The Origins of the Psychological Experiment as a Social Institution

Danziger, Kurt (1985) The Origins of the Psychological Experiment as a Social Institution. American Psychologist 40:pp. 133-140.

Abstract

The psychological experiment involves a set of institutionalized role patterns that have evolved historically. This evolution can be studied by analyzing published experimental reports. From the beginning, there were two models for the social structure of the psychological experiment, the Leipzig and the Paris model. The latter emerged in the context of work on experimental hypnosis and involved a rigid social differentiation between experimenter and subject. By contrast, the Leipzig model involved the interchangeability of experimenter and subject roles. American investigators adopted both these models but also introduced more impersonal and less intensive relations between experimenters and subjects. Some implications of the multimodal origins of experimental situations are discussed.