Standardizing the Subject: Experimental Psychologists, Introspection, and the Quest for a Technoscientific Ideal

Abstract

Historians of psychology have long noted the extent to which American psychologists after the turn of the century, and especially after World War I, were motivated by the progressive ideals of practicality, order, and control, ideals arising from and compatible with a rapidly urbanizing, industrializing American society.' They have noted how early psychologists stressed the usefulness of their discipline and emphasized their ability to engineer people's behavior DR COON is an assistant professor of history in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Research for this article was partially funded by a Smithsonian Institution postdoctoral fellowship at the National Museum of American History and by a Paul S. Beer Trust minigrant from Rensselaer