Robopsychology is the study of the personalities of intelligent machines. The term and the concept were popularised by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...

 in the short stories collected in I, Robot

I, Robot

I, Robot is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an edition of 5,000 copies. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950. The stories are...

, which featured robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin

Susan Calvin

Dr. Susan Calvin is a fictional character from Isaac Asimov's Robot Series. She was the chief robopsychologist at US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., the major manufacturer of robots in the 21st century...

, and whose plots largely revolved around the protagonist solving problems connected with intelligent robot

Robot

A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

 behaviour.

The stories also introduced Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics

Three Laws of Robotics

The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by the science fiction author Isaac Asimov and later added to. The rules are introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although they were foreshadowed in a few earlier stories...

. Another robopsychologist mentioned by name (the only other one in the robot series) is Clinton Madarian, who is introduced as being Susan Calvin's successor in the story Feminine Intuition.

As described by Asimov, robopsychology appears to be a mixture of detailed mathematical analysis

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 and traditional psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

, applied to robots. Human psychology is also a part, covering human interaction with robots. This includes the "Frankenstein complex

Frankenstein complex

In Isaac Asimov's robot novels, the Frankenstein complex is a term that he coined for the fear of mechanical men.-History:Some of Asimov's S.F...

" – the irrational fear that robots (or other creations) will turn on their creator.

See also

• Psychohistory
  Psychohistory (fictional)
  Psychohistory is a fictional science in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe which combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people, such as the Galactic Empire...
  
  
• Cybernetics
  Cybernetics
  Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
  
  
• Human-robot interaction