“To be completely honest, I am a basic research psychologist who has spent most of his time in the laboratory since joining the Department of Psychology at Korea University as an assistant professor in 2004. Laboratory research involves persistently immersing oneself in a problem in one’s own way, often in the hope of making an unexpected discovery. It is therefore quite different from administration or leadership, which requires gathering and coordinating a wide range of opinions.

Although I am a psychologist, the areas I have primarily studied—such as learning theory and brain-signal analysis—are also somewhat removed from solving immediate real-world problems. In that sense, I believe I am beginning this role as Dean with a great deal to learn from the outset. How should I put it? It feels as though I was born a wandering hyena but have suddenly become a beaver expected to build a dam diligently every day. For that reason, assuming this position at such an important moment for our School has honestly felt like a considerable responsibility.

From my very first day, approval documents began pouring in. Reading them felt like trying to understand academic papers from a completely unfamiliar discipline, written in a language I barely knew. Nevertheless, there was one thing I firmly believed: our School of Psychology is an exceptionally cohesive and united organization. All 18 faculty members readily step forward and cooperate whenever the School needs something. When forming a committee, therefore, there is no need to worry about whom I can ask for help. Trusting these dependable colleagues, I decided to take on this role.”

“As an undergraduate, I majored in biology. In 1989, I entered the graduate program at Korea University and received my master’s degree in physiological psychology under the supervision of Professor Ki-Seok Kim. I subsequently studied abroad, earned a doctoral degree in behavioral neuroscience, and continued my research career. Perhaps because of this background, I am still occasionally asked whether I am a psychologist or a neuroscientist. Similarly, many psychologists are asked whether psychology belongs to the sciences or the humanities.

Although psychology was introduced to Korea more than a century ago, such questions reflect the fact that psychology is still not sufficiently understood as a discipline that scientifically investigates the human mind and behavior. From that perspective, the decision in 2021 to establish Korea’s first independent School of Psychology—and to allow its graduates to choose between Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science tracks—represented a highly symbolic transformation.

Personally, I have also moved between the sciences and the humanities while pursuing an academic identity that is not confined by methodological or institutional boundaries. In the process, I have collaborated not only with psychologists but also with researchers in philosophy, medicine, engineering, and various other disciplines. I hope that this experience in interdisciplinary communication and collaboration will be of at least some help in leading the School.

It also happens that I have taken on this role at precisely the moment when the School of Psychology, following its establishment, must begin to fully realize its identity as a convergence discipline. In that respect, I feel a kind of resonance that is difficult to explain scientifically.”
(Laughs.)

“Without question, the greatest strength of our School is its outstanding people. We are a relatively small School with 18 faculty members, but every one of them conducts research at the highest level, both nationally and internationally, in their respective fields. That may sound somewhat conventional, so let me put it another way: it is like having to select a starting lineup but being unable to find a single player who deserves to be left off the roster.

On the strength of this research capacity, our School currently operates the only large-scale BK psychology program in Korea. Through this program, approximately 80 master’s and doctoral students receive stable research scholarships each year. The quality of our undergraduate students also continues to improve, and I am particularly impressed that we are attracting students with a strong affection for and commitment to psychology.

In addition, the Graduate School of Psychology Convergence Sciences was established three years ago to further expand the School’s system for cultivating talent, and it produced its first graduating class this year. It is an evening professional graduate school—the first of its kind in Korea—created to enable people from a variety of professions and areas of expertise to grow by finding points of connection with psychological science. Each year, it attracts excellent applicants and maintains a highly competitive admission rate of more than three applicants per available place.

Supported by this strong pool of talent, the areas in which psychology graduates can contribute are also expanding rapidly. In the past, psychology was primarily recognized in clinical and counseling settings or in corporate human-resources departments. Today, however, the expertise of psychology graduates is valued in a much wider range of fields, including advanced industries such as automobiles and gaming, as well as data science, human factors, drug development, and artificial intelligence. I expect this trend to accelerate further.”

“Psychology has always carried the label of being ‘new.’ If we trace the origin of modern psychology to Wilhelm Wundt’s establishment of an experimental laboratory, it is indeed a relatively young discipline, only about 150 years old. More importantly, however, psychology investigates the human mind, which has always been regarded as an unknown frontier. It has also been deeply connected to the birth and development of cutting-edge fields such as cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. In that sense, the word ‘new’ may be one of the best descriptions of the essential character of psychology.

I believe the time has now come for psychology to build on these characteristics and assume the role of a mature convergence discipline—one that integrates and systematizes the diverse fields of knowledge and technology around it. Psychology has already accumulated ample capacity to perform this role. The theories and methods through which psychology has systematically and scientifically investigated the human mind—once considered solely a subject of philosophical reflection—can now be applied proactively to solving the social and technological problems we face today.

As these changes continue, the range of activities available to psychologists will also expand. Psychologists will remain important in traditional mental-health fields, but their role will become increasingly significant in emerging areas that combine psychology with digital technology, including digital addiction and human–technology interaction.

Artificial intelligence, in particular, is developing so rapidly that even experts find it difficult to predict its future. Yet it is precisely under these circumstances that psychology has much to contribute. Psychology is the discipline that has studied the nature of intelligence longer and more systematically than any other. Psychological knowledge is also essential for understanding and interpreting abnormal behaviors in artificial intelligence, such as hallucination and sycophancy.

Notably, several faculty members in our School are already actively pioneering advanced areas of research, including big data, artificial intelligence, and digital therapeutics. Our students are also responding proactively to these developments and preparing themselves for the future.”

“Everyone tends to believe that their own field is the most interesting. A legal scholar may find the law most interesting; an architect, buildings; and a cardiothoracic surgeon, the heart. But when we stop to think about it, none of these things could be considered ‘interesting’ without a mind capable of experiencing interest. How, then, does that mind work?

I believe that all of us who study psychology have asked ourselves this question at least once. I hope we never forget that it is our pursuit of this ‘ultimate curiosity’ that binds us together as a community. This is not merely a piece of humanistic rhetoric. It is also a reminder of how close we have come to answering this question compared with the many great thinkers who asked it over the past several centuries but lacked the means to investigate it scientifically.

It is at this point that the vast theoretical and technological resources accumulated by psychology—from operational definitions and statistical concepts to sophisticated experimental designs and the latest neuroimaging techniques—finally acquire their full meaning.

I believe that our identity as psychologists lies in our ability to hold fast to fundamental questions about the human mind and behavior while systematically applying the resulting knowledge to the practical challenges of the future.

The School of Psychology must become a community that cultivates people with precisely these qualities. I dream of a day when anyone who has had the pleasure of working with one of our graduates will learn that they studied psychology at Korea University and nod knowingly, saying, “Ah, that explains it.”