Kimball Young's Social Psychology: A Precursor of Social Constructionism

Kimball Young in his graduate education was exposed to two diametrically opposed scientific worldviews. He received his M.A. in sociology under W. I. Thomas and his Ph.D. in psychology under Lewis M. Terman. His interest was in social psychology as reflected by his doctoral study on racial differences in intelligence. His initial commitment to Thomas's position of cultural relativity was superseded by his adoption of Terman's perspective of biological determinism. However, once he forged his own career as a social psychologist, Young recanted the hereditarian views he had voiced in his dissertation. Implications about the development and current status of American social psychology are drawn from Young's conceptual shifts.