General Reports of Research Programs for the Armed Forces

Abstract

DURING the period of World War II a large amount of research on psychological and educational problems was conducted in and for the various armed services. Because of military security measures and the pressure of current military duties and problems only a small fraction of this research was published in professional journals or otherwise made generally available during the war. The purpose of this review is to bring to the attention of research workers the nature and scope of the research studies conducted so that the experience and findings of the wartime studies may be summarized in a single source. One of the first groups to become actively engaged in military research in the period preceding the entry of this country into the war was the committee of the National Research Council established at the request of Dean R. Brimhall, Director of Research, Civil Aeronautics Administration. The research in aviation psychology of this group has been reported in a series of Research Reports published by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. The findings of this series of studies have been reviewed by Viteles (5) and are not included in the present survey. This group, of which M. S. Viteles is chairman, is continuing an active program of research. It is now known as the Committee on Aviation Psychology of the National Research Council. A number of those most active in the early stages of the program discussed in the preceding paragraph entered the Navy after our entry into the war and an Aviation Psychology Branch was established under the direction of the late John G. Jenkins in the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in the Navy Department in Washington. The reports of this group are reviewed by Ames and Older in Chapter II of this survey. This work is continuing in the same location under the direction of Lieutenant Harry J. Older. The research program in aviation psychology reviewed by Frederick B. Davis in Chapter III was initiated in the summer of 1941. The research results of this group have been reported in a series of nineteen research volumes under the general title of Army Air Forces Aviation Psychology Program Research Reports (3). The scope of this program has been expanded and it is continuing under the direction of Glen Finch, Acting Research Chief, Division of Human Resources, Office of Research and Development, Headquarters, United States Air Force. The Adjutant General's Office in the War Department established a Personnel Procedures Section under the technical direction of Walter V. Bingham in the fall of 1940. The numerous research studies carried out