Proving the existence of macropsychological phenomena? The Katona-Tobin controversy over the predictive value of attitudinal data

This paper analyzes the controversy between George Katona and James Tobin that happened at the end of the nineteen fifties. The central problem of the paper concerns the nature of psychological phenomena. While Tobin defends that economic behavior stems from the individual, Katona tries to develop a macropsychological approach in which the individual plays a secondary role. The controversy thus reveals the arguments that initiated the developments of microeconomic theories and the construction of microeconomic data during the nineteen fifties