History of Psychology
Chapter 8 –
Applied Psychology: The Legacy of
Functionalism
I. The Growth of Psychology
in the United States

A. Wundt's impact

1. American psychology guided by Darwin and
Galton

2. Wundt's American students did not replicate his
psychology

3. Wundt's and Titchener's systems without
practical applications

4. American pragmatism concomitant with rise of
functionalism
The Growth of Psychology in the
United States

B. Journal articles in 1900:



1. 25% applied
2. 3% involved introspection
C. Laboratories


1. 1880: none
2. 1900: 42
The Growth of Psychology in the
United States

D. Dominance in numbers

1. 1903: more PhDs in psychology than in
any science other than chemistry, zoology,
and physics

2. 1913: United States had more of the
world's leading psychologists than any
other country
The Growth of Psychology in the
United States

E. Publication language

1910: 50% written in German


1933: 52% written in English


30% in English
14% in German
F. Popularity

1. 1904 World's Fair: speakers included
Titchener, Morgan, Janet, Hall, Watson
II. Economic Influences on
Applied Psychology

A. 1900: more Ph.Ds & laboratories



1. applied work necessary for an income
2. applied work necessary to supplement
academic salary
B. Pressure to prove psychology's value


1. to administrators and legislators for funding
2. to the public
Economic Influences on Applied
Psychology

C. Opportunity


1. dramatic increase in public school
enrollments
2. education became big business
III. Stanley Hall (1844-1924)

A. Hall's career
 1 .first American doctoral
degree in psychology

Stanley Hall
2. first (second) American
student in the first year of the
first psychology laboratory
Stanley Hall (1844-1924)

3. began first psychology laboratory in the
United States

4. began first American journal of psychology

5. first president of Clark and APA

6. one of the first applied psychologists
Stanley Hall (1844-1924)


Stanley Hall (1844-1924)
B. hall’s life

1. Interested in philosophy & evolutionary theory

2. became a tutor in English at Harvard, did
research at the medical school; PhD in 1878

3. University of Leipzig: was Wundt's student,
knew Fechner, did physiological research

4. United States: lectures on application of
psychology to education
Stanley Hall (1844-1924)

5. Professor at Johns Hopkins University
 a. established first American psychology laboratory
(1883)
 b. his students: Dewey and Cattell

6. founded Journal of genetic Psychology, Journal of
applied Psychology, and Journal of religious Psychology

7. 1887: founded American Journal of psychology
st
 a. 1 American Journal
 b. an area for theoretical and experimental ideas
Stanley Hall (1844-1924)

8. 1888: first president of Clark University

a. preferred to develop a graduate institution

b. receptive to women and minority students at
graduate level and to Jewish faculty

c. Francis Cecil Sumner - first African American to
earn a Ph.D. in psychology (Clark University
in1920, became chair of the psychology department
at Howard University in 1928
Stanley Hall (1844-1924)

9. founded APA and was 1st APA president

10. early interest in psychoanalysis; invited Freud
and Jung to celebrate Clark University’s 20th
anniversary

11. 81 doctorates were awarded in psychology at
Clark during his 36 years there.
Stanley Hall (1844-1924)

C. Evolution as framework for human
development

1. contributed more to educational
psychology than to experimental psychology

2. a genetic psychologist: study of childhood
is the core of his psychology
Stanley Hall (1844-1924)

3. extensive use of questionnaires

4. child study movement

a. established the empirical study of the child

b. established concept of psychological
development
Stanley Hall (1844-1924)

5. 1904: Adolescence
 a. his most influential work
 b. recapitulation theory of psychological
development
 It means that the psychological development
of children repeats the history of the human
race.

6. 1922: Senescence (first large survey of psychology
of elderly)
IV. James Cattell (1860-1944)

James Cattell
A. Cattell's life

1. Born in
Pennsylvania

2. graduate work:
Gottingen, then
Leipzig with Wundt
James Cattell (1860-1944)

3. 1882: fellowship at Johns Hopkins





a. major interest: philosophy
b. interest in psychology due to experiments with drugs
c. took Hall's lab course
d. began reaction-time research
4. 1883: return to Leipzig


a. lab assistant to Wundt
b. PhD in 1886
James Cattell (1860-1944)

4. taught in United States, then at Cambridge:
met Galton

5. one of first in United States to stress
quantification, ranking, ratings



a. developed ranking method
b. first psychologist to teach statistical analysis of
experimental results
c. encouraged the use of large groups of subjects
James Cattell (1860-1944)

6. interested in Galton's eugenics

7. 1888: professor of psychology at
University of Pennsylvania

8. 1894: began Psychological Review

9. other books and journals
James Cattell (1860-1944)

10. 1891: professor of psychology and chair
at Columbia University

11. at Columbia



a. more PhDs in psychology than anywhere else
in United States
b. emphasized independent research by graduate
students
c. urged increased faculty involved university
decision
James Cattell (1860-1944)

12. 1917: dismissed on grounds of
disloyalty to United States

13. 1921: organized Psychological
Corporation, promoting applied
psychology as a business
James Cattell (1860-1944)

C. Mental testing

1 .1890: coined term mental tests

2. his intelligence tests:


elementary sensorimotor measurements
3. 1901: concluded such tests not valid
predictors of intelligence
James Cattell (1860-1944)

D. Comment

1. strongest impact:


2. contributed through his students


as organizer, executive, administrator, and link
to scientific community
Robert Woodworth; E. L. Thorndike
3. reinforced functionalism
V. The Psychological Testing Movement
—Alfred Binet (1857-1911)

A. Alfred Binet (18571911)

1. self-taught psychologist

2. first true psychological
test of mental ability

3. provided effective
measure of cognitive
abilities
V. The Psychological Testing Movement
—Alfred Binet (1857-1911)

4. initiated modern intelligence testing

5. cognitive functions reflect intelligence,
sensorirnotor responses do not

6. Binet and Simon test
 a. 30 problems
 b. ascending difficulty
 c. foci: judgment, comprehension, reasoning
V. The Psychological Testing Movement
—Alfred Binet (1857-1911)

7. mental age concept

The age at which children of average ability
can perform certain tasks
8. Progress in intelligent test in United
States

a. 1908: Henry Goddard translated Binet test
was from French to English

b. 1916: Lewis Terman: developed StanfordBinet test
V. The Psychological Testing Movement
—others

A. The impact of World War I

1. needed a group test to assign people to the
suitable tasks

2. Robert Yerkes urged to develop a group intelligent
test

3. WWI ended before a group test developed.
However, it enhanced publicity of psychological
testing.
V. The Psychological Testing Movement
—others

B. The impact of educational needs

IQ scores became the most important
criterion for student placement and
advancement

Other tests for cognitive functioning
V. The Psychological Testing Movement
—others

C. Metaphors from medicine

1. purpose: psychology is a “science”

2. medicine:



Not as subjects but as patients
Tests were like X-ray to see inside the mind or
patients’ mental mechanisms.
administered by a trained psychologists
V. The Psychological Testing Movement
—others

D. Metaphors from engineering

3. Engineering


Schools were referred to as education factories
Tests as ways to measure a factor’s products
(intelligence levels)
V. The Psychological Testing Movement
—others

E. Racial Differences

1 .1912: Goddard at Ellis Island
 a. northern Europeans and non-Jews “normal”

b. legislation restricting the immigration of
"inferior" racial and ethnic groups


2. 1921: mental age of World War I draftees was 13
V. The Psychological Testing Movement
—others

E. Racial Differences

3. Horace Mann Bond: racial differences in IQ due
to environment

4. 1994: The Bell Curve (Herrnstein and Murray)
 Intelligent tests are not culturally biased ??

5. However, this controversial issue remained
unfinished today
V. The Psychological Testing Movement
—others

E. Contribution of Women to the testing
movement

Female psychologists prohibited from seeking
university positions.

Women have made significant contribution to the
development and application of psychological tests.
 E.g., Psyche Cattell:

Catell Infant Intelligence Scale
VI. Clinical Psychology Movement
Lightner Witmer (1867-1956)

A. Witmer's life

1. Cattell chose him as his
successor

2. Encouraged him to study with
Wundt

3. He was not impressed with
Wundt’s research methods

4. Titchener was his classmate
Lightner Witmer
VI. Clinical Psychology Movement
Lightner Witmer (1867-1956)

5. 1892-1896: faculty at the Uni. of Pennsylvania
 a. experimental research on individual
differences and psychological pain

b. goal: application of psychology to abnormal
behavior

c. the growth in funding for public education,
demand for educational psychology courses
VI. Clinical Psychology Movement
Lightner Witmer (1867-1956)



6. 1896: published an article, entitled
Practical Work in Psychology
7. Used the term “clinical psychology” for
the first time
8. 1907: founded Psychological Clinic
VI. Clinical Psychology Movement
Lightner Witmer (1867-1956)

B. Career


1. 1896: opened the world’s first psychology clinic
2. began the field of “clinical psychology”
 a. assessed/treated learning and behavior problems
 b. today is called “school psychology”

3. He offered the first college course on clinical
psychology

4. functionalist: helped people solve problems
VI. Clinical Psychology Movement
--Others

1. 1908: A Mind That Found Itself (Beers)

2. 1909: Psychotherapy (Munsterberg)

3. 1909: first child guidance clinic (Healey)
 a. early intervention
 b. team approach

4. S. Freud's work: psychoanalysis
VI. Clinical Psychology Movement
--Others

5. By 1940,
 clinical is a small part of psychology

few treatment facilities for adults

few jobs for clinical psychologists
VI. Clinical Psychology Movement
--Others

6. WWII in 1941

Needed clinical psychologists to treat the
emotional issues of military personnel

After war, needs clinical psychologists even
greater in VA hospitals

VA funded graduate programs to let graduate
students to work at VA hospitals and clinics
VI. Clinical Psychology Movement
--Others

7. Today, clinical psychology

Clinical psychologists are employed in mental
health centers, business, and private practices

Is the largest field in applied psychology

More than 1/3 of graduate students in clinical
psychology

More than 1/3 of APA members are in private
practice
VII. I-O Psychology Movement
--Walter Scott (1869-1955)

Walter Scott
A. Scott's life
 1 . trained to be missionary to
China

2. 1898: began study with
Wundt at 'Leipzig

3. 1900: faculty in
Northwestern University
VII. I-O Psychology Movement
--Walter Scott (1869-1955)

4. 1902: was asked to apply psychology to
advertising

5. 1903: The Theory and Practice of advertising

6. Expertise in personnel selection and
management

7. 1919: The Scott Company: personnel selection
and worker efficiency
VII. I-O Psychology Movement
--Walter Scott (1869-1955)

B. Career

1. first to apply psychology to advertising, personnel
selection, management

2. first “professor of applied psychology”

3. founded first psychological consulting company

4. first psychologist to receive army Distinguished
Service Medal
VII. I-O Psychology Movement
--Walter Scott (1869-1955)

C. Advertising
 1. consumers: not rational, easily influenced

2. Applied his law of suggestibility into
advertising
3. Recommend to use direct commands to sell
products
VII. I-O Psychology Movement
--Walter Scott (1869-1955)

D. Personnel selection
 1. rating scales and group tests of successful
employees

2. group tests of intelligence and other abilities
 a. how people used their intelligence, not
their base levels of intelligence
VII. I-O Psychology Movement
---other impacts

A. The impact of the world wars
 1. during the wars: testing, screening, and
classifying people to the suitable tasks

2. after the wars: need to select the best
employees
 a. subspecialty: human engineering,
engineering psychology, or human factors
engineering
VII. I-O Psychology Movement
---other impacts

B. The Hawthorne studies and organizational
factors

1. 1920s: matching the right person with the right
job

2. The importance of social/psychological factors
influences on employee motivation, productivity,
satisfaction

4. development of organizational psychology
VII. I-O Psychology Movement
---other impacts

C. Contributions of women to I-O
psychology

I-O psychology provided career opportunities to
women

Lillian Moore Gilbreth: first 1-0 PhD in 1915
from Brown University

Today, more than half of candidates in I-O
psychology were women.
VIII. Applied Psychology in
the United States

A. Between World Wars

1. applied psychology respected

2. sufficient jobs and funding in academia

3. 1920s: publicity of psychology
 People believe that psychologists could fix
everything

4. The Depression years: attacked for failure to
cure
VIII. Applied Psychology in
the United States

B. World War II
 1. different set of problems



More psychologists involved in the war
2. psychology in Germany revived for a
demand for selecting the military
personnel.
C. By 1990s: shift from experimental
psychology to applied psychology