THE CATEGORY OF " FRAMEWORK " RESPONSES IN THE SYSTEMS OFTHEORETICAL PSYCHOLOGY E XPLANATION of many of the " higher " mental processes has insistently demanded the postulation of some controlling pattern such as apperceptive mass, Einstellung, determining tendency, delusional system, postural adjustment, sensory orientation, value hierarchy, means-ends readinesses, personality radix, master attitude, etc. Recent discussions in education, politics, philosophy, and the " sociology of knowledge " have independently developed the notions of a frame of reference, pyramid of goods, ideology, or world-model as dominating individual or group interpretation of experiences. Recent field, clinical, and laboratory studies suggest that a fruitful union of these two academic traditions in the inclusive concept of " framework reactions" results in a better understanding of many features of adult behavior, particularly the obscurer phenomena of social psychology.The chief concrete manifestation of a framework is a guiding pattern of belief and action conveyed by such terms as " theist," " economic radical," " thoroughgoing democrat," etc. Its psychological reality is attested by the evidence of factorial analyses, consistency in individual conduct, homogeneity of opinion within segregated groups, and the internal logic of any system of thought. Persons with an X organization, so to speak, find it difficult or impossible to comprehend those of Y organization. Studies of learning guided by this outlook may indicate that x responses are readily acquired by persons with a preexisting X pattern; y responses, however, will not be easily made

No abstract

No abstract

THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGYP OLITICAL psychology as a separate branch, of scientific inquiry is all but non-existent. As an art or practice, however, it has long ranked among the essentials of statecraft and is now a powerful and nourishing factor in the intricate world of affairs. Dictatorships and democracies make different, but apparently equally extensive, use of it in the process of molding public opinion and shaping attitudes. Like all technologies, political psychology may be employed for a variety of ends-it is a ''tool" skill for attaining efficiently the goals established by some sort of systematic or unformulated political philosophy.By the very nature of the field which gives it its name, political psychology is bound to have close relations with advertising and salesmanship, two regions of modern commercial life in which applied psychology has been conspicuously influential. The practices of publicity, propaganda, and intentional indoctrination are the very life-blood of political activity and other "institutional" behavior-remove them and the human interests supporting even the worthiest of movements lose most of their power to affect the course of group conduct or even to maintain their own coherence. He who lacks control over the required stimuli cannot obtain the desired responses.Despite the serious need for an organized corpus of knowledge about political psychology-which in this generation of large-scale "conflict" promises to become the most important single division of social psychology-the phrase itself is barely found in current usage. The available information and techniques comprising it *

No abstract