Psychology and Society in Israel

Abstract

The development of psychology in Israel is presented as a reflection of its society's aims and needs. Until the early 50's, the major orientation of Israeľs population was geared towards achieving national and ideological goals. Scientific as well as applied psychology was not perceived as being able to fulfill or even being in line with these goals. However, starting from the early 50's, Israeľs ideological orientation as well as its practical needs changed dramatically. Mass immigration, housing problems, ethnicity, urbanization, industrialization, the emergence of underprivileged groups and a more individualistically oriented ideology raised new problems and strongly required the services of psychology. This paper tries to show how different branches of psychology-scientific as well as applied ones-developed as a direct function of the country's social needs and problems and its search for appropriate ways of dealing with them.