Abstract:

The main purpose of this paper is to encourage a reassessment of the contribution psychologists are making and could make to the marketing process. It is probably unwise to generalise about the function of psychologists in various countries and most of the remarks I make must be taken to relate mainly to marketing in my own country. It is becoming fashionable in sane quarters to question whether there is such a thing as a professional body of psychologists or whether each graduate becomes more closely allied to the particular disciplines with which he associates himself in his career than with any common body of psychological knowledge. It seems that to refer to an individual as a psychologist is to refer to his basic university training, to the collection of subjects he took in his first degree, rather than to say anything specifically about his present activities, his Interests or the techniques he uses in his daily work. It Is probably more true, however, to say that the psychologist takes with him a certain basic approach to the study of human behaviour, and In learning the particular techniques of his area of study, contributes to it from this basic approach.