The Rise Of Experimentation In American Psychology

Laboratory experiments are the principal tools used by psychologists to formulate and test their theories of how the human mind works, yet few histories of psychology have studied the experimental method and how it has changed over time. In this book then distinguished scholars explore the rapid rise and spread of the experimental method from its origins in the early decades of the century. They deal with such topics as the first efforts to bring number and quantification into psychology; who the subjects of early experiments were and how experimenters and subjects related to each other; famous psychologists such as Lewis Terman and Edward Titchener; and how experimental strategies were extended beyond the laboratory to the larger spaces of everyday life. The book concludes with two essays that discuss contemporary concerns regarding psychological experimentation.

An undergraduate textbook for majors focusing upon the techniques of research in the literature. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Experimental design is important enough to merit a book on its own, without statistics, that instead links methodology to a discussion of how psychologists can advance and reject theories about human behaviour. The objective of this book is to fulfil this role. The first four chapters lay the foundations of design in experimental psychology. The first chapter justifies the prominent role given to methodology within the discipline, whilst chapters two and three describe between-subject and within-subject designs. Chapter four compares and contrasts the traditional experimental approach with that of the quasi-experimental, or correlational approach, concluding that the consequences of not recognizing the value of the latter approach can be far-reaching. The following three chapters discuss practical issues involved in running experiments. The first of these offers a comprehensive guide to the student researcher who wants to construct a good questionnaire, including a discussion of reliability and validity issues. The next chapter considers the basic tools of psychological research, whilst both discussing the theoretical problem of how a sample from a population is chosen and offering useful hints on the practical issue of finding adequate populations from which to select participants. The next chapter considers ethical practice within psychological research, written in large part so that psychology students will be better able to anticipate ethical problems in their studies before they occur. The final two chapters consider reporting and reading psychological papers. Chapter eight details what should and should not be included in a laboratory report. The contributors use their collective experience of marking numerous lab reports to highlight common errors and provide solutions. Finally, chapter nine describes the various elements of a journal article, including tips on how to get the best out of your journal reading.

Psychological insight is the creed of our time. A quiet academic discipline two generations ago, psychology has become a voice of great cultural authority, informing everything from family structure to government policy. How has this fledgling science become the source of contemporary America's most potent ideology? In this groundbreaking book—the first to fully explore the political and cultural significance of psychology in post-World War II America—Ellen Herman tells the story of Americans' love affair with the behavioral sciences. It began during wartime. The atmosphere of crisis sustained from the 1940s through the Cold War gave psychological "experts" an opportunity to prove their social theories and behavioral techniques. Psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists carved a niche within government and began shaping military, foreign, and domestic policy. Herman examines this marriage of politics and psychology, which continued through the tumultuous 1960s. Psychological professionals' influence also spread among the general public. Drawn by promises of mental health and happiness, people turned to these experts for enlightenment. Their opinions validated postwar social movements from civil rights to feminism and became the basis of a new world view. Fascinating and long overdue, this book illuminates one of the dominant forces in American society. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1995.

"For the past fifty years, one fundamental aspect of the methodology of psychology has resisted evolution and growth--the relationship of the human subject to the psychological experiment. Adopting the natural science model of the experimental method, we have regarded the interaction of subject, experimenter, and study as fixed and the laboratory as a methodologically sterile setting for the study of behavior. Recent research on the social psychology of the psychological experiment has proved us wrong. Research has revealed 'social contamination' in the laboratory; the subject and experimenter provide a stimulus for each other, their respective attitudes, feelings, and expectations influencing the data that are collected. This research as proposed ways to control or measure subject and experimenter bias in a study as well as alternatives to the traditional laboratory experiment. Because of its diversity, however, it is not easily interpretable, and its implications for methodological changes are not clear. This book provides an integrated view of this research and speculates on its implications for future experimentation. It is hoped that readers will gain from it a mature understanding of the experimental process, concern for its human element, and an appreciation of some of the unique controls they must exercise."--

Includes established theories and cutting-edge developments. Presents the work of an international group of experts. Presents the nature, origin, implications, an future course of major unresolved issues in the area.

This major book offers a comprehensive overview of key debates on subjectivity and the subject in psychological theory and practice. In addition to social construction's long engagement with social relations, this volume addresses questions of the body, technology, intersubjectivity, writing and investigative practices. The internationally renowned contributors explore the tensions and opposing viewpoints raised by these issues, and show how analyzing the psychological subject interrelates with reforming the practices of psychology. Drawing on perspectives that include feminism, dialogics, poststructuralism, hermeneutics, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and cultural or social studies of science, readers are guided through pivotal