Psychology and the Liberal Consensus

This volume presents a carefully reasoned, rigorous critique of mainline academic psychology. From the professional beginnings of their discipline, contend the authors, American psychologists have made two promises: that psychology would be treated as a natural science and that its application to social—mainly educational—reform would be as effective as that of the more physical sciences to technological change. Underlying these promises is the “liberal consensus,” the belief that social problems are to be solved by improvements in educational methods. Put to the test during the affluence of the 1950s and 1960s—the years of the liberal consensus—these promises were never kept, maintain the authors. Their provocative study provides a variety of reasons why the goal was unattained, and is even unattainable. The book will be of interest to psychologists, sociologists, professional educators, and students of social change.