-
ued to examine the individual’s behavior and the
elusive subject of human consciousness and automa-
ticity, or how certain human processes become auto-
matic over time. Ever mindful of their quest toward
unified theories about how humans know and ap-
preciate the world, researchers turned to reading
comprehension and image cognition, then to edu-
cational and mathematical psychology, also called
psychological economics, particularly later in the
decade. Ecopsychology, previously known as envi-
ronmental psychology, also originated during this
time, offering another example of psychology’s ten-
dency during the 1990’s to return its focus to the way
in which the human psyche intersects with its sur-
roundings. Other (re)emerging fields, such as evo-
lutionary psychology, which situates psychology as a
subfield of biology, also evinced psychology’s inter-
sectionality. Transpersonal psychology, with its atten-
tion to religious and spiritual issues, received schol-
arly attention and renewal in the early part of the
decade.
In 1994, the American Psychiatric Association
released the fourth edition of itsDiagnostic and Statis-
tical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM-IV), the refer-
ence book psychologists and psychiatrists use to
diagnose patients. Exacerbated by the ongoing
AIDS epidemic and millennial anxieties, the United
States was a hotbed for psychological and psychiatric
conditions, and the increase of patients in psycholo-
gists’ offices led to higher demands for trained men-
tal health professionals. By the mid-1990’s, the excit-
ing field of psychology had become the most
popular science major for undergraduate university
students, and with the United States’ multiethnic
population expanding, educators began emphasiz-
ing multicultural and global approaches in the psy-
chology classroom. The disciplinary shift toward ed-
ucational psychology led later in the decade to
increased research and publication concerning
teacher-student interaction.
The Second Half of the Decade At the 1995 Ameri-
can Psychological Association convention, psycholo-
gists gained prescription privileges, contingent upon
the profession’s developing legal protocols and pro-
posing training curricula. Shortly thereafter, former
Walter Reed pharmacology fellow U.S. Navy Com-
mander John L. Sexton was the first psychologist to
prescribe medication. Later that same year, the APA
created a new division for the study of men and mas-
culinity.
During the second half of the 1990’s, “emotional
intelligence” surfaced as one of psychology’s most
popular terms. Made widely recognizable in the aca-
demic community by journals and conferences, the
term also caught the popular imagination, finding
its way into newspapers and magazines around the
world. The American Dialect Society named it one
of the most useful new phrases of the decade.
Through this positive publicity, the typically aca-
demic field of psychology began forming alliances
with mainstream culture, inspiring the popular psy-
chology movement.
In 1998, APA president Martin Seligman chose
the theme “positive psychology” for his term as
president and thereby introduced a new branch
of psychology to the field. Positive psychology
refigures the aim of mental health counseling from
its previous intent—treating mental illness—to a
more optimistic goal: making life more fulfilling.
After a long decade of soaring antidepressant statis-
tics, the American public along with television and
radio personalities embraced positive psychology
and the onslaught of self-help books that ensued.
Impact Over the decade, the fragmented field of
psychology remained malleable, capable of allying
itself with economics, literature, and a number of
sciences. The interdisciplinarity of psychology made
it accessible to students interested in diverse aspects
of the human condition, which therefore made
psychology a popular subject to study in school. In
tandem with the increasing demand for trained
psychologists—particularly those capable of distrib-
uting pharmaceuticals—psychology’s likability in-
creased its visibility both in America and abroad.
Further Reading
Freedheim, Donald K., and Irving B. Weiner.Hand-
book of Psychology Volume 1: Histor y of Psychology.
Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. Orga-
nized topically over four volumes.
Pickren, Wade E., and Donald A. Dewsbury, eds.
Evolving Perspectives on the Histor y of Psychology.
Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Asso-
ciation, 2002. Academic essays that explore meth-
ods and disciplinary divisions across time.
Schultz, Duane P., and Sydney Ellen Schultz.A His-690 Psychology The Nineties in America