If a week is a long time in politics, or sport, 20 years represents an eternity in the ever-changing discipline of psychology. Throughout its histor y, psychology has been inf luenced by other disciplines (scientific and non-scientific) and this is one thing that has not changed. So what is new?
Possibly the greatest impact on psychology from ‘outside’ has come from neuroscience. Over recent years, this field claims to have identified the areas of the brain that underlie a wide range of human behaviours and cognitive processes, using brain imaging — in particular, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The claims have produced some extreme reactions within the scientific community (see Satel and Lilienfeld 2013). And the resulting multi-coloured images have become iconic symbols of science in general, and neuroscience in particular.
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