Synopses & Reviews
This book examines the work of social and personality psychologists in 1930s America.
Review
"Pandora has written a beautifully nuanced book about one particular episode in the nexus between ideas, politics, and science. It is an object lesson in how far the history of psychology has moved beyond the disciplinary obsessions and great-figure stories that contained scholarship in the past." Ellen Herman, Jrnl of Interdisciplinary HistoryThis book should be on the shelves of anyone interested in the history of psychology" Isis"...Pandora has produced a fine case study of the ways in which culture and science are constitutive of each other....Pandora has written a history that should be of interest to specialists as well as to historians of medicine and science." Joel Barslow, American Historical Review
Synopsis
This book examines the work of social and personality psychologists who, in the 1930s, criticized the increasingly restrictive vision of scientific life being promoted by neobehaviorist social scientists. This critique has been overlooked by historians who have concentrated on the rise of neobehaviorism, rather than the challenges advanced by such rebels within the ranks as Gordon Allport, Gardner Murphy, and Lois Barclay Murphy. All three contributed to ongoing public and professional debates about democracy and the authority of scientific knowledge in New Deal America.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-251) and index.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. The Deep Context of Dissent: Jamesian Philosophy and Social Gospel Theology; 2. Challenging the Rule of the Game; 3. Defying the Law of Averages: Constructing a Science of Individuality; 4. The Pursuit of âImpureâScience: Constructing a Science of Social Life; 5. Natural History and Psychological Habitats; 6. Exploratory Relativism and Patterns of Possibility; Conclusions; Endnotes.