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INTRODUCTION
Having come from all over
the world to attend the 13th Congress of the International Association of
Applied Psychology, you have wished, gentlemen, to take this occasion to visit Us.
We are happy to receive you here and We wholeheartedly welcome each one of you.
The subject which interests
you and from which the present Congress derives its name is applied psychology:
but without limiting your research only to practical applications you also take
into sizable consideration questions relating to theoretical psychology.
This appears from the
abundant documentation which you have submitted to Us on the four sections into
which your work is divided: psychology applied to labor and professional
orientation, medical psychology, scholastic psychology and criminal and
penitentiary psychology. Each part deals on many occasions with questions of
deontology involved in these matters.
You have also observed that
in this respect there exist certain differences of opinion between
psychologists and theologians which give rise to regrettable uncertainties in
ideas and actions and you have requested Us to give clarification insofar as
possible.
Two points especially have
been brought to Our notice: the widespread use of certain tests1 by
which one goes so far as to delve unscrupulously into the intimate depths of
the soul, and the related, but larger problem, of the moral responsibility of
the psychologist, that of the extent and limitations of his rights and of his
duties in the use of scientific methods, whether in theoretical research or in
practical application.
We will deal with these two
points in our survey, by embodying them within the framework of a greater
synthesis: the religious and moral aspects of the human personality and the
object of psychology. We will take the following points into consideration:
1) The definition of human
personality from the psychological and moral point of view;
2) The moral obligations of
the psychologist in relation to the human personality;
3) The fundamental moral
principles related to the human personality and to psychology.
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