Towards a psychology of caring

An increasing awareness of the chronicity of many conditions, and reservations about the appropriateness of 'treatment' models of intervention, together encourage a positive and careful psychological examination of caring. A psychology of caring must be relevant to care by families in domestic settings as well as to more specialized and professionally staffed settings. The relationship between explicit and implicit philosophies of caring, the goals and objectives of caring, the care practices themselves, and the emotions and feeling associated with care, need to be carefully examined. As applied psychologists, there are many detailed aspects of care we could examine, including the nature of need, vigilance, risk taking, the elicitation of care, identifying the motivation of potential carers, and care evaluation. Much of the literature on caring is derived from organizational and sociological perspectives: there is room for, and a need for, a specifically psychological perspective as well.