Middle range theory (sociology) - as discussed by Robert K. Merton is a theory with limited scope, that explains a specific set of phenomena, as opposed to a grand theory like that proposed by Talcott Parsons that seeks to explain phenomena at a societal level.
Mowrer, Murray, Talcott Parsons, Gordon Allport and others formed a group which eventually led to the formation of the Harvard Department of Social Relations, partially in response to the success of the Yale Institute of Human Relations.
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He was involved the Harvard Psychological Clinic, led by Henry Murray, and the Department of Social Relations, where he worked with colleagues such as Erik Erikson, Robert W. White, Talcott Parsons, Gordon Allport, and Alex Inkeles.
Theories of Society: Foundations of Modern Sociological Theory, Two Volumes in One, with Jesse R. Pitts, Talcott Parsons (Editor), & Kaspar D. Naegele, New York: The Free Press (1961)
However in sociology it is possible to see the "sentimental tradition" as extending into the present-day - to see, for example, 'Parsons as one of the great social philosophers in the sentimental tradition of Adam Smith, Burke, McLuhan, and Goffman...concerned with the relation between the rational and sentimental bases of social order raised by the market reorientation of motivation'.