1938: Psychology

Progress and Trends.

Progress in psychology during the past year has been steady in nearly every line, but represents the extension and consolidation of earlier lines of work rather than any startlingly new ideas. Experimentation remains the dominant interest, but the long neglected theoretical integration of research findings is beginning to recover its rightful emphasis.

The present trends in psychological theory are strongly toward eclecticism. The various viewpoints, such as behaviorism, which seemed so divergent a decade ago have now converged so much as to seem largely a matter of emphasis on special fields of interest, with all of the viewpoints necessary to provide a complete coverage of psychology. Although psychologists are now finding themselves more and more in agreement on major principles, the vast number of new developments and the difficulties of keeping up with the ever broadening literature are forcing a higher degree of specialization of interests. The question has now been raised as to whether or not psychology may not eventually split up into two or more fields, perhaps clustering around the biological and social interests respectively.

Qualitative Interests.

One general trend which is coming to the fore is the interest in the qualitative study of intermediate processes between the stimulus and the final overt response. In this trend the psychological emphasis is upon patterns of action, including sets, attitudes, work methods and adjustment mechanisms, the question of how a person responds to a situation. The physiological counterpart of this interest is the study of the electrical brain waves and muscular action currents which are now accessible to study by newly devised radio amplifying systems.

Still another qualitative interest is a continued development of gestalt psychology which is called topological psychology, or the non-metric analysis of the forces operating on an individual so as to predict the type of behavior which he will exhibit in this specific instance. While a great deal of interest has arisen concerning the new trend from group statistics to the study of individual cases, it is not at all certain that the particular theories and terminology may not be equally well described in older and better known terms.

A very curious trend of the purposive gestalt psychology is its increasing resemblance to the ultra-mechanistic theories of tropisms advanced by the physiologist Loeb many years ago, and which has long been considered to be an opposing point of view. The emphasis upon the dynamic nature of behavior is now widely accepted by practically all points of view, though its details of theory remain vague, and experimental evidence is therefore difficult to evaluate. In a further development of gestalt psychology the original emphasis upon the unitary nature (gestalt quality) of mental and overt acts has been carried even further by another school. The late William Stern, in his personalistic psychology, has criticized the application of gestalt concepts to separate acts as being atomistic, and maintains that the whole person is the fundamental gestalt figure.

Studies of Sensory and Affective Processes.

Investigations in the sensory processes continue to emphasize the importance of audition, with several notable researches and symposia by both psychologists and physiologists, together with two major books on hearing and the psychology of music. Studies on vision have recently emphasized the gestalt phenomena of size constancy in the perception of figures at varying distances.

Affective or feeling processes have been clarified by the recent publication of several major books in the field, emphasizing both the physiological bases of emotions and the qualitative nature of emotional adjustment mechanisms.

Effects of Environment.

Probably the most striking announcements of the year have concerned the very marked effects of environment upon the intelligence quotient or other intelligence test scores. Cumulative evidence from the study of numerous individuals from pre-school age through to college has indicated a far greater modifiability of intelligence test scores than has previously been suspected. Investigations by Iowa psychologists have shown marked increases in test scores and ranks as a result of long-continued contact with superior environment, facts which no control experiments so far devised have been able to explain away. Children of inferior parents adopted into superior foster homes at an early age show similar large improvements in measured intelligence, while orphan children living in a state institution with deficient educational stimulation declined markedly after several years until adequate education facilities were provided.

Factorial Analyses.

Recently-developed statistical methods of factor analysis indicate that the abilities measured by general intelligence tests are really over-lapping groups of abilities rather than one general ability. Qualitative studies are now under way to analyze the psychological nature of problem solving and reasoning which, although among the oldest of psychological topics, have been somewhat dormant during recent behavioristic developments.

Factor analysis is also being applied to the newer field of individual differences in manual and bodily skills. Preliminary findings indicate that differences in gross athletic skills rest partly upon differences in specialized anatomical development; but in other cases, and especially in finer manual skills, the relationship between skills rests more upon similarities in types of action, a functional rather than an anatomical basis.

Personality.

The field of personality finds several new books which help to integrate and reinterpret the scattered research upon this topic, but the field needs still further integration with the discussion of the various separate activities of the individual, which now receive most of the space in psychological texts. One evidence of the increased recognition accorded to personality is the appearance of the new type of 'student centered' as opposed to 'science centered' older texts. The newer student-centering emphasis includes a much more extensive treatment of personality and individual differences than was formerly found in general texts.

In keeping with the findings upon the modifiability of intelligence test scores, workers in vocational guidance are coming to regard individual aptitudes in the special fields as also modifiable, a trend away from the extreme hereditarian emphasis. Vocational guidance is receiving a rapidly increasing amount of attention in schools, but still awaits a very extensive reexamination and further research before it can begin to fulfill its promise.

The use of various paper and pencil 'personality inventories,' 'attitude scales' and other trait measures has disclosed the necessity for a much more careful type of validation of such measurements, by comparison with the results of carefully worked out clinical case histories. Objective test scores themselves are sometimes found to represent only 'what the person says about it' rather than 'what they do about it,' a distinct though not fatal limitation upon their usefulness.

Methodologies.

Methodologies as such are receiving more intensive study as it becomes necessary to check and refine details in nearly every field. In addition to the qualitative methods, electrical techniques, and factorial analyses already mentioned, the methods of sample surveys stand out as a contribution of applied psychology and commerce. Great improvements have been made in the accuracy of 'straw votes' or public opinion and in market research on prospective consumer needs and wants.

Social Experimentation.

The social experiments initiated by the Federal Government are of the greatest interest, though often lacking in definite significance because of the lack of controls and the neglect of refinements which could only be made possible by preliminary experimentation on a smaller scale. Miniature experiments on small groups, concerning social relationships of the democratic and autocratic types have been introduced with promising results in topological psychology. These may point the way to similar developments of great social importance in planning or evaluating new social developments.

Abnormal Psychology.

In abnormal psychology the progress in the treatment of the severe mental disorder, dementia praecox, continues along medical lines of 'shock therapy,' involving the repeated use of strong doses of drugs to produce coma or convulsions and thereby force the patient back into more normal contact with his environment. The fundamental nature of the recovery process is still uncertain, as is also the permanence of the recoveries, but the percentage of successful cases is so striking in contrast with previous lack of success as to be very encouraging. Further important developments should be forthcoming on this tropic in the next few years, particularly in finding modifications of the treatment which can attain the same results with less severe means.

Educational Psychology.

In educational psychology the various theories of learning, both purposive and mechanistic, seem to be fitting into a larger eclectic theory which combines the principal features of both approaches in a single description. With the current developments in the progressive education movement, educational psychology merges into social psychology with strong emphasis on the study of socialized living and current social issues.

Applied Psychology.

Applied psychology in general has progressed significantly in the formation of a new professional association which is setting up standards of practice similar to those of the older professions. Such an association may also speed up progress in many other ways so as to make the services of applied psychologists much more widely available to the public. Cooperation with workers in related sciences and business is now very common and effective. Likewise, applied scientists have in many cases developed their work to the point where they may contribute significant findings and evaluations to pure science as well as to the arts and industry.