Rebels Within The Ranks: Psychologists' Critique Of Scientific Authority And Democratic Realities In New Deal America (cambridge Studies In The History Of Psychology)

During The 1930s, Psychologists Gordon Allport, Gardner Murphy, And Lois Barclay Murphy Emerged From The Fields Of Social And Personality Psychology To Challenge The Neobehavioralist Status Quo In American Social Science. Willing To Experiment With The Idea Of Science Itself, These Rebels Within The Ranks Contested Ascendent Conventions That Cast The Study Of Human Life In The Image Of Classical Physics. Drawing On The Intellectual, Social, And Political Legacies Of William James' Radically Empiricist Philosophy And Radical Social Gospel Theology, These Three Psychologists Developed Critiques Of Scientific Authority And Democratic Reality As They Worked At The Crossroads Of The Social And The Personal In New Deal America. Appropriating Models From Natural History, They Argued For The Significance Of Individuality, Contextuality, And Diversity As Scientific Concepts As They Explored What They Envisioned As The Nature Of Democracy, And The Democracy Of Nature. 1. The Deep Context Of Dissent: Jamesian Philosophy And Social Gospel Theology -- 2. Challenging The Rules Of The Game -- 3. Defying The Law Of Averages: Constructing A Science Of Individuality -- 4. The Pursuit Of Impure Science: Constructing A Science Of Social Life -- 5. Natural History And Psychological Habitats -- 6. Exploratory Relativism And Patterns Of Possibility. Katherine Pandora. Includes Bibliographical References. "During the 1930s, psychologists Gordon Allport, Gardner Murphy, and Lois Barclay Murphy emerged from the fields of social and personality psychology to challenge the neobehavioralist status quo in American social science. Willing to experiment with the idea of "science" itself, these "rebels within the ranks" contested ascendent conventions that cast the study of human life in the image of classical physics. Drawing on the intellectual, social, and political legacies of William James' radically empiricist philosophy and radical Social Gospel theology, these three psychologists developed critiques of scientific authority and democratic reality as they worked at the crossroads of the social and the personal in New Deal America. Appropriating models from natural history, they argued for the significance of individuality, contextuality, and diversity as scientific concepts as they explored what they envisioned as the nature of democracy, and the democracy of nature."--Jacket

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.

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 neo-behavioralist social scientists in the United States. As children of the Progressive Era who would later choose to work in the social sciences, Allport and the Murphys came of age in social and intellectual worlds that have been well scrutinized by scholars.