Hello, I am currently submerged in research on the history of psychologists in America. Any help and/or advice that you might offer would be warmly received. What factors shaped the early development of psychologists in the United States? Also what helped shape its further development? Are they undergoing any challenges? To further satisfy my curiosity, I would like to ask one more question: In your own opinion, what do you think will significantly shape the future of psychologists? Thank you very much if you can help!

-- Aurora Yu (Auroras_Light@hotmail.com), May 16, 2001

Answers

This is, of course, a very complex question. There is a whole textbook on the topic by Ernest Hilgard entitled _Psychology in America: A Historical Survey_ (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987). You should probably look for that to begin with.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), May 18, 2001.

Another excellent book on this topic that I particularly like, that is more of a scholarly monograph than a simple texbook, is John M. O'Donnell's _The origins of behaviorism: American Psychology, 1870-1920_ (NYU Press, 1985).

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), May 19, 2001.

Hi Aurora, very ambitious research topic. At York University there is a division within a department devoted to the history of psychology. I can tell you, you've picked a life time project - just with U.S. psychology. Let me just point out a few things you might include as factors which shaped the early development of psychology in the U.S.. Early development: compulsory education, that's a big one. Look up the early laws in your state to get an idea of what it was about. Then check out how the French met this challenge with the help of Binet. You'll want to mark how Lightner Witmer trained the first clinical people and how these child psychologists helped out the progressive movement; I suppose you could say the progressive movement impacted psychology; you can look at the early clinics like the Bailey and Babett Gazert Center for Child Welfare at the University of Washington. Child Welfare is an important topic, lots of money was spent on child development. Don't forget to lump speach and hearing clinics and people in with psychologists. Look at Hadley's book on clinical psycholog. Or you can look into Witmer's history and note how he got his start-up money. World War I, that had a pretty big impact, have a look at tests and measurements before and after; note what psychology did for the U.S. Army in personal selection and what that did for psychology. Also consider union problems, worker unrest and unions, and notice the impact this has on I/O psychology. Also make note of immigration in the early 20th cen.; this will have impact for eugenics. World War II, this prompted the U.S. Army to have U.S. psychology to begin training clinical psychologists for an adult population; the first class graduated at the University of Iowa. Post World War II prosperity, look at U.S. Public Health Service laws passed by the Kenndy and Johnson administrations which address the mentally retarded, read the history of the CDMRC Child Development and Mental Retardation Center at the University of Washington; it will be in a state publication which is an interview with Dr. Charles Strother. Also look at the influence that the military and U.S. Public Health Service had on creating the clinical psychologist programs in the U.S., read about the Boulder Conference. Follow this up by the fragmentation, discord, and bad feelings it caused in psychology departments across the U.S. within the departments. Then look at the influence a British code breaking computer guy, Alan Turing, had in establishing a cognitive science. Find out what the Turing Test is and what its implications are. Well of course that's not very much, but I hope it gets you started. My humble opinion about possible influences on future directions of psychology? Well, how about the population explosion-congestion? Don't you think it's time someone did so human factors traffic design to do something about road rage? Good Luck, David P.S. also look at Swets 1973 Science article on signal detection which comes out of WWII electronics research. Most helpful word of advise I can give you is narrow your topic. Of course you can also look at the development of the drugs used to treat mental illness if you'd rather forge ahead.

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), May 23, 2001.

It is necessary to understand that to truly conduct research of historical value you must research archives other primary sources. Psychology is a large topic, it would be best to narrow your topic. As for secondary sources there are often errors(textbooks). Division 26 (History of Psychology) views certain texts as good secondary sources. One excellent text is A HISTORY OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY BY DUANE P. SCHULZ & SYDNEY ELLEN SCHULTZ. Another text by the same name written by C. James Goodwin is an excellent resource as well. If you have particular interest in AMerican psychologists, Lightner Witmer: His Life and Times by Paul Reynolds is an excellent resource about the person who establsihed the first American psychology clinic. Best of luck with your research. . .

-- D.E.Hennessy (dh23492@yahoo.com), February 08, 2002.