Engineering Psychology in the Cultural Context of the Soviet Science of the 1960s: the Experience of Boris Lomov’s Research Programme
https://doi.org/10.24833/RJCSC-2022-1-2-70-83
Abstract
This article examines the Soviet project of engineering psychology developed by Boris Lomov. Its origins, which can be traced back to Lomov’s book Man and Technology, and the subsequent practical development and implementation of its ideas are analysed. The central emphasis of the paper is on the ways in which this special Soviet project was positioned in the context of the key trends that marked the development in the humanities in the 1960s, as well as on its specific features within the Soviet scientific culture. Engineering psychology, championed in the USSR by Lomov, followed the impetus of man-machine systems that had been pioneered in the United States in the 1940s. The conceptualization of this scientific industry emerged in the design of hi-tech military systems that were controlled both by the operator’s actions and by automatic control systems. The infusion of psychological approaches into the evolution of such systems was predetermined by the fact that the new defence technologies were operating at a greatly increased speed, thus rendering even marginal psychological factors significant. But the psychological aspect of these issues had not been given the necessary attention in the exiting models. In order to transform engineering psychology into a civil discipline, it was necessary to find a field to apply it to, as well as to not lose its far-reaching character and scale and generate demand for it. As a model for solving this problem in the American context, the experience of Alphonse Chapanis, who sought to realize the potential of engineering psychology in the widest possible number of industries, is considered. The book Man and Technology suggests that Lomov viewed this pattern of scientific culture as a benchmark. However, the implementation of a similar approach in the Soviet scientific culture and institutional area required different organizational solutions. These circumstances meant that the project of engineering psychology, originally leaning towards applied research, was implemented on the basis of the Institute of Psychology of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.
About the Author
V. I. Konnov
MGIMO University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Vladimir I. Konnov – Cand. Sci. (Sociology), Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy
76 prospect Vernadskogo, Moscow, 119454
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Review
For citations:
Konnov V.I. Engineering Psychology in the Cultural Context of the Soviet Science of the 1960s: the Experience of Boris Lomov’s Research Programme. The Russian Journal of Cultural Studies and Communication. 2022;1(1-2):70-83. https://doi.org/10.24833/RJCSC-2022-1-2-70-83
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