Prof. Zhang Kan, president of the Chinese Society of Psychology and director of the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out at CAST Annual Meeting that psychological science should study how to serve the construction of a harmonious society. He said that psychology has proved to be the lubricant, regulator and stablizer in the process of modernization of the nation and the society.

However, in terms of the emphases of psychology and their distribution, very little has been done to address the issues arising from the process of building a harmonious society, Zhang Kan said. The problem of inadequacy of systemic basic research is obvious, and it is especially true with those issues concerning the macro systems and those concerning the social and cultural aspects. In addition, most of the research findings are merely a pile of survey statistics or conclusions void of practicability.

Therefore, Prof. Zhang Kan suggests that measures be taken as early as possible to integrate the advanteges of psychology, behavior and social sciences, brain sciences, genetic sciences and information sciences and initiate basic and applied researches focusing on the problems of theoretical and practical importance in the building of a harmonious society.