School Psychology in the USA and USSR

Abstract

Understanding of international issues in comparative psychology requires a dynamic view of historical trends and current developments. Such analysis usually requires consideration of political, ideological, sociological and educational realities. In addition, understanding of school psychology as an academic and service-oriented discipline requires some understanding of a general field of psychology in a given country. In the past, interest in Soviet psychology has been widely documented among American psychologists (Bauer, 1952; Razran, 1971; Brozek and Slobin, 1972; Rahman, 1973; Brozek and Mecacci, 1974; Holowinsky, 1978). This interest, however, has been sporadic, not well focused and did not involve concerns of major professional organizations. More recently we are noticing an expression of interest in more focused cross-cultural scholarship in international education in psychology (Cole, 1984; Kennedy, Scheirer and Rogers, 1984; Russell, 1984; Staudt and Misiak, 1984; Triandis and Brislin, 1984). The purpose of this paper is to present a brief cross-cultural comparison of school psychology in the USA and the USSR. This discussion will begin with a brief description of the educational environments of the two countries.