Family Psychology
Abstract
<p>In the inaugural issue of the Journal , Part I of the Editor's Introduction defined the scope and mission of the Journal of Family Psychology and mapped the territory that the Journal will negotiate. An outline of the material the Journal is most interested in publishing and the preferred formats were also presented. Part II of the Introduction will address the developmental status of the discipline for which the Journal of Family Psychology is named and discuss the progress and prospects of this field. Using the familiar developmental metaphor, the current and future tasks of family psychology will be explored. To certain psychologists the discipline of family psychology is familiar, but to many others, it is still an emerging field and an ambiguously defined area, its contents and proponents more identified as existing outside (e.g., in family therapy) rather than within psychology.</p><p>Assessing the developmental status of family psychology depends on who makes the judgment as well as on the particular domain being assessed. Let us consider the issue of the source of the assessment first. Many psychologists have considered themselves "family psychologists" despite the lack of a formal designation as such (or for that matter, the absence of