The behavioral sciences in conjunction with history provide a unique opportunity for a more creative, yet precise, approach to the role of man as an historical and social agent. On the one hand history provides an approach to man’s role based on the appeal to both facts and creative interpretation. On the other, the behavioral sciences can provide historians with a more precise concept of the mechanism of social, cultural, and personal role development and action. The creative conjunction of the behavioral sciences and history is called Neo-synthecism in order to more easily identify this approach. There are two purposes to this essay: to show both the general utility of a behavioral approach to history, and the specific role of the self-fulfilling prophecy. The self-fulfilling prophecy, derived from the work of sociologist, Robert K. Merton, demonstrates how men tend actively to fulfill and objectify the expectations they hold for themselves. Thus men attempt both consciously and unconsciously to fulfill their own prophecies. The data upon which this approach is based is primarily of an interpretive nature. It briefly explores how individual scholars have impl,icitly assumed the idea of the self-fulfilling prophecy in the course of their writing. Most historians unconsciously utilize the concept without identifying or recognizing it as a specific behavioral function of men, and their activities, in general. Further, the essay investigates the idea of national character and social myth as factors which the self-fulfilling prophecy both contributes to and is dependent upon. Neo-synthecism, while not a total explanation of the ’'why" of history does help to account for some of its "mysteries." It can, for instance, through the behavioral approach, help to explain the role of the irrational as a causative historical factor. It also helps to explain the mechanisms which prompt men to revolutionary action. Thus it can penetrate the background of historical events more fully. At the same time it provides the historian with a new instrument for understanding the future as well as the past. That is, in explaining one of the mechanisms whereby men control and modify events to suit their own beliefs, it enables historians to understand why particular expectations can or cannot be fulfilled. In one sense then the historian looks back from the "future" into the past and predicts the predominance of one historical event over another. Neo-synthecism, however, is a theory based upon suspended judgment. It holds its interpretation in abeyance of the future’s verdict and is instructed by events.

The purpose of this study was to determine if students change their responses to selected interpretations of American history after participating in a course in American history. The analysis of the responses was based upon interpretations in a measuring device titled, "Student Responses to Selected Interpretations of American History." This measuring device was created for this study by the researcher.The research was planned to answer the question, "Do students change their responses to selected interpretations of American history at a statistically significant level after participating in a course in American history?"The investigator collected responses to the pre-test and post-test administration of the measuring device from six hundred and fourteen eleventh grade students. An additional eighty-seven responses from sophomores were collected for purposes of comparison with the juniors. The subjects were students from two senior high schools in Indiana. The subjects represented a heterogeneity of socio-economic status, race and achievement levels. The six hundred and fourteen juniors participated in a course in Americanhistory. The eighty-seven sophomores were enrolled in a course in world history at those two schools.Statistical processing of the data consisted of determining the significance of the proportion of changed responses to the measuring device. Coefficients of correlations of proportional change were computed on the basis of sex, intelligence test scores, and grade point averages. An analysis of the difference in proportion of change between sophomores and juniors was also computed. Analysis of the data led to the following findings:Students who had participated in the course in American history at the eleventh grade level changed their responses at a statistically significant level for forty-three of the interpretations.There was no correlation between sex and the proportion of change for forty-three of the interpretations.There was no correlation between intelligence test scores and the proportion of change for forty-three of the interpretations.There was no correlation between grade point average and proportion of change for thirty-eight of the interpretations. For two of the interpretations students with higher grade point averages were more likely to change their responses and for five of the interpretations students with higher grade point averages were less likely to change their responses than were students with a lower grade point average.Students who had participated in the course in American history were more likely to change their responses to ten of the interpretations than were students who had not participated in the course in American history. There was no statistically significant difference between these two groups' proportion of change for thirty-five of the interpretations.The following conclusions have been drawn from the findings:1. Students who had participated in the course in American history at the eleventh grade level changed their responses at a statistically significant level for forty-three of the interpretations.2. There was no significant correlation between sex and the proportion of change for forty-three of the interpretations.3. There was no significant correlation between intelligence test scores and the proportion of change for forty-three of the interpretations.4. There was no significant correlation between grade point average and the proportion of change for thirty-eight of the interpretations. For two of the interpretations, students with higher grade point averages were more likely to change their responses and for five of the interpretations students with higher grade point averages were less likely to changetheir responses than were students with lower grade point averages.5. There was no statistically significant difference between the proportion of change for juniors and sophomores for thirty five of the interpretations. Students who had participated in the course in American history were more likely to change their responses to ten of the interpretations than were students who had not participated in the course in American history.

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