The {American} {Soldier} and {Social} {Psychology}: {Introduction}.

Abstract

The article presents information on the research on American Soldier and Social Psychology. The research undertaken covered a wide range of topics, from initial job assignment to demobilization plans, from infantry training to satisfaction with Army medical care, from adjustment in garrison life to performance in combat. Forty-two years ago, in the summer of 1941, there was established within the War Department a Special Services Division and within the Special Services Division a Research Branch charged with carrying out research on the attitudes of enlisted men in the Army. The Research Branch was not established to advance social science research. As writer Samuel Stouffer noted in the introductory chapter of Volume I of The American Soldier: "The Research Branch existed to do a practical engineering job, not a scientific job. Its purpose was to provide the Army command, quickly and accurately, with facts about the attitudes of soldiers which, along with other facts and inferences, might be helpful in policy formulation.