Advancing Science, Clinical Care and Education: Shall we Update Engel’s Biopsychosocial Model to a Bio-Psycho-Socio-Cultural Model?

Donald M. Hilty*

Advancing Science, Clinical Care and Education: Shall we Update Engel’s Biopsychosocial Model to a Bio-Psycho-Socio-Cultural Model?

Psychology and Cognitive Sciences attempts to lead, organize and contribute to the study of mind and intelligence, including memory, emotions, conceptual development and decision-making. It therefore draws on the fields of psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, mathematics, computer science and linguistics.

The primary scope, accordingly, involves human behavior, cognition, emotions, and intelligence. As we move forward with this scope, we have the option to narrow or expand it, based on the evolution of the fields, readers’ preferences, and in how much we want to entertain applications of this work. In the latter case, one potential secondary scope is how we apply this science to other areas of science, to training and education paradigms, or even clinical populations – this may occur via rich, contextualized narratives that capitalize on qualitative methodology to generate hypotheses that can be further explored.

Natural extensions to this primary scope are bio and health informatics, but perhaps education and training of workforce and the next generation of scientists would be suitable, too. This editorial on the Biopsychosocial Model – an update suggested on it – shows the primary and potential secondary scopes of the Journal. Models are absolutely fundamental to the progress of science, but it is surprising when we realize just how little of the philosophical work on defining what a Model is or what it does, has percolated through to the scientific literature.

Psychology and Cognitive Sciences expertise draws on the fields of psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, mathematics, computer science and linguistics. There are many applications of this science to other walks of life – from other areas of science, to training and education, clinical populations and still others. A new Biopsychosociocultural Model exemplifies this application,
capitalizing on the Journal’s primary and potential secondary scopes.

Psychol Cogn Sci Open J. 2015; 1(1): e1-e6. doi: 10.17140/PCSOJ-1-e001

 

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