Toward a Practical Psychology

1. Toward a Practical Psychology • By 1900 evolutionary theory and functional psychology had a strong footing in the U.S. • More Darwin and Galton than Wundt • Although Wundt trained 1st generation of American psychologists, few of his ideas followed them home • Americans wanted to apply psychology to school, business, human services, etc.

2. Reasons for the Growth • Availability of graduate programs • 1880: graduate study only in Germany • American’s liked it • They left, got degrees, and came back • 1890: graduate programs in psychology offered in U.S. • 1903: more Ph.D.s in psychology than in any science other than chemistry, zoology, and physics • 1913: United States had more of world’s leading psychologists than any other country

3. The Momentum Shifts • Publication language of journal articles • 1910: 50% German, 30% in English • WWI • Ruins Germany • Sparks Functionalism in US • 1933: 14% German, 52% English,

4. Public Schools • Immigration • Child Labor Laws • Dramatic increase in public school enrollments • Education became big business

5. James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944) • Advocated a pragmatic, test-centered approach to analyses of mental processes • Focused on human abilities, not elements of consciousness • Contributed little of scientific value • Became psychology’s promotional agent

6. Cattell’s Life • Stressed Measurement and Statistics • Encouraged the use of large samples • Tried to correlate intelligence with reaction times, visual acuity, grip (remember Galton?) • Measurements literally correlated with nothing • 1894: began Psychological Review and acquired Science • His organization and editing of numerous publications took time away from research

7. Henry Goddard (1865-1957) • Trained at Clark and adopted Hall’s view of hereditary intelligence • Director of research at The Vineland Training School for the Feeble-Minded • Reinforced his beliefs • Residents “looked flawed.” • Searched for testing strategies; “Mental Tests” of the time seemed useless

8. The Psychological Testing Movement • Mental tests: tests of motor skills and sensory capacities. • Intelligence tests use more complex measures of mental abilities. • Cattell originated the term but Binet developed the 1st genuinely psychological test of mental ability

9. Goddard meets Binet in France • Alfred Binet • Independently wealthy • Self-taught psychologist • His two daughters did as well as adults on sensorimotor tasks but, not as well as adults on tests of cognitive ability • Binet’s conclusion: cognitive functions reflect intelligence, sensorimotor responses do not

10. Alfred Binet (1857-1911) • 1904: French public schools bureau put his hypothesis to work on 3-12 year olds • Binet and a psychiatrist, Theodore Simon, aimed to identify students who students with were having difficulty learning • Examined intellectual tasks that children of different ages could accomplish (based on normal distributions) and built an intelligence test • Defined mental age • Please see: • http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Binet/binet1.htm

11. Kallikak Family Study • Goddard brings Binet-Simon test back to the US and begins widespread applications Vineland and NJ public schools ~1910 • Begins empirical research on intelligence and the causes of feeblemindedness • Study of the Kallikak Family Tree solidifies his belief in a genetic cause

12. Testing in Numbers • 1917: U.S. Enters WWI • Robert Yerkes, APA president: urged Titchener’s experimental psychologists to aid war effort • Military needs to assess intelligence of troops

13. Robert Yerkes(1876-1956) • Stanford-Binet test: time and expertise • Yerkes developed a multiple-choice intelligence test • Alpha (Eng. literate) Beta (illiterate) • Not given to recruits until 3 months before end WWI • Tested more than 1 million men • No direct effect on war effort • Significant impact on psychology as a discipline

14. Lightner Witmer (1867 – 1956) • 1892-1896: University of Pennsylvania • Experimental research on individual differences and pain • Goal: application of psychology to abnormal behavior • Identified a need and opened the first US clinic headed by a psychologist mostly dedicated to learning disorders

15. Lightner Witmer (1867-1956) • Philosophy of environmental influences and enrichment moved the discipline away from a purely hereditary focus • Developed methods for teaching teachers • “Teach to the Weakness” • The first self-described “Clinical Psychologist” was a school psychologist • The very existence of Clinical Psychology indicates that psychologists do not completely accept genetic determinism

16. The Clinical Psychology Movement • C. Beers: A Mind that Found Itself (1908) • Fight to improve care and treatment of people in mental hospitals • Work to correct the misimpression that one cannot recover from mental illness • Help to prevent mental disability and the need for hospitalization

17. The Clinical Psychology Movement • 1918 (9 years after Freud’s visit) • no grad programs in clinical psychology; • “What is a clinical Psychologist?” - Goddard • 1940: status not much improved • Clinical psychology still a small part of the discipline • Few treatment facilities for adults • Clinical psychologists • No specialized education programs • Few jobs!

18. The Clinical Psychology Movement • 1941: U.S. Entry to WWII dramatically changed circumstances • Army: trained clinical psychologists to treat emotional disturbances of military personnel

19. The Clinical Psychology Movement • The VA • Veterans Administration (Now department of veterans affairs) responsible for 40,000+ vets with mental problems • More than 3 million vets needed vocational and personal counseling in transition to civilian life • Over 315,000 veterans had physical disabilities

20. The Industrial-Organizational Psychology Movement • The impact of the World Wars • During: testing, screening, classifying recruits • After: Managing the Workforce • Subspecialty: human engineering (ergonomics) • Work on a myriad of consumer products, not just military hardware

21. The Industrial-Organizational Psychology Movement • The Hawthorne Studies and Organizational Factors • 1920’s: selection and placement of job applicants • 1927: focus expanded to social/psychological conditions of the workplace

22. The Industrial-Organizational Psychology Movement • Hawthorne Plant • Pioneering research program • First studied influences of the physical environment on employee efficiency • The Hawthorne Effect • Found social and psychological factors in the workplace more important than physical ones!

23. American Functionalism • Hugo Münsterberg (1863-1916) • 1885: PhD with Wundt • 1887: MD at Heidelberg • James lured him to Harvard • Ran the Harvard lab that James disregarded • German loyalist during WW I

24. Hugo Münsterberg Pioneered Applied Psychology in the Courtroom • On the Witness Stand (1908) • Described difficulties with testimony • Understood, illusions, suggestions, coerced testimony • Predicted forensic psychology and the polygraph • Predicted the use of psychologists in the courtroom!

25. Hugo Münsterberg On the Witness Stand (1908) “The administration of an oath is partly responsible for the wrong valuation of the evidence. Its seriousness and solemnity suggest that the conditions for complete truth are given if the witness is ready not to lie.” “Is it so sure that our memory works faultlessly simply because we earnestly want it to behave well?”

26. Untrue Confessions On the Witness Stand (1908) “… we can suppose that persons suspected wrongly of a crime may, in the face of an unfortunate combination of damaging evidence, prefer to make a false confession in the hope of a recommendation to mercy.” “the horrors of the accusation (can) overpower the distressed mind.”

27. Hugo Münsterberg Pioneered I/O Psychology • Psychology and Industrial Efficiency (1913) • Vocational Fitness • Monotony and Fatigue • Job Satisfaction • Advertisement • Work can be a central source of joy, pride, satisfaction or depression and discouragement.

28. A National Mania • WWI put psychology on the map • Between world wars • Applied psychology respected • Sufficient jobs and funding in academia • New departments, buildings, and labs • Tripling of APA membership • Still a contempt for applied psychology • 1919: APA required published experimental research for membership • 1920’s: enormous public enthusiasm for psychology • The depression years: attacked for failure to cure

29. A National Mania • World War II • Different set of problems • Influence increased • 25% of American psychologist engaged in war effort • Psychology in Germany revived after decline under Nazis • In U.S. Phenomenal growth; Most advances in applied psychology • Power shift in APA eventually led to 1988 founding of the American Psychological Society (APS)