Academic Freedom, Civil Liberties, and SPSSI

Abstract

An implicit goal of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) at its founding was the protection of members who investigated controversial social issues. This essay reviews SPSSI's work in defense of academic and intellectual freedom from 1936 to 1970, using committee records, private correspondence, and published documents. Cases reviewed are those of Ellis Freeman, David Krech, George Hartmann, Goodwin Watson, Gardner Murphy, Ralph Gundlach, Bernard Riess, Harry Steinmetz, and Lawrence Northwood. Also reviewed is SPSSI's involvement in the University of California loyalty oath dispute and in Health, Education and Welfare's (HEW) blacklisting of scientific consultants. While its efforts cannot be said to have achieved notably successful outcomes, the Society's moral and financial support was helpful to those under attack. Overall, SPSSI's efforts were an important positive contribution with implications for the present and future.