Donald Patterson

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Does anyone know of an I-O psychologist named Patterson (I think the first name is Donald) who received his degree sometime in the early part of the 20th century? I am trying to trace an academic genealogy and I am stuck at this name. Thanks.

-- Clare Porac (cvp4@psu.edu), September 12, 2001

Answers

[Posted for LTB by cdg.]

Donald G. Paterson (1892-1961)

See obit in Journal of Applied Psychology, 1961, 45, 352.

8 boxes of papers at Archives for the History of American Psychology

-- Ludy T. Benjamin (ltb@psyc.tamu.edu), September 12, 2001.


[Posted for NBB by cdg.]

I believe it's Donald Gildersleeve Paterson (b. 1892), but I see no listing for him in Dissertation Abstracts. He was at the U. of Minnesota and worked in the areas of testing, vocational and educational counseling, and industrial psych.

-- Nicole B. Barenbaum (nbarenba@SEWANEE.EDU), September 12, 2001.


[Posted for FW by cdg.]

I believe Donald Patterson was at the University of Minnesota, which had quite a reputation in applied psychology in the 1920s and '30s. There was a testing instrument called the Pintner-Patterson, which I think (but am not sure) he helped develop. In the 1920s, personnel selection represented the "leading edge" in industrial psychology, and Patterson was identified with this approach. This approach subsequently was eclipsed, or at least diminished in importance, by more organizationally oriented approaches.

-- Fredric Weizmann (weizmann@YorkU.CA), September 12, 2001.


[Posted for RAJ by cdg.]

Following on Nicole Barenbaum's lead:

Donald Gildersleeve Paterson is written up on p. 327 of Leonard Zusne's _Biographical Dictionary of Psychology_ (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975). His highest degree was an M.A. in Psychology at Ohio State University, 1916, under Rudolf Pintner (who himself has a biographical entry).

Use WorldCat to track down the M.A. thesis (listed under "Paterson, Donald G." rather than "Paterson, Donald Gildersleeve": _Tests for the mental classification of deaf children_, 1915 [note that date differs from Zusne; contact the archivist at OSU for clarification).

-- Russell A. Johnson (rjohnson@LIBRARY.UCLA.EDU), September 12, 2001.


[Posted for DD by cdg.]

He is often cited as one of the founders of modern vocational counseling, and had many influential Ph. D. students, among them Alfred Brayfield and Leona Tyler. He was awarded an honorary LL.D. by Ohio State in 1952. He was a central figure in Minnesota psychology and also played a large role in civic affairs in Minneapolis. He was a founding member of the Minneapolis chapter of the ACLU.

-- David Devonis (DEVONIS@GRACELAND.EDU), September 12, 2001.



[Posted for JJJ by cdg.]

Donald G(ildersleeve) Paterson (note, one "t") was for many years the leader in applied psychology at the University of Minnesota. He was adviser to 88 Ph. Ds. and about 300 MAs. He got his MA at the Ohio State University working with Arps (his official adviser) and Pintner (his real adviser). He began publishing with Pintner as a junior at OSU and published some item (book, article, review, etc.) on the average of once every two months from then until his retirement. In terms of lineage he can be traced through Pintner to Wundt who was one of Pintner's advisers. Paterson never got a PhD. He enrolled at Kansas University for further graduate work but WW-1 intervened. He served with the "testing psychologists" in the Sanitary corps of the Army and after army service, he went into the Scott corporation doing applied psychology. R. M. Elliott (with whom he had served in the Army) hired him at Minnesota to set up applied psychology there and Paterson remained at the U of M for the rest of his career. He served in many public service roles and edited the Journal of Applied Psychology for many years.

James J. Jenkins (once a student of DGP), Distinguished Research Professor (Ret.), University of South Florida

-- James J. Jenkins (J3cube@aol.com), September 13, 2001.


My father, Rudolf Pintner (1884-1942) was a professor of educational psycholgy specializing in intelligence testing, firtst at Ohio State and from 1922 to his death in 1942 at Teachers Coolege, Columbia University. I belive that Donald Patterson was initially his graduate student at Ohio State . They published a series of aricles jointly between 1914 and 1917 and a book A SCALE OF PERFOMANCE TESTAS. D. Appleton & co, 1917.

I was eleven whwe my father died and I cannot recal ever meeting Patterson. I do remeber my mother ( another garduate student of my father's) telling me that his wife was deaf (or he had deaf child) and that may well have been a reason so much of their joint work dealt with psychological tesing for the deaf.

Walter M.Pintner, Professor emeritus of Russian History, Cornell University

Reference:IN MEMORIAM, RUDOLF PINTNER, Gallaudet College Press, 1951. Contains a comlpete bibliography of my father's publications

-- Walter m. Pintner (pintner@neteze.com), May 10, 2004.


In response to his relationship with deafness. He was son of deaf parents. His father, Robert Gildersleeve Paterson, graduated from Gallaudet University back in 1870's and was principal of Ohio School for the Deaf for many years.

-- Stephen F. Weiner, Associate Professor (stephen.weiner@gallaudet.edu), June 04, 2004.

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