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Most texts in the history of psychology ignore American contributions prior to the appearance of Hall and James. This may be a function of the strong religious inclinations of the pre-Jamesians, but there is reason to believe their views were of significance to the later development of American psychology. The present article attempts to place the psychology of this time into historical-cultural context, and then explicate the nature of science during that period The paramount place of religion in this philosophical psychology is discussed Finally, the implications of these ideas for contemporary psychology are brought to the fore. The need for further attention to the work of these religious American philosopher-psychologists is emphasized.

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Thinking in multitudes: Questionnaires and composite cases in early American psychology

History of the Human Sciences ◽

10.1177/0952695120903909 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 33 (3-4) ◽

pp. 160-174 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jacy L. Young

Keyword(s):

Scientific Reasoning ◽

Large Scale ◽

Individual Case ◽

Early American ◽

Large Scale Data ◽

American Psychology ◽

Questionnaire Research ◽

The Individual ◽

Scale Data

In the late 19th century, the questionnaire was one means of taking the case study into the multitudes. This article engages with Forrester’s idea of thinking in cases as a means of interrogating questionnaire-based research in early American psychology. Questionnaire research was explicitly framed by psychologists as a practice involving both natural historical and statistical forms of scientific reasoning. At the same time, questionnaire projects failed to successfully enact the latter aspiration in terms of synthesizing masses of collected data into a coherent whole. Difficulties in managing the scores of descriptive information questionnaires generated ensured the continuing presence of individuals in the results of this research, as the individual case was excerpted and discussed alongside a cast of others. As a consequence, questionnaire research embodied an amalgam of case, natural historical, and statistical thinking. Ultimately, large-scale data collection undertaken with questionnaires failed in its aim to construct composite exemplars or ‘types’ of particular kinds of individuals; to produce the singular from the multitudes.

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