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“Education for Democracy”: SPSSI and the Study of Morale in World War II
Author(s) -
Faye Cathy
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2010.01680.x
Subject(s) - ivory tower , objectivity (philosophy) , political radicalism , democracy , agency (philosophy) , world war ii , political science , work (physics) , sociology , law , social science , politics , engineering , epistemology , mechanical engineering , philosophy
Many scholars have noted that, by 1950, the early radicalism and devotion to change that was characteristic of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues had faded. It was slowly overshadowed by a more orthodox adherence to the principles of science and objectivity. This article demonstrates that the difficulties faced by the Society in their work on morale during World War II contributed to this shift. The Society had little success finding support for their work on morale, partly because of the association between “morale” and “propaganda.” Thus, funding agencies refused to back what they saw as a partisan propaganda agency and other groups questioned the ability of social scientists to step out of the ivory tower and conduct practical morale work. The Society therefore further retreated from their activist position and began to adopt a more cautious and tailored approach to the study of social issues.