Technopsychology: A new wave of psychological inquiry

Technology plays an important role in human existence, yet its theoretical significance has seldom been explored in psychology. This article introduces technopsychology, a new framework for exploring human-technology relationships. In doing so, it traces three waves in the history of psychology: First, cognitive psychology, which treats technologies as distant objects that we ‘look-at’. Second, discursive psychology, which views technologies as passive symbols that we ‘talk-about’. Finally, the article presents technopsychology, which treats technologies as active mediators that we ‘interact-with’. Drawing on insights from science and technology studies (STS), the article goes on to present three tenets of technopsychology: 1) a rehabilitation of human embodiment, 2) an understanding that human bodies are materially situated, and 3) the recognition that human agency is technologically mediated. By highlighting the active role of material artifacts, technopsychology seeks to challenge earlier waves of inquiry and expand the study of psychology. Ultimately, technopsychology invites psychology to reimagine its core phenomena—such as attention, memory, racism, and sexism—not as occurring apart from technology, but as enacted through our everyday entanglements with it.