TY - JOUR

T1 - The reputation of Kenneth James William Craik

AU - Collins, Alan

PY - 2013/5

Y1 - 2013/5

N2 - Reputation is a familiar concept in everyday life and in a range of academic disciplines. There have been studies of its formation, its content, its management, its diffusion and much else besides. This article explores the reputation of the Cambridge psychologist Kenneth Craik (1914-1945). Having examined something of Craik’s life and work and the content of his reputation, it concentrates on the functions that Craik’s reputation has served, particularly for psychology and related disciplines. The major functions of that reputation are identified as being: a legitimation and confirmation of disciplinary boundaries and discontinuities in the period shortly after World War II; an exemplification of how to be a modern scientist and of the values to embrace; a reinforcement of science as having a national dimension; an affirmation of psychology as a science that can serve national needs, and a creation of shared identities through commemoration. The article concludes that studies of reputations can illuminate the contexts in which they emerge and the values they endorse.

AB - Reputation is a familiar concept in everyday life and in a range of academic disciplines. There have been studies of its formation, its content, its management, its diffusion and much else besides. This article explores the reputation of the Cambridge psychologist Kenneth Craik (1914-1945). Having examined something of Craik’s life and work and the content of his reputation, it concentrates on the functions that Craik’s reputation has served, particularly for psychology and related disciplines. The major functions of that reputation are identified as being: a legitimation and confirmation of disciplinary boundaries and discontinuities in the period shortly after World War II; an exemplification of how to be a modern scientist and of the values to embrace; a reinforcement of science as having a national dimension; an affirmation of psychology as a science that can serve national needs, and a creation of shared identities through commemoration. The article concludes that studies of reputations can illuminate the contexts in which they emerge and the values they endorse.

KW - Craik

KW - reputation

KW - social networks

KW - scientific style

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84881230153&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1037/a0031678

DO - 10.1037/a0031678

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84881230153

VL - 16

SP - 93

EP - 111

JO - History of Psychology

JF - History of Psychology

SN - 1093-4510

IS - 2

ER -