Genealogy and sense of economic psychology

Economical Psychology is, presently, a Psychology and Economics specific real set of (working) knowledge. This knowledge implies a ''hybrid discipline'' that shows a growing presence in Universities and in qualified papers and periodicals too. Economical Psychology history starts when Gabriel Tarde (died at 1904) brings out his book Psychologie economique (1902) Tarde contends that the ''fathers'' of Political Economics theorized on the strength of the homo oeconomicus ideal, instead of working about the homo psicologicus notion. However, Psychologie economique did not have important repercussions due to Durkheim Structuralism hegemony and to the first half of twentieth century economical reality. New psycho-economical considerations will appear at 60s decade. The consumer society and the welfare state led to new thoughts. Up to now, some eminences are focal points of Economical Psychology history: Abraham Maslow, George Katona and, finally, Daniel Kahneman (who applies gestalt fundamentals to making decisions process). In fact, at 60s the A. Maslow's theory applied to the economic organization and management of the firms was a real counterattack against the classic model. This model lays the foundations of management in the prevention of opportunism and in the anthropologic ideal of the homo oeconomicus. On the other hand, and at the 60s decade too, G. Katona asserted that the big economical crises are due to micro-economical phenomena that everybody knows. The analysis of these phenomena provides better explanations than the macro-economical ones. Finally, Daniel Kahneman -who won the Economics Nobel Prize in 2002 and who is a disciple of the 1978 Economic Nobel Prize Herbert Simon-presents how motivations influence on the human taking choices system at the same way that influence on perceptions too. The extra-linguistic frame - and the absence of neutrality detected in verbal (or written) descriptions of a situation-implies an important distortion when we take into account different kinds of choices. The effect seems like the gestalt reversibility (figure-background of a picture) in some ambivalent perceptive situations.