Who We Are
Founded in 1960, the Society for Psychophysiological Research is an international scientific society with worldwide membership. Our purpose is to foster research on the interrelationships between the physiological and psychological aspects of behavior. To promote this purpose, the society publishes scientific literature, including the journal Psychophysiology, and holds annual meetings for presentation and discussion of original theory and research, instrumentation and methodology, and new directions and standards in the field.
The Society has more than 800 members worldwide and is affiliated with the Association for Psychological Science (APS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Health and Behavior Alliance.
SPR 50th ANNIVERSARY VIDEO
The Society for Psychophysiological Research celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2010.
What We Do
Society for Psychophysiological Research publishes scientific literature, including the journal Psychophysiology, and holds annual meetings for presentation and discussion of original theory and research, instrumentation and methodology, and new directions and standards in the field. We also manage a robust awards program, including Student Poster Awards and Tursky Awards, given at the annual meeting for outstanding presentations by student members, and the Early Career Award and the Distinguished Contributions to Psychophysiology Award.
What is Psychophysiology?
Psychology and psychophysiology share the goal of explaining human experience and behavior, and physiological constructs and processes are an explicit and integral component of theoretical thinking in psychophysiology. Psychophysiology can be conceptualized as a natural extension of anatomy and physiology in the scientific pursuit of understanding human processes and behavior. It is the joint consideration of physiological and functional perspectives, however, that is thought to improve operationalization, measurement, and inference and therefore to enrich research and theory on cognition, emotion, and behavior. In psychophysiology the emphasis is on integrating data from multiple levels of analysis to illuminate psychological functions and mechanisms rather than on physiological structures per se. Psychophysiology is based on the presupposition that human perception, thought, emotion, and action are embodied phenomena, and that measures of physical (e.g., neural, hormonal) processes can therefore shed light on the human mind. The level of analysis in psychophysiology is not on isolated components of the body, but rather on organismic–environmental transactions. Thus, psychophysiology can be defined as the scientific study of social, psychological, and behavioral phenomena as related to and revealed through physiological principles and events in functional organisms.
Excerpted from the forthcoming Handbook of Psychophysiology, 4th edition, J.T. Cacioppo, L.G. Tassinary & G.G. Berntson, Editors, Cambridge University Press.