Bulletin Number Two 1982

Q. In the past ， when we offered the minor programme, could students apply what they learnt in their work? A. It is difficult to cite careers which are specifically related to undergraduate Psychology courses. Psychological theories can be used and applied in many kinds of work. What we are trying to do is to help students understand behaviour from a more perceptive perspective. Students who majored in Social Work and minored in Psychology found that they could apply what they had learnt in counselling. Sociology majors and students of the Faculty of Business Administration could also use psychological theories and approaches in social research, administration and management. Graduates who joined the educational field also felt that Psychology had its practical value both in teaching and in student guidance. Generally speaking, personnel and research work in the commercial field, industrial and social research, administration, teaching, and other social services are some of the bigger outlets for Psychology undergraduates. However, further professional training is necessary for those who wish to become professional psychologists. Q. Is it too early for us to talk about the introduction of a postgraduate programme now? A. We have considered the setting up of a postgraduate programme in our long-term planning. It is our hope that graduates can receive further professional training so that there will be more experts in this field to meet the needs of Hong Kong. PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY DR. I. M. LIU Professor I. M. Liu Professor Liu In-mao was among the first class of majors to graduate from the Department of Psychology at the National Taiwan University in 1953. After receiving his M.S. at Ohio University in 1957 and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 1959 ， he became the first graduate of his department to join the faculty of his alma mater, the National Taiwan University, and has remained there till this year. His third "first" has to do with his chair as Professor of the newly established Department of Psychology at this University, he has no predecessor. Professor Liu brings with him a wealth of experience in administration and research. He was the Head of the Department of Psychology at the National Taiwan University from 1969 to 1975. He has published numerous English and Chinese articles on reaction time, conditioning, verbal learning, and cognition in international journals such as the American Journal of Psychology, Memory and Cognition, Journal of Experimental Psychology, Psychological Review, Acta Psychologica Taiwanica, and Japanese Psychological Research. His recent research interests lie in the human memory system and the psychological process of comprehension. He is studying how people learn and store new information in long-term memory, and how one's existing knowledge structure interacts with the input of new knowledge structure. In his investigations on comprehension, he is examining the internal processes of sentence comprehension, analogical reasoning, subjective preference and value judgment. These important studies represent the scientific inquiry of everyday psychological behaviour in which microfacts vigorously investigated in the laboratory may be used in basic knowledge building as well as in practical applications. Professor Liu has authored or edited several Chinese books on general psychology and basic psychological processes, which are important in promoting the understanding of Psychology as a scientific discipline. The same vigour will be seen in his development of the Psychology major programme at our University, which integrates knowledge, method, and application in the study of a field often mistaken for common sense or myth. —F. M. C Cheung 12 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS