PSYCHOLOGY AND INFERENCES ABOUT PUBLIC-POLICY

The research literature of psychology may be brought to bear on public policy issues in three ways. First, psychology may be useful in estab lishing procedures for determining public policy. Second, psychology m ay be useful in formulating the structure for policy and its implement ation. Third, the literature of psychology may be reflected in the act ual content of public policy. There are many issues involved in making inferences about public policy from the psychological literature. Amo ng these issues are the generalizability of findings from basic scienc e and problems of overadvocacy on the part of policy consultants. Rese archers expect that inferences from the psychological literature would lead to innovations in the policy, but the innovations themselves mus t be evaluated.