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

科学史上一个反复出现的研究主题是 科学家们努力描述人类内部的“正常状态”， 物种 史蒂芬·杰伊·古尔德在《自然》杂志上的定期文章中 历史”已经详细说明了一些问题，例如 努力测量平均颅骨大小，“犯罪”倾向， 那些有xyy染色体的人， 男性/女性数学能力差异的类型。 不管科学专家们的善意是什么， 什么是正常的标准，这种努力的历史， 不是一个特别仁慈的人。 这些人的信息 研究表明：不仅科学家们建造了这样的 标准，但被“衡量”的公众应该采取 在评估这些标准的真正含义时要非常小心。 Stephanie Kenen女士在John Lesch博士的建议下， 博士论文顾问，正在研究心理学的发展， 两次世界大战之间的性格测试 她正在检查 刘易斯M. Terman和Catharine考克斯迈尔斯量化性- 一项为期14年的研究， 出版于1936年。 特曼迈尔斯和他们的研究小组 一个多项选择的性格测试， 并为每种性别建立一个“正常”分数范围。 心理学家强调经验的，客观的， 他们的方法的定量方面作为科学的证据， 他们的工作状态。 他们声称科学的合法性 强调了他们作为性心理学专家的权威。 凯南女士的研究集中在三组问题上， “男女”或“M-F测试”。 首先，研究人员是如何 在罗马的霍尔斯里建立他们项目的合法性， 在慈善组织的预算中，在 公众？ 第二，在何种程度上，以何种方式，是特曼和 迈尔斯的研究取决于他们的历史背景 三是如何 测试评估和应用后的几年里， 出版？ 这些问题提供了一个框架， 从合法性角度分析M-F研究项目 科学专门知识，社会科学 知识，以及知识对社会的影响， 它所衍生的。

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.