SITUATION AND FUTURE-DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCH OLOGY IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA AND SWITZERLAND

This report is a revised version of the presidential address given at the 40th Congress of the German Psychological Society. It reflects the situation and the future development of German-language psychology by analysing psychology as a science and a profession. Based on statisti cal data it is shown that the popularity of psychology as a field of s tudy is continously increasing and that the job situation has improved markedly during the first half of the nineties. Results of an analysi s of the funding activities of the German Science Foundation (DFG), th e Swiss Science Foundation (SNF) and the Austrian Science Foundation ( FWF) are reported. They shed light on the question in which fields the re were especially intense research activities. In a second part of th e report problems are focussed: the negative consequences of the very restrictive financial policy of the public authorities, the difficulti es of clinical psychologists in a situation in which the urgently need ed law on psychotherapy is still under discussion, the unsatisfactory international reception of German-language psychology. Finally guide l ines are given for the further development of psychology in Germany, A ustria and Switzerland They are based on the results of a survey, in w hich a sample of leading psychological scientists expressed their view s on this subject.