Education as psychology's primary market

Thus far, we have traced the development of some of psychology's investigative practices in terms of the general knowledge interests pursued by psychologists. This may be adequate for the more general features of these practices but when we turn to more specific features it becomes necessary to take into account a broader social context. The fact is that almost from the beginning of the twentieth century psychology ceased to be a purely academic discipline and began to market its products in the outside world. That meant that the requirements of its potential market were able to influence the direction in which psychology's investigative practices were likely to develop. Practices that were useful in the construction of specific marketable products were likely to receive a boost, whereas practices that lacked this capacity were henceforth placed under a handicap.

Of course, the requirements of the market did not act on a passive discipline. Not only did many psychologists actively court practical application, but these efforts would have led nowhere if the discipline did not have at its disposal certain techniques that lent themselves to the development of a socially useful product. In the present chapter we will analyze two such techniques in terms of their significance for a socially relevant investigative practice: the Galtonian approach to individual differences and the experimental use of treatment groups. Both of these methodological innovations assumed enormous importance in the subsequent development of modern psychology, but it is doubtful whether this would have been the case had they not played a crucial role in the constitution of psychology as a socially relevant discipline.