The national key discipline of Applied Psychology in Zhejiang University originated from the previous Industrial Psychology program in Hangzhou University, which was founded by Professor Chen Li, the initiator of industrial psychology in China. The program was approved as one of the first batch of National Key Disciplines by the former State Education Commission in 1988. It was also one of the first batch of Specialties leading to Master and Doctor degree in the area of psychology in China. In addition, the program owns the very first Chinese State Specialized Laboratory to conduct psychological research. In 2002, its name was officially changed from Industrial Psychology to Applied Psychology because of subject catalog modification. It has been listed twice as one of the National Key Disciplines ever since.

This Applied Psychology program is oriented by topics with social significance, in application of psychology and advanced technologies, and in international hot research area. Combined with Zhejiang University’s advantage of multiple-discipline integration, the program has gradually developed into four research branches: intelligent human-machine interaction, aviation engineering psychology, management psychology and human resource development, and mental health and psychological counseling.

More than 280 diverse research projects have been carried out within the discipline, including more than 160 national and provincial projects, such as the National Natural Science Foundation program, “863” Program, “973” Program, National Defense Preparatory Research Key Program, PanDdeng Program, Philosophy and Social Science Critical Program of Ministry of Education, and over 50 international collaborative projects supported by NIH, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Motorola, and Nokia etc. In addition to a dozen of published textbooks and monographs, more than 320 papers have been published on international and national academic journals, among which over 20 papers are indexed by SCI, SSCI, and EI. Accordingly 20 national and provincial awards including 1 second prize and 2 third prize of the National Award for Progress in Science and Technology, 1 first prize of the Zhejiang Province Prize for Progress in Science and Technology, and 1 first prize of the Zhejiang Province Philosophy and Social Science Excellent Achievement Prize as well as 6 National Authorized Patents have been awarded.

Furthermore, the Science Base for Research and Teaching Talent Training program, which was the first to be approved in the psychological domain in China, has been established within the Applied Psychology program. The teaching staff in the program, featured with strong academic background and reasonable age structure, consists of 11 professors and 12 associate professors. Six of them are awardees of the “151 Talent Project” of Zhejiang Province and 13 (persons/times) appointed as honorary chairmen, deputy chairmen, executive members, or members in top national academies. The program has become an important psychological training base, having cultivated both academic and practical specialists in the area of applied psychology who are now serving as backbones in teaching, researching, practice, and industries. As a result, the department was awarded 1 first prize of the Zhejiang Province Award and 1 second prize of the National Award for Excellence in Teaching. In addition, two PhD students have been nominated for National Award for Excellent Doctoral Dissertation.