But some of the same forces pushing thepsychologists of today toward greater and greaterspecialization were at work within SocialRelations, eventually causing the group tofunction like "four separate departments within alarger framework," says Edward L. Pattullo,director of the Center for Behavioral Sciences.
The Social Relations experiment gradually lostits drive, and eventually its autonomy, mergingwith the then-small Psychology Department in 1972.Psychologists say that department's expected namechange will formally acknowledge Harvard's movetoward more specialized study.
According to prominent psychologistsoutside of Harvard's William James Hall,departments at other universities will certainlynote the name change. The move, says Yale's Janis,"will certainly be taken as symptomatic of atrend." Janis believes the move will have"considerable symbolic impact for psychologistsacross the country. You might even see some degreeof following suit."
But observers, even those sympathetic to abroad conception of human behavior, are slow tomourn the passage of interdisciplinary study. Manysay, in fact, that the move might open a newchapter in the development of social psychology.Some see psychologists with a broad outlook ontheir field being forced into new academicarrangements and into roles beyond academia whichcould increase their understanding of humanbehavior.
"You can't make an adequate social psychologywithin a college setting," Bales is quick to say."You must go into the field; by the field I meanwhere there are real people and real institutions.If it's social psychology, it has to deal withreal institutions, and they are in business anddivinity and in government."
Janis shares Bales' opinion, and he believesthat opportunities in productivity-consciousbusiness and in the legal profession will allowsocial psychologists to continue expanding theirunderstandings, even if not within traditionaluniversity arrangements. Scholars also point toopportunities for academics to combine work inseveral departments--or even in severalfaculties--as a reality of the 1980s which shouldencourage social psychologists.
Last week, even as it contemplateddropping "Social Relations" from its name, thedepartment announced that one of the world'sforemost experts on social organization would becoming to Cambridge in an unprecedented jointappointment by the Psychology and Social RelationsDepartment and the Business School. R. J. Hackman,currently a professor at Yale University, isconsidered to be one of the world's foremostexperts on small group behavior. At the B-School,Hackman will be able to study the "real lifesituations" Bales considers so important. "It's astep in the right direction; it's a step towardintegration," says the elder professor.
Riesman also points to Hackman's appointment,and cites the significant number of psychologistsat the School of Education as evidence thatinterest in the synthesis of the social sciences,relatively young disciplines, continues.
There is also the larger question of exactlywhat an interdisciplinary approach to humanbehavior means in the age of the integratedcircuit. Asked what forces he feels were mostimportant in moving psychologists frominterdisciplinary study, Kosslyn, whose interestis in cognition, at first said there was no movefrom interdisciplinary work.
"I think the field is just as interdisciplinaryas ever," he responded. "There are computers andartificial intelligence."
Kosslyn's confusion does much to enlightendiscussion of psychology's development. Pattullosays it's possible that psychology has not yetdetermined its relation to other disciplines, andsays the current preoccupation with hard sciencemight be a trend that will pass. "You're still inthe stage of laying the groundwork," he says.
Kosslyn is at the cutting edge of his field,but he agrees with Pattullo. "It's not likethere's one future," he says. "There's a future toall of these fields."