ABSTRACT
It is possible to conduct research in isolation, but I do not recommend it, especially in a subject like psychology. Philosophers and theorists may work well on their own, but empirical researchers tend to work best in groups with much collaboration and interaction. However, there are some historical and cultural influences on research groups that should be acknowledged at the outset. It is sometimes said that teaching departments in universities follow either the zoo or the safari park model. In a zoo, you have one animal of each kind. I believe that 30 years or so ago, the zoo model dominated just about everywhere. Academic staff were chosen to teach a broad undergraduate curriculum, so the thinking was that you needed to have a pretty even distribution of expertise in all areas of the subject. In the UK, there has been a dramatic shift in recent years towards the safari park model, where you have a small number of packs of similar animals. Building groups of likeminded faculty has been seen as an effective means of chasing high ratings in the Research Assessment Exercise, which rewards strong research output with additional funding. Various solutions have then been found to the problem of delivering a broad undergraduate curriculum.
