What is special about economic psychology?

Abstract

If economic psychology is supposed to study economic behavior, it has to rely on the same theories and methods as any other applied social psychology. Subdividing the broad field of applied social psychology may better be one according to tasks (e. g.; decision making, measuring attitudes and forecasting behavior, influencing people, training, resolving conflicts) than according to environmental contexts (e. g., school, courtroom, business organization, market). However, economic psychology may become a discipline of its own by focusing more on how the many individuals' economic behavior produces the macroeconomic environment without neglecting the question on how individuals and their social systems respond to the economic environment.