ABSTRACT

As the title of this closing chapter suggests, psychology’s past was promising, but its future could be enigmatic. In what sense was the past promising? Psychology in the

19th and 20th centuries was optimistic and surprisingly productive. The potential contributions of an empirical behavioral science to everyday human affairs and to the solution of some great societal problems appeared to be enormous. Psychology could inform and enhance educational practice from prekindergarten through graduate school-and beyond, in lifelong learning. The moral improvement of college students that was the focus of 18th and early 19th century psychology could now be based on sound empirical findings. By the first half of the 20th century, the application of the scientific method held enormous promise for the improvement of manufacturing procedures and of the morale of the workers whose productivity in turn would be enhanced. The technology of psychometrics could be applied to assure a better fit between people’s interest and skill patterns and the jobs that they would work in, and also had immense potential utility for military purposes. Psychophysics left the pure science lab where it had already been so successful and entered the world of work and commerce even in such applications as the perfume industry and the production of whiskey.