First
came my study over the past 40-some years of psychology, and the gradual
change in emphasis from a behavioral to a cognitive perspective. A direction-finder
for this intellectual journey was confirmed in 1969, when I heard George
A Miller, the outgoing president of the American Psychological Association,
urge members to find ways to "give psychology away." He argued for the
need to translate what we had learned in the psychological laboratories
into information that people could use to improve their everyday lives.
A conceptual path for doing that finally became clear when I discovered
the systems science literature, and the work of James Grier Miller in
his seminal book, Living Systems (McGraw-Hill, 1978). The human
dimension became more explicit in the work of the Fords: Donald, in Humans
as Self-Constructing Living Systems (1987) and son Martin's, Motivational
Systems Theory (1992). A systems perspective is also implicit in the
earlier contributors to what has become known as the psychology of person-environment
interaction.
Another path followed was a professional career in higher education and
a search for systematic ways to understand (and constructively intervene
in) the process of both the undergraduate and graduate student experience.
Gradually, the potential usefulness of a human systems metaframework for
conceptualizing the often 6-8 year doctoral experience (intellectual,
social and psychological) became clear. The result is the systems model
of doctoral student development described in Part II below.
My interest and commitment intensified during my tenure in the Office
of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of California, San
Diego. I was concerned about the current attrition rates of 40-50% in
doctoral programs (over all disciplines) at UCSD as well as in major research
universities in this country.
This personal narrative is the context for the work and work-in-progress
presented on this site. Here is what you will find: