Chapter 8 High Points in Applied Psychology

Chapter 8High Points in Applied Psychology

Main Points

• Hollingworth—ethics in research and applied psychology

• Women in applied psychology—Hollingworth, Anastasia, Goodnough

• Publishing of psychology—Cattell• Mental Testing—Binet, Terman, abuses of testing• Clinical Psychology—Witmer• I/O psychology—Scott• Case unto himself—Hugo Munsterberg

FDA raid on Coke

• Federal agents stop a truck full of Coke syrup– syrup contains caffeine, a drug under the new FDA– FDA claims caffeine is poisonous and habit-

forming

FDA and COKE

• Coca Cola wants to test the effects of caffiene, ask James McKeen Cattell, who says “NO”.

• Harry Hollingworth says “YES”– He needed the money• His teaching job had a low salary• His wife Leta Stetter couldn’t find teaching work

because she was married• She couldn’t sell her short stories

Harry insists on high standards

• Did not want to be accused of fudging results• Coke allowed him to publish results, even if damaging

to the company• Coke agreed that findings could not be used in

advertising

Coke research

– 40-day research program• Rigorous and sophisticated• Involved 64,000 individual measurements• Data on motor and mental functions• Variety of caffeine levels• No harmful effects found

– Coke wins court case, though verdict overturned by Supreme Court

Coke research

• Psychology wins, one can apply psychology without sacrificing integrity

• Toward a practical psychology– Evolution took rapid hold in U.S.

Economic influences on applied psychology

– Contextual forces also compel applied psychology• There are more Ph.D.s than labs to employ them• Psychologists need to work, look outside universities

– Found practical work challenging and stimulating– Human behavior can be studied outside lab

Economic influences on applied psychology

• Even some within universities receive pressure– Less endowed universities in West and Midwest– Need to prove psychology’s worth to

administrators, legislators• Survey shows administrators regard psychology with

low worth• Courses and labs under-funded, poorly equipped

– Push to prove worth by solving problems

Mental Testing

Mental Testing

– Interest in statistics characterizes new American psychology• Focus on large groups, comparisons of them• Statistics opened new research opportunities• New opportunities pushed need for new analyses• Graphic displays of data: Galton, Ebbinghaus, Hall,

Thorndike

James McKeen Cattell

– Influenced by Galton, Cattell stresses quantification, ranking, and ratings• Although personally “mathematically illiterate”, made

simple computation errors• Developed order-of-merit ranking method• Wundt hadn’t favored statistics


• Karl Pearson refined correlation formula and “devised the chi-square test”, used more by Americans than anyone else• 1907, John Cover from Stanford U. advocates using

experimental and control groups


– Cattell also interested in Galton’s Eugenics• Argued for sterilizing “delinquents and so-called

defective persons”• Promoted offering incentives to the “healthy and

intelligent” who intermarry• Promised his own children money if they married

professor offspring


– Goes to Columbia U as psychology professor and department chair, Stays 26 years• Begins Psychological Review with Baldwin in 1894• Purchases weekly journal Science

– Purchased from Alexander Graham Bell– About to run out of money– 5 years later becomes official journal of American Association

for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)


• Institutes reference books in 1906– American Men of Science– Leaders in Education

• Bought Popular Science Monthly in 1900– Sells name in 1915– Continues to publish as Scientific Monthly


• Started weekly School and Society in 1915• Organizing and editing these take time from research

productivity which is thin at Columbia• More doctorates given at Columbia under Cattell than

from any other American grad program– Cattell advocated independent work– Gave students freedom– Believed professor should have distance


– Devotes life to publications and professional societies

– 1921 founds the Psychological Corporation• Stock purchased by APA members• Provides psychological services to community• Initially is a failure, very low profit first 2 years• By 1969, $5 million in sales, bought by Harcourt Brace• 10 years later $30 million


– Mental Tests• Coins phrase in article published in 1890• Administers series of tests to students at U of Penn,

continues at Columbia• Tests look more like Galton’s anthropometric lab, less

like cognitive tests• Cattell correlates test scores with academic

performance, which are “disappointingly low”• Concludes that these types of tests were not valid for

measuring intelligence.


– Cattell’s influence on American psychology• Organizer, executive, and administrator• Link between psychology and greater scientific

community• Ambassador of psychology with lectures, editing,

promotion• Developed order-of-merit ranking, used to rank

American Men of Science (which did include women)• Through his students: two were Woodworth and

Thorndike

The Psychological testing movement In France and

America

IQ tests

• Binet, Terman, and the IQ test– first true test of mental ability is Alfred Binet’s

(1857-1911)• independently wealthy, self-taught French psychologist• published over 200 articles and books, 4 plays• disagreed with Galton, Cattell (sensorimotor approach)• should assess memory, attention, imagination,

comprehension

Binet

• 1904 opportunity knocks– French ministry of education appoints commission

» Learn about children having learning difficulties» Binet and Théodore Simon (psychiatrist) appointed

– Investigated intellectual tasks across age groups– Created 30-problem test

» Ordered by ascending difficulty» Measured 3 functions: judgment, comprehension,

reasoning

Binet

– 3 years later • revises and expands test• introduces mental age: “age at which children of

average ability can perform certain tasks”

– 1911 3rd revision, but Binet dies

Goddard

– Test development moves to U.S.• Translated by Henry Goddard (student of Hall)

– Works with mentally retarded children in New Jersey– Goddard translates as “Binet-Simon Measuring Scale for

Intelligence”– Introduces the term ‘moron’ (Greek for ‘slow’)

Terman

– 1916 Lewis Terman develops version that becomes standard• The Stanford-Binet (he

works at Stanford U.)• Adopts the concept

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)• ratio of mental to

chronological age• IQ originated with

German William Stern• Legacy of Lewis Terman

http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2000/julaug/articles/terman.html

Lewis M. Terman

• Faculty member at Stanford University• Began an investigation of the strengths &

weaknesses of the Binet-Simon intelligence test

• Led him to revise the original scale

Terman

Terman’s TermitesGenius Studies

Over 85 Years and Still Running

Hereditarian Aspect“I am less sure of this

now(1951)! And still less sure in 1955”

World War I and Group Testing

– Titchener’s Experimentalists meet on day WWI erupts• Yerkes is there, urges group to consider how to help

war effort• Titchener leaves, claiming because he is British

WWI testing

– U.S. army is mobilizing, how to assess/classify the recruits?• Stanford-Binet not appropriate, designed for individual

administration, too much training to do

WWI testing

• Yerkes, with 40 psychologists, develops group intelligence test– Review large number of available tests– Model based on Arthur Otis’ test which uses multiple choice

• Army Alpha and Army Beta (for illiterates) created• Over 1 million tested, though too late for army to use

WWI testing

– These created publicity and sparked testing movement• Tests for other concepts developed (i.e., personality)

– Previous personality tests not sufficient (Kraepelin, Jung’s word association tests)

• Woodworth’s Personnel Data Sheet measured neuroticism• Testing now widely accepted in variety of settings

(employment, schoolchildren, college applicants)

Education and applied testing

• Early 1920’s 4 million intelligence tests purchased per year• Public education “reorganized around the concept..IQ”• 12 million of Luella Cole and Sidney Pressey’s tests

alone given to schoolchildren• Even Babe Ruth was tested to see why he was a great

baseball player

Bad tests

• Poor tests also created– Thomas Edison’s intelligence test

» Given to 36 college graduates» Only got a few right» Spurred 23 disparaging articles about the test in New York

Times» Contributed to a loss of faith in testing

Bad tests

• To regain credibility, terminology borrowed from medicine and engineering– Subjects tested were “patients”– Tests were “thermometers”, required training– Tests promoted as X-ray machines into mind

Abuses of tests

• Racial differences in intelligence– testing movement creates controversy still with us– Henry Goddard • 1912 visits Ellis Island• Believed that physicians there only identified 10% of

feeble-minded

Abuses of tests

• Proposed psychologists conduct tests, using Binet test

• During his visit, he tests a young man– Tests and diagnoses him as feeble-minded– Interpreter said when he was newly arrived he would have

failed as well, said test unfair to those unfamiliar with American culture

• Ertl-Hungarian who developed the NEA (Neural Efficiency Analyzer)

Abuses of tests

• Later testing on immigrants with limited English skills shows majority as feeble-minded, mental age less than 12– 87% of Russians– 83% of Jews– 80% of Hungarians– 79% of Italians

• Evidence used to create restrictive immigration laws

Abuses of tests

– Racial differences in intelligence boosted by results from Army Alpha and Army Beta• Mental age of draftees only 13• IQ of Blacks and immigrants lower than Whites

Reactions to test abuses

– Vocal critic was Horace Mann Bond• African-American scholar, president of Lincoln

University in PA• Ph.D. from U. of Chicago• Published many books and articles arguing that

environment not genes caused differences in test scores: Blacks from north scored higher IQs than Whites from south

Reactions to test abuses

– Many responded that tests were biased, controversy faded

– 1994 The Bell Curve by Herrnstein and Murray• Argued that Blacks are inferior in intelligence to Whites

– Evidence now shows with current good intelligence tests, no cultural bias

Women’s contributions

• Contributions of Women to the testing movement– Women often barred from academic positions– many found applied employment instead• Florence Goodenough, Ph.D. from Stanford

– created Draw-A-Man test, a version of which still used– worked for 20 years at Institute of Child Development at U. of

Minnesota


• Maude Merrill James, wrote Stanford-Binet revision with Terman• Thelma Thurstone, helped develop Primary Mental

Abilities test with her husband• Psyche Cattell (daughter of James McKeen Cattell)

extended age for Stanford-Binet test to 3-month-old infants


– Anne Anastasi• An authority on testing• Earned Ph.D. at 21• Wrote more than 150 articles and books• One was popular testing textbook• APA president, 1971


• Many honors (i.e., National Medal of Science)• Retired from Fordham• Unable to have children, felt “free to concentrate on

her career without guilt or conflict”

– Lillian Wolfe PHD Yale University, Terman’s student• Not given tenure at Ole Miss because she was married

to J. B. Wolfe

Problems in Applied Psychology

– Such applied work is disadvantageous to attaining prominence• Little time, support, no grad students to do publishable

research• In an organization, good work not recognized outside • Their good work largely invisible• Applied work denigrated by some as “women’s work”• No woman elected president of American Association

for Applied Psychology although 1/3 of membership were women by 1941

The Clinical Psychology Movement

Witmer• Lightner Witmer (1867-1956)– taught psychology at U. of Penn., filled Cattell’s position

when he left for Columbia U.– “Described as contentious, antisocial, and conceited”– 1896: opened world’s first psychology clinic– His clinical psychology is not psychotherapy, instead more

narrowly defined in scope, more closely “school psychology”

– offered first college course in clinical psychology– started and edits (for 29 years) first clinical journal:

Psychological Clinic

Witmer

• Within months, Witmer is teaching methods for treating the mentally challenged• Publishes article in Pediatrics “recommending that

psychology be applied to practical affairs”• Presents paper on topic at APA, using “clinical

psychology” for the first time• 1907: founds journal Psychological Clinic

Witmer

• 1908: establishes boarding school for retarded/disturbed children• 1909: expands university clinic• Retires from U. of Penn. in 1937

Witmer

– Clinics for Child Evaluation• He develops his own “diagnostic and treatment

approaches”• His first case, the 14-year old boy

– Assessed cognitive functioning– Determined that his reading ability deficient– Diagnosed with visual/verbal amnesia– Child couldn’t remember words– Witmer developed remedial program– Some improvement, but not proficiency

Witmer

• Referred children had broad range of problems• He developed standard assessments/treatments• Added physicians, social workers, psychologists to staff• Assessments involved physical examinations

– Witmer recognized the influence of physical deficits on emotional and cognitive functions

– Tested for malnutrition, visual and hearing deficits

Witmer

• At first, Witmer believed genetics played key role, later realized the importance of environmental factors– Saw need for enrichment in early life– Believed in having families, schools involved in treatment

Clinical Psychology

• The profession of clinical psychology– by 1914 almost 20 psychology clinics are in U.S.– Two books provide impetus to field• Clifford Beers (1908), a former mental patient, on the

need to deal humanely with the mentally ill • Hugo Münsterberg (1909), describing treatments for

mental disorders

Clinical Psychology

– first child guidance clinic 1909, aim to treat child disorders early

– Sigmund Freud, whose ideas broadened the definition of clinical psychology to include psychotherapy

– Still, clinical psychology grew slowly• As late as 1918 no graduate programs in clinical• By 1940, clinical psychology still minor

Clinical Psychology

– Situation changes during World War II• Army establishes training programs for several hundred

clinical psychologists• Needed to treat emotionally disturbed soldiers

Clinical Psychology

– After WWII need for clinicians even greater• Veteran’s Administration (VA) responsible for over

40,000 psychiatric patients (veterans)• 3 million other veterans needed vocational/personal

counseling• Over 300,000 needed help adjusting to physical

disabilities• VA funded graduate programs, paid tuition for those

willing to work for VA

Clinical Psychology

– This changes clinical psychology• Before war, dealt mostly with children• After war, adults with severe emotional problems

– The VA is still the largest employer of psychologists in U.S.

– Today, clinical is largest area of psychology, in a variety of settings

The Industrial-Organizational Psychology Movement

Walter Dill Scott

• Born on family farm near Normal, Illinois• discovered efficiency by reading books while horses

rested between plow lines in the field• picked up odd jobs to earn tuition• won scholarship to Northwestern, took tutoring jobs for

extra money• met woman who would become his wife

Scott

– Advertising and human suggestibility• writes about the sense organs as “windows of the soul”,

how advertising must “awaken in the reader as many different kinds of images as the object itself can excite”• consumers often not rational, so can be influenced

easily

Scott

• should use “emotion, sympathy, and sentimentality”• believed women more suggestible than men• recommends using direct commands: text example is

“Use Pears Soap”• promoted using return coupons to make consumer

actively engaged

Scott

– Employee selection• devised rating scales, group tests

– interviewed army officers and business managers– they ranked subordinates on several variables– then he ranked job applicants based on these variables

• other psychological tests, such as for intelligence, interested not in just general intelligence, but in how person applies their intelligence

Scott

– Scott often barely mentioned in history of psychology• because of applied work• applied work often traditionally derogated by

academicians• Scott and others believed they also did good scientific

work

The impact of the World Wars

– WWI broadened “scope, popularity, and growth of I/O psychology”

– Scott had tested 3 million soldiers– after war, industry seeks I/O practitioners

WWI

– WWI also impacts I/O in Europe, English and Germans • develop “selection techniques for military personnel

and [design] military equipment”• create national institutes to support I/O work

WWII

– WWII also creates big boom• by 1941 German military employed 500 psychologists• for Americans, equipment more complex, required

higher skills, training• spurred human factors engineering, active today in a

large variety of fields

The Hawthorne Studies and Organizational Issues

– primary focus of I/O psychologists in 1920’s was selection

– 1927, start of multi-year research program at the Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, IL

– extends field to human relations, motivation, morale

– research begins by seeking effects of physical environment on productivity

Hawthorne Effect

– psychologists found that more profound effects on productivity came from the social-psychological factors

– for example, just being watched by the researchers increased production

Organizational Psychology

– leads to study of “behavior of leaders, informal work groups, employee attitudes, communication patterns...and other factors”

– causes “industrial psychology” to be renamed “industrial & organizational psychology”

Hugo Munsterberg

• Born in Danzig Prussia (1863-1916)• Skilled student, gymnasium graduate• Student of Wundt, had a theory of emotion

that stated muscular sensations were the basis of emotions, similar to James

• Fell out with Wundt, got Ph.D. however 1885, M.D. in 1887

Hugo Munsterberg

• Came to Harvard to head the department– Wrote a book “Principles of Psychology”– Published in Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, and

New York Times• Began Applied and Clinical Psychology

Hugo Munsterberg

• Chose subjects who would be beneficial to science• Directive in approach• Suggested they would get better• Used Hypnosis• Rejected Freud, the subconcious mind he said “there

is none”• Wrote a book on psychotherapy• DID NOT CHARGE FOR SERVICES

Hugo Munsterberg

• Forensic Psychology– Wrote book “On the Witness Stand”– Staged experiments to show the unreliability of eyewitness

testimony– Criticized lawyers for not accepting psychology (one reason

he was the most hated psychologist in America)– Investigated an accused murderer in Idaho (18 Murders)

with association measures, reaction times etc. Concluded he was telling the truth (at least subjectively) and was roundly criticized for this.

Hugo Munsterberg

• Forensic psychology– Did an experiment with women• Found that they were not capable of rational

discussions in groups and recommended that they not be on juries. Very controversial (another reason he was disliked)

Hugo Munsterberg

• Industrial Psychology– Published Psychology and Industrial Efficiency in

1913– Topics included selecting “man for job”, worker

efficiency, and marketing , sales, and advertising procedures

– Did one experiment were professional telephone operators were included in new employees, he picked them out with some success

Hugo Munsterberg

• HATED– Spokesman for Germany– Argued for “fair play”– Harvard was offered $10 million to fire him, they didn’t– He offered to leave if the donor gave him $5 million and

Harvard $5 million, it was refused– Even dachshunds were attacked as unpatriotic– He died in 1916 while giving a lecture at Ratliffe

Hugo Munsterberg

• Contributions– Applied Psychology– Clinical Psychology– Industrial Psychology– Forensic Psychology

• Shortcomings—failed to win people over to him in many cases

Chapter 8 High Points in Applied Psychology

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