Reorganizing the experimentalists: The origins of the Society of Experimental Psychology.

Abstract

The "Experimentalists," created by E. B. Titchener in 1904, experienced growing pains and other stresses in the 1920s, raising concerns about its future. Those concerns became acute with Titchener's death in 1927. At the 1928 meeting, several "elders," hoping to maintain the group's vigorous advocacy of basic research in the positivist tradition, formed a reorganization committee of 5. The committee expanded to 15, 10 of whom met the following year to debate alternative plans for a new organization. The result was an honorary society for established researchers, the Society of Experimental Psychologists. E. G. Boring's highly personalized 1938 history of the original Experimentalists understated the value of the research contributions made by group members and, by overstating the degree of Titchener's influence, devalued the important contributions of others (e.g., Raymond Dodge).

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