Walter L. Arias Gallegos

Background

I am Peruvian and a father of three children. I earned my degree in Psychology from the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa (UNSA – Peru). I hold a Master’s in Educational Sciences with a specialisation in Cognitive Psychopedagogy from the UNPRG and a Doctorate in Psychology from the UNSA. I have a second specialisation in Guidance, Counselling and Family Psychotherapy from the UNSA (with professors from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid who trained me in systemic family therapy) and another second specialisation in Catholic University Teaching from the Universidad Católica San Pablo (UCSP). I hold diplomas in Strategic Human Resource Management, Management of Integrated Management Systems, and Neurosciences Applied to Education.

My professional experience is oriented towards working as an educational psychologist in various regular basic-education and higher-education institutions in the city of Arequipa. As a clinical psychologist I have experience in counselling and psychological care in public and private health centres of the southern macro-region of Peru. As an occupational psychologist I am part of the professional staff of the Center for Integral Occupational Medicine in the specialty of occupational mental health. As an organisational psychologist I have carried out recruitment and personnel selection processes in private companies, and I provide training in various companies in Peru on topics such as job satisfaction, customer service, occupational mental health, conflict resolution in the workplace, and so on.

I am currently a full-time assistant professor in the Department of Psychology of the Universidad Católica San Pablo in Arequipa (Peru), and I am a research lecturer certified by Concytec in the Carlos Monge III category. As a university lecturer I have worked at undergraduate and graduate level in various universities in Peru and abroad. I have published seven books: Psicólogos, hombres de ciencia (2005), Fundamentos del aprendizaje (2008), Estrés crónico en el trabajo (2012), Síndrome de burnout y afrontamiento (2015), Correspondencia entre Walter Blumenfeld y Edwin Boring (2015), the latter co-authored with Tomás Caycho and Miguel Barboza; Los estudios frenológicos de Juan Gualberto Deán Valdivia en la Arequipa del siglo XIX (2018); and Psicología y familia, cinco enfoques sobre la familia y sus implicancias psicológicas (2020). I am preparing other books on the history of psychology and positive psychology at work.

I have been editor-in-chief of various psychology journals, such as the Revista de Psicología de Arequipa, the Revista de Investigación de la UCSP, and the journal Perspectiva de Familia, and I am currently the director of the Revista de Psicología de la UCSP. I am also a member of the editorial board of several national and international journals, and for many others I have served as a reviewer or academic peer for the review of research articles.

I have published almost 200 empirical and theoretical studies in indexed journals in Peru and abroad on psychology, education and work. On Google Scholar I am listed as one of the 10 most influential Peruvian psychologists, with an h-index above 40; my h-index on Scopus is 5. My research lines are: history of psychology (psychology in Arequipa, Latin American psychology and Soviet psychology), educational psychology (learning styles, metacognition, ICTs, teacher stress, academic performance, etc.), occupational and occupational-safety psychology (psychosocial risk at work, burnout syndrome, coping, organisational climate, job satisfaction), neuropsychology (neuropsychology of learning, prefrontal syndrome, laterality and hemispheric dominance), positive psychology (happiness, optimism, hope, gratitude, forgiveness) and family psychology (family integration).

I am a member of the Peruvian Society of Educational Research (SIEP), the Peruvian Society of Emergency and Disaster Psychology, the Ibero-American Network of Researchers in the History of Psychology (RIPeHP), the Interamerican Society of Psychology (SIP), the Peruvian Society of History, and an international affiliate of the American Psychological Association. I am also a founding member and current president of the Peruvian Society for the History of Psychology.