THE POLITICS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIAL-REFORM, 1936-1960 - WATSON,GOODWIN AND THE CIETY-FOR-THE-PSYCHOLOGICAL-STUDY-OF-SOCIAL-ISSUES

This paper explores the development and subsequent transformation of a ''radical'' professional model in American psychology. Its focal poin t is Goodwin Watson and the Society for the psychological Study of Soc ial Issues (SPSSI), an organization Watson helped found in 1936. Durin g the Depression, he and many of his SPSSI colleagues called upon psyc hologists to abandon value neutrality and political disinterestedness in favor of an explicit set of social democratic goals and left-wing p olitical alliances. Government service and political persecution durin g World War II led Watson to conclude that his Depression-era calls fo r sweeping change in psychology had neglected a number of significant political dimensions. Of particular importance was the problematic int erface between psychological expertise and policy formation. In respon se to this concern, Watson encouraged the development of the now famil iar model of the psychologist as a disinterested purveyor of value-neu tral expertise.