Mechanically Objective History: Mining PsycINFO, Excavating the Discipline's Psychological Factories

Those interested in tracking trends in the history of psychology cannot simply trust the numbers produced by inputting terms into search engines like PsycINFO and then constraining by date. This essay is therefore a critical engagement with that longstanding interest to show what it is possible to do, over what period, and why. It concludes that certain projects simply cannot be undertaken without further investment by the American Psychological Association. This is because forgotten changes in the assumptions informing the database make its index terms untrustworthy for use in trend-tracking before 1967. But they can indeed be used, with care, to track more recent trends. The result is then a Distant Reading of psychology, with Digital History presented as enabling a kind of Science Studies that psychologists will find appealing. The present state of the discipline can thus be caricatured as the contemporary scientific study of depressed rats and the drugs used to treat them (as well as of human brains, mice, and myriad other topics). To extend the investigation back further in time, however, the 1967 boundary is also investigated. The author then delves more deeply into the prehistory of the database's creation, and shows in a précis of a further project that the origins of PsycINFO can be traced to interests related to American national security during the Cold War. In short: PsycINFO cannot be treated as a simple bibliographic description of the discipline. It is embedded in its history, and reflects it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Through the looking-glass: PsycINFO as an historical archive of trends in psychology.

Burman¹

2018

“…Historiometry offers one way to engage mainstream psychologists in historical discussions using mechanically objective methods; the notion of a “psychological factory” is another (Burman & Ball, 2011). However, it is less data-centric; instead, it provides an invitation to further research by offering new mechanically objective ways to ask questions (see the discussion about questions and evidence in Burman, in press).…”

Section: Historiographic Possibilities For the New Historianmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genius without the “Great Man”:New possibilities for the historian of psychology.

Ball¹

2012

Self Cite

The Carlylian style of history, more commonly known as the "Great Man" approach, presented the "genius" as an individual worthy of celebration: history as hero worship. This style, which characterized the first wave of the history of psychology, has gone out of historiographic fashion. In its place is the "new history," which is marked by its external focus and privileging of social factors and cultural context in its explanations. This shift in historiographic sensibilities has also led to a revision in the appropriate subject matter for psychologist-historians. This article argues, in contrast, that it is possible to study eminent individuals without resorting to hagiography, and it presents various methods that could be used for this purpose. The aim of such an endeavor is to create a space for critically and historically informed perspectives on greatness and to suggest a reconsideration of the value of an "historical psychology".

“…The book's subtitle might therefore have been better as “Images of a Life and His Factory” (cf. Burman & Ball, 2011). Indeed, the book affords us an opportunity to begin to reconceptualize Piaget as something more complex than simply a “Great Man.”…”

Section: Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

Jean Piaget: Images of a life and his factory.

Burman¹

2012

In this article, I use a new book about Jean Piaget to introduce a new historical method: examining "psychological factories." I also discuss some of the ways that "Great Men" are presented in the literature, as well as opportunities for new projects if one approaches the history of the discipline differently and examines the conditions that made that greatness possible. To that end, the article includes many details about Piaget that have never before been discussed in English. Attention is drawn, in particular, to Piaget's collaborators: the hundreds of workers at his factory in Geneva, many of whom were women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).