Psychology of the Scientist: LIV. Reception and Rejection of “Western” Psychology in “Eastern” Europe during the 1950S and 1960S: Woodworth's Experimental Psychology

Abstract

This is a report on a fascinating but unknown facet of the history of American and international psychology. Its aim is to describe the differences in attitudes of “East European” (Soviet, Slovak, Polish, and Yugoslav) psychologists to American psychology and, more concretely and specifically, to R. S. Woodworth's textbook Experimental psychology of 1938 or its second (Woodworth-Schlosberg) edition of 1954. While in the eyes of most of the Western psychologists and of many American politicians, “Eastern” Europe (including Central European Czechs and South European Yugoslavs) appeared ideologically homogeneous, the attitudes to Experimental psychology varied from very negative and negative to positive and very positive. While the reported facts are striking, the information currently available to us does not provide an adequate basis for the interpretation of the differences. This applies, in particular, to what were the countries with “orthodox” Communist governments (Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Poland).