Yale behaviorists blended Hullian learning theory with psychoanalysis and Marxism

Evidence

S-R (stimulus-response) behaviorism or learning (reinforcement) theory also provided inspiration for the politicalpersonality movement, particularly through the circle of interdisciplinary workers around Clark Hull at the Yale Institute of Human Relations. These theorists seasoned a “liberated” behaviorism with a generous sprinkling of psychoanalytic theory and a pinch of Marxism, as illustrated by their work on frustration and aggression, social learning, personality, and psychopathology (Dollard et al., 1939, 1950; Miller & Dollard, 1941). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 333

Categorization

• DEFINE: Documents that mid-century political personality research was a deliberate, named three-way hybrid — a useful framework for describing that era.
• XREF: connects to: Lazarsfeld explicitly reconciled theory-first analysis with eventual empirical listener research — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 994; Behaviorist thinking originally promised equality by stressing human similarity — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1158