1939: Psychology

Development of a Comprehensive System.

Perhaps the most significant progress in psychology is the gradual development of a broad eclectic viewpoint through the convergence of major schools of thought and special fields of interest. Newer movements such as topological psychology, the analysis of forces acting in a specific behavior situation, are now recognized as developments of new or neglected sets of problems rather than complete systems of the whole field of psychology. With the gradual emergence of a large body of accepted facts and principles spirited controversies have now shifted from more general to more specific problems such as the effect of certain environmental factors upon measured intelligence, with the arguments narrowed down to the interpretation of particular groups of experiments.

Instead of defining psychology in terms of the particular interests of each school of thought it is now generally recognized that all of the interests are essential and supplementary to one another in a complete system of psychology. An outline of the contributions of each of the various schools of psychology shows that each has represented a special interest in a few related problems, and frequently only a few aspects of these problems. In cases where various schools were interested in the same aspect of a problem their differences were frequently those of terminology rather than of logical opposition. Earlier tendencies to accept or reject viewpoints as a whole are now being modified in the direction of judging each point of their work on its own merits, rejecting some, accepting some and recognizing the balance as still in need of further research.

The Eclectic Concept.

The present eclectic trend differs from earlier eclectic movements in that it not only accepts the specific factual contributions of each school but is also interested in the theoretical correlation of those facts. This development of an eclectic theoretical basis for psychology has been greatly facilitated by several broader developments in the philosophy of science. For example, it is now being recognized that we do not ordinarily 'discover' facts about the world, but rather 'construct' concepts which enable us to organize our knowledge for better understanding of a given problem. It follows that various 'constructs' may be devised to describe the same situation, and the relative usefulness of such concepts may be judged by the extent to which they enable us to understand and predict such phenomena. The movement called operationism clarifies the methods of defining any scientific phenomenon by stating the operations necessary to produce or identify it, thus grounding a science in concrete observations. While some scientists would restrict their concepts to this type alone, it seems justified to admit also the more abstract concepts providing that they can be directly related to such concrete operations as those of the more strictly operational concepts.

A group of psychologists at Yale is now attempting to provide a logical framework of psychological assumptions, hypotheses and deductions for the prediction of various types of behavior. They are attempting to extend the system from studies in animal learning to psychology in general, and as a check on their reasoning have translated their principles into symbolic logic. Such a system is not only based upon experimental results but each new deduction is also capable of being tested by further experiments. Another very significant attempt to correlate the facts of psychology is the work of Tolman in diagramming the various factors which help to determine the behavior of an animal in a particular situation, e.g., at a choice point in a maze.

As further evidence of eclecticism, most general textbooks of psychology have now so far assimilated the contributions of the various schools of thought that they no longer bother to distinguish their sources as behaviorism, structuralism, etc., except in rare instances. Similarly we find that leading representatives of two supposedly divergent schools of thought, psychoanalysis and topological psychology, have recently found it entirely possible to report their findings to other psychologists with almost no reference to the specialized terminologies which were long supposed to be necessary in each field. These and similar facts strongly suggest the possibility and usefulness of standardizing a single terminology for the major concepts of all of the special fields of psychology, as in the older sciences.

Experiments in Measurement.

Another general trend is the extension of experimental methods to nearly every field of inquiry, thus verifying Thorndike's early prediction that whatever exists must exist in some quantity and eventually will be measurable. In many cases however we have rather slighted the qualitative analyses which should underlie or accompany any quantitative study. The measurement of trends in public opinion by social psychologists and of prospective needs and preferences of consumers by industrial psychologists are examples of rapidly developing techniques. The recent highly publicized investigations on telepathy have scarcely demonstrated the existence or non-existence of such phenomena but they have brought to light a multitude of sources of error, logical, experimental and statistical, which can tell us what type of methods would be necessary to produce really crucial evidence on this problem.

Electrical recording to nerve impulses affords additional evidence that the inner ear operates on the resonance principle of Helmholtz. Several improvements have been made in the measurement of eye movements in reading, e.g., in the one technique of recording electrical potentials from the steady polarity of the eye ball by means of electrodes placed on the skin around the eye. In another device an ordinary motion picture camera photographs a mirror image of the eye positions together with a portion of the reading material as a reference point. This permits a study of the reader at home as he examines advertisements in a magazine. Such pre-testing of the effectiveness of advertising copy would obviously be of great commercial importance if it is found to be predictive of sales responses.

Studies of the affective processes, feelings, emotions, etc., have trended away from the original development of omnibus 'personality' scales and are now becoming more specialized in their emphases. Measurements of vocational interests have shown small differences between closely related professions and larger differences between other groups of professions. Evidence is accumulating that such interests and attitudes are of the same order of importance as aptitudes or abilities in determining an individual's social and vocational achievements.

Experimental Neurosis.

Experimentalists are now devoting a great deal of attention to the various types of behavior mechanisms exhibited by persons and animals placed in a difficult and frustrating situation. Such terms as compensation, rationalization, aggression, regression and phantasy, once thought of as vagaries of the Freudian psychology, are now finding verification by experimental psychologists. Such mechanisms when carried to extreme constitute the symptoms of neuroses and psychoses. The development of experimental neuroses in animals is affording insight into the prevention and treatment of human disorders.

Similar treatments are used for both animals and humans, e.g., rest, including removal from the irritating situation, the use of sedatives, and the building up of many simple habits (similar to the treatment of dementia praecox by occupational therapy of human patients). The use of insulin, metrazol and other drugs to produce convulsions in psychotic patients is being verified and analyzed to determine the degree of permanence found in the early successful treatments. These 'shock therapies' show no single set of physiological changes in common but do overlap in the common psychological factor of a strong shock as a preparation for readjustment. In dementia praecox the patients have to be forced to make some attempted adjustment with the outside world, and the shocks keep them trying until they hit upon some adjustment which is effective.

The objective psychological studies on sex and marital relations are beginning to offer a sound basis for instruction in school and for re-education of persons having strong emotion conflicts from this source, and may eventually have great importance in prevention of mental disorders.

Experiments in Intelligence.

In the field of higher processes, three types of studies predominate. Mathematical 'factor analyses' of the interrelations of human abilities are being extended from the intellectual processes to all other fields. The Iowa studies on superior or very inferior environments tend to confirm the general principle that such environmental factors may markedly affect a person's score on general intelligence tests. In studies of children under three years of age it is not yet certain that the tests employed measure the same type of function as at older ages, but in some of the studies the individuals were traced to maturity thus overcoming this objection. Experiments on the effectiveness of group discussions in influencing social attitudes are bringing to light the various factors which facilitate or inhibit the success of this type of reasoning, a contribution to the psychology of reasoning and to the social psychology of democratic action.

Experimental analyses of individual differences in manual skills and mechanical abilities indicate that these abilities are so highly specific that it would be extremely difficult to construct useful tests for the selection of manual workers. The same is true for selection of automobile drivers, and in both cases careful methods of training in effective work methods seem to be far more important than the use of simple aptitude tests.

Learning.

Although the topic of learning is perhaps the largest in the entire field of psychology, no striking developments have appeared during the year. The previously divergent types of learning theories, conditioned responses, trial and error, and insight are being further integrated into a single general set of principles. Whether or not such a single basis of learning can be derived from the traditional laboratory experiments on animal and human conditioned responses, maze learning, and rote learning of nonsense syllables is yet to be determined. Human learning of complex verbal problems outside the laboratory may be found to involve principles which are not adequately represented in the simpler experiments.

Industrial Psychology.

Industrial psychology is developing so rapidly that there is a distinct shortage of trained men and women. Personnel selection programs employing objective tests are now recognizing the necessity of considering qualitative factors as well, e.g., referring several tested applicants to a supervisor, who is allowed to select the one with whom he can work the best. In many cases adequate training programs have not yet been designed to follow up the selection measures. Customer research surveys of prospective consumer wants, preferences in design, and habits of responding to advertising and selling programs are at present both the largest and the fastest growing activities of industrial psychology.

Social Psychology.

After a long preoccupation with pure science and laboratory research psychologists have recently recognized their neglect of the vital problems of social psychology which now confront us in economic cycles, industrial strife, and international complications. Recent attempts to extend and adapt scientific methods to the study of social problems include the following types of studies: analyses of propaganda, the effects of stereotype terms such as 'communist' to produce an unreasoned emotional attitude toward another movement; the examination of various forms of government as to their assumptions regarding the nature of individual differences among its citizens and their motivation for cooperating and in respect for law; and the qualitative and statistical factors underlying conformity to social regulations. Recent developments in surveying public opinion have attracted so much interest from the general public and from governmental officers that the techniques are now being extended to various specialized areas of the United States and to England.

The inadequacy of present legislative, diplomatic and military methods of dealing with the present grave national and international problems affords a great opportunity for social psychology and related social sciences to demonstrate the feasibility of scientific approaches to some of these problems.