Origins

Peace psychology as a defined field dates back to the 1950s, but there were peace psychologists before that date.

Peace and Conflict’s inaugural issue reprinted the famous article by William James on “the moral equivalent of war,” along with a commentary by Morton Deutsch, which presented William James as “the first peace psychologist.”

The 1940s yielded a fair amount of research and writing and produced several books on psychology and peace.

Edward Tolman’s Drive Toward War
Mark May’s A Social Psychology of War and Peace
Hadley Cantril’s Tensions That Cause War
Otto Klineberg’s Tension Affecting International Understanding
T. H. Pear’s collection, Psychological Factors of Peace and War
Ted Lentz’s Towards a Science of Peace

Peace Psychology

The group, Research Exchange on the Prevention of War, was established in 1952. They published the Bulletin of the Research Exchange on the Prevention of War, organized discussion groups at academic conventions, and two summer workshops to explore theoretical approaches and research ideas in the field of peace research.

The Research Exchange was phased out with the inauguration of the new journal, Journal of Conflict Resolution.
The Center for Research on Conflict Resolution was established at the University of Michigan.
The Research Exchange, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, and the Center for Research on Conflict Resolution were part of an emerging peace research movement in the United States, Europe, and Canada during the 1950s.