Researches in General Practice.

The article presents the text of a paper given by psychologist R.B. Buzzard to the Occupational Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society on July 1, 1966, which deals with general practice. The National Institute of Industrial Psychology was founded 45 years ago with the object of fostering the application of psychological and physiological principles to the problems of working life. Together with the Medical Research Council's Industrial Fatigue Research Board, later its Industrial Health Research Board, with which it was closely associated in the twenties, it pioneered the way for investigations in this field. After the war, the few places in which research in industrial psychology had previously been carried on were surrounded by research groups in the fighting services, in government departments and ministries, in operational research groups in big industries, in university departments and laboratories and in technical colleges. But the groups which were concerned especially with industrial psychology have decided to examine particular aspects of the subject for intensive study. If one is to apply their results to the problems of working life in practice, one has to learn how the bits work when put together.