American psychologists and wartime research on Germany, 1941–1945.

During World War II, behavioral scientists working for several US agencies (principally the Office of Strategic Services, but also the Office of War Information, the Strategic Bombing Survey, and military authorities) advanced personality and social psychology through their investigations of the nature of Nazism, Adolf Hitler's personality, the German national character, and Germans' reactions to the war. Studies by E. Erikson, W. Langer, H. Murray, and others illustrate psychologists' efforts to meld professional and patriotic interests. Although not uniformly successful, and apparently without influence on the conduct of the war and occupation, these works were sometimes innovative and generally anticipated psychology's increased status, influence, and interaction with other disciplines and with the government after the war. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)