Scientifi c Methods 325resident to complain that scientists seemed “hopeless” outside their spe-
cialties. When he heard, falsely as it turned out, that Einstein himself had
endorsed a psychic named Jean Davis, he lamentably exclaimed “and so
the scientifi c method goes crashing to the ground.”^63
Debate about the scientifi c nature of the social sciences demonstrated
both the inclusionary and exclusionary uses of scientifi c method, and the
many different meanings that it contained. In the interwar years, many
authors in magazines accused social scientists of using less- than- rigorous
methods in their work with intangible, subjective qualities, such as emo-
tion. In such views, true scientifi c method belonged to the physical sci-
ences, particularly physics. John B. Watson, the central fi gure in the be-
haviorist program, agreed in 1926 that psychology’s methods “must be
the methods of science in general.” That same year, the Social Science
Research Council retooled one of its subgroups into the “Committee on
Scientifi c Method.” A conference held under its auspices eventually gen-
erated the massive Methods in Social Science.^64 To counter concern over
the human and emotional elements in their work, both on the parts of
subjects and observers, many social scientists stressed the objectivity pro-
vided by legitimate scientifi c method.
Thus, for example, behaviorists insisted on sticking to measurable
quantities, such as actual behaviors rather than internal sensations and
feelings. Other social scientists turned to statistics in search of an objec-
tive, accurate, and repeatable method, or to the rhetoric of the laboratory.
In her Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), an important work in the budding
fi eld of cultural anthropology, Margaret Mead compared other cultures to
laboratories where anthropological ideas could be tested.^65 Many journal-
ists during the 1920s and 1930s, who looked increasingly to social science
as a guide for their own work, also saw the essence of scientifi c method
in its supposed objectivity. In 1928, George Gallup, the founder of the
Gallup poll, completed a dissertation at the University of Iowa titled “An
Objective Method for Determining Reader- Interest.” Two years later, he
presented a shortened version in an article called “A Scientifi c Method
for Determining Reader- Interest.” In both cases, he advocated examining
newspapers along with readers, noting their reactions as they read.^66
THE DECLINE OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD
After the end of World War II, the oft- noted “age of science” began and sci-
entifi c method continued to play a role in determining scientifi c bound-
aries. Whether involved in the controversy around the cosmic theories