Afterword

Summary

As the science of human behavior and its global reach, psychology is perfectly positioned to address the major challenges facing humankind, including growing wealth concentration and inequality, the plight of the global poor, global warming, and intergroup conflicts and wars. But the causal-reductionist model monopolizing mainstream psychology does not allow for progress along these lines, which require attention to collective processes and a 'from societies to cells' approach. In order to make real progress, psychology must abandon causal-reductionism. The power of the context, and of poverty in particular, to shape human behavior must become central to psychology. Second, psychology must be extended to become the science of both causal and normative behavior. Not all behvaior is causally determined, and by also incorporating normatively regulated behavior psychology will become a far more effective and comprehensive science.