Society for Psychophysiological Research

The Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR) is an international scientific organization with over 800 members worldwide. The society is composed of scientists whose research is focused on the study of the interrelationships between the physiological and psychological aspects of behavior.

“The body is the medium of experience and the instrument of action. Through its actions we shape and organize our experiences and distinguish our perceptions of the outside world from sensations that arise within the body itself.” (Jonathan Miller, The Body in Question, 1978)

Like anatomy and physiology, psychophysiology is a branch of science interested in bodily systems. However, anatomy is primarily concerned with body structures and relationships amongst structures, and physiology is primarily interested in the function of these structures or systems—or with how different parts of the body work. Psychophysiological research covers both of these concerns, but is also interested in connecting anatomy and physiology with psychological phenomena. In other words, psychophysiological research can consist of the study of social, psychological, and/or behavioral phenomena as they are reflected in the body. A great deal of psychophysiological research has focused on the physiological instantiation of emotion, but with increased access to measures of the central nervous system (CNS), psychophysiological research has also examined cognitive processes.

As late as the 1950s, the field of psychophysiology was not a fully unified discipline. Psychophysiologists published in multiple non-specialist journals and were often not abreast of their colleagues’ work. However, in 1955, the influential early psychophysiologist Albert F. Ax (1913-1994) began circulating The Psychophysiology Newsletter, a slight collection of methodological observations and bibliographies for various psychophysiological methods. The first volume was free to subscribers, and for several years the newsletter circulated to fewer than 50 members.

Nonetheless, his work on the newsletter allowed Ax to organize and open communication amongst psychophysiologists from across North America. Through his work, the discipline and field of psychophysiology began to cohere. Scientists were better able to communicate not only their scientific findings, but also methodological advances they’d made in what was—at the time—a relatively crude and fledgling science. In the 1950s, Ax also began arranging formal meetings of these early psychophysiologists in what became known as the “Psychophysiology Group.” For several years, the group met regularly at the annual American Psychological Association (APA) conference. And at the 1959 APA meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, the group decided to establish its own society, in part in order to oversee the transformation of the The Psychophysiology Newsletter into a peer-reviewed scientific journal (which would become the journal Psychophysiology). Aside from Ax, many scientists who would go on to be officers of the fledgling society were present, including R.C. Davis (chair of the organizing board), Marion Augustus “Gus” Wenger, Robert Edelberg, Martine Orne, Clinton C. Brown, and William W. Grings. The society took the name Society for Psychophysiological Research, and since its first informal gatherings at APA meetings, now has over 800 members worldwide, and has held 51 annual meetings in North America and Europe.

...
Wikipedia