Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gender-Typing in Inter-War Psychology

博士论文研究：两次世界大战期间心理学中的性别分类

• 批准号: 9222755
• 负责人: John Lesch
• 金额: $ 0.5万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1993
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1993-06-01 至 1995-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9222755&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Gender; Typing

A recurring theme of study within the hsitory of science is the efforts of scientists to characterize "normalcy" within the human species. Stephen Jay Gould in his regular articles in "Natural History" has detailed some of the problems in such examples as efforts to measure average cranial size, the "criminal" tendencies of those with an xyy chromosome and efforts to explain via gender typing of male/female variations in mathematical abilities. Whatever the good intentions of the scientific experts who frame the standards of what is normal, the history of such efforts has not been a particularly beneficent one. The message from these studies is clear: not only the scientists constructing such standards but the public who is "measured" by them should take great care in evaluating what these standards really mean. Ms. Stephanie Kenen, with the advice of Dr. John Lesch, her dissertation adviser, is examining the development of psychological personality tests between World Wars I & II. She is examining the efforts of Lewis M. Terman and Catharine Cox Miles to quantify sex- based personality traits in a 14 year study whose results were published in 1936. Terman, Miles, and their research team crated a multiple-choice personality test designed to distinguish between the sexes and to establish a range of "normal" scores for each sex. The psychologists emphasized the empirical, objective and quantitative aspects of their methods as evidence of the scientific status of their work. Their claim to legitimacy of science underscored their authority as experts in the psychology of sex. Ms. Kenen's research is focusing on three sets of questions related to the "Male-Female" or "M-F test". First, how did the researchers establish the legitimacy of their project in the halls of academe, in the budgets of philanthropic organizations, and in the eyes of the public? Second, to what degree and in what ways was Terman and Miles' research contingent on their historical setting? Third, how was the test appraised and applied in the years after its publication? These questions provide a framework for historical analysis of the M-F research project in terms of the legitimacy of scientific expertise, the construction of social-scientific knowledge, and the impact of that knowledge on the society from which it has derived.

科学史研究中一个反复出现的主题是科学家努力描述人类物种的“常态”。史蒂芬·杰伊·古尔德在《自然历史》的定期文章中详细介绍了一些问题，比如测量平均头盖骨大小的努力，带有xyy染色体的人的“犯罪”倾向，以及通过性别分类来解释男女数学能力差异的努力。无论制定正常标准的科学专家的初衷是什么，这种努力的历史并不是特别有益的。从这些研究中得到的信息是明确的：不仅是制定这些标准的科学家，而且被这些标准“衡量”的公众在评估这些标准的真正含义时也应该非常小心。Stephanie Kenen女士在她的论文导师John Lesch博士的建议下，正在研究第一次世界大战和第二次世界大战之间心理人格测试的发展。她正在研究刘易斯·m·特曼和凯瑟琳·考克斯·迈尔斯在一项为期14年的研究中对基于性别的人格特征进行量化的努力，该研究的结果发表于1936年。特曼、迈尔斯和他们的研究小组设计了一项多项选择人格测试，旨在区分性别，并为每种性别建立一个“正常”分数范围。心理学家强调他们方法的经验、客观和定量方面，以此作为他们工作的科学地位的证据。他们对科学合法性的主张强调了他们作为性心理学专家的权威。凯南女士的研究重点是与“男性-女性”或“M-F测试”相关的三组问题。首先，研究人员如何在学术殿堂、慈善组织的预算和公众眼中确立他们项目的合法性？第二，特曼和迈尔斯的研究在多大程度上以何种方式依赖于他们的历史背景？第三，该测试在发布后的几年里是如何评价和应用的？这些问题为M-F研究项目的历史分析提供了一个框架，包括科学专业知识的合法性、社会科学知识的构建以及这些知识对其产生的社会的影响。