Scenarios - The scientist-practitioner split and the future of psychology

The much-discussed scientist-practitioner split is addressed in this article, using some concepts from the sociology of professions and from the craft of scenario building. American psychology is viewed as an academic profession that began to develop applied or practitioner interests and that, driven by economic and social forces, has undergone differentiation to the point where a complete division into 2 professions is a definite possibility. It is contended that psychologists may fruitfully attempt to deal with a turbulent and uncertain future by constructing alternative scenarios as a tool for debate and analysis. Four such scenarios are presented, a sample of the, many that could be formulated, to illustrate the scenario-building technique.