The rise of Applied Psychology in Canada and the USA

Inroads from the Psychology of Adaptation lead to an emphasis on functional pragmatism

 Functionalism and scientific studies of individuals

Progressivism in politics and industrial urbanization

Large scale immigration: Up-rooted families and individuals
 
 

James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944): Ganz Amerikanisch
Mental testing, statistics and
"individual" psychology from Galton

 1890 - Coined term: "Mental Test" using quantitative measures of: Reaction time, jnd, speed of hands, judge 10 seconds, bisect 50 cm, remember letters

 Developed ranking method: Order or merit (Men of science)

Supported positive and negative eugenics

 1894 - Established journal: Psychological Review
Bought up journals: Science & Popular science monthly

1921 - Established the Psychological Corporation: Testing $$
 
 Alfred Binet (1857-1911): Intelligence tests
1908 - Mental age: Expected level of ability
to reason, comprehend, and make judgments

 1916 - Lewis Terman: Stanford-Binet test
Intelligence quotient (IQ): Mental age /Chronological age X 100

World War I (August 4th, 1914 British Commonwealth joins) 1916 - Ned Bott in Toronto: Re-educating disabled soldiers treating the whole man, making him active and confident participant in his treatment . 

Mechanotherapy: motivation & muscular re-education. Dissertation on early "scientific method"

 Walter Dill Scott: Industrial psychology
1917 - Classification of personnel and management
3.5 million took proficiency test for 83 military jobs

 Robert Yerkes (1876-1956): Animal & Testing Psychology
Criteria for "psychic": Structural and functional

 1918 - Group tests: Army alpha and beta 
Literates and illiterates: Rankings A through E

 Concerned about threats to society: Feeblemindedness
Psychology is applied to testing immigrants, troubled children, and industrial workers

1920 - Widespread testing reveals average mental age = 13!

 Henry Goddard: "Morons" score below average mental age Racial and cultural differences show "cacogenics": Undesirable genetic heritage
Supported eugenic Sterilization
  

Chitlin Test (1970s ) critique of cultural bias in intelligence testing

Tension between Applied & "Scientific"

1904 - Tichener dissatisfied with APA becoming too applied calls for 
The American Society for Experimental Psychology. Psychology as an (exclusive) exact experimental science

1908 Clifford Beers - A Mind that Found Itself - Mental Hygiene movement is spurred

1917 - Applied Association established in USA
1920s - Psychology became popularized through psychoanalysis
1930 - Association of Consulting Psychologists (ACP)
1937 - Journal of Consulting Psychology
1938 - APA renegades walk out and establish
American Association for Applied Psychology (AAAP)
&
Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)

1942 - USA joins World War II Reconciliation of the two sides with
Office of Psychological Personnel (OPP) - war effort plus the "Advancement of psychology as a profession"
 (Leahey, 2001) 
 

Applied psychology in Canada between the Great Wars

1920-1930s: Applied in mental hospitals, schools, & industry
Toronto: Community psychology and mental health
Vancouver: school board hires psychologist

1929 - Stock market crash: The Great depression!

1930 - $15,000 for five years social science at McGill
Unemployment, nursery school, and child studies

1931 - Canadian National Committee on Mental Hygiene

(see Wright & Myers, 1982)