Transcript Unit 5: Applied Psychology- Moving Toward a Practical Psychology

Unit 5: Applied Psychology- Moving
Toward a Practical Psychology
Chat until class starts
Unit 5 Assignments
• Reading:
– Read pages 158-163 (you have
already read about William James)
– Pages 171-180 in Chapter 7
– All of Chapter 8 in your text, A History
of Modern Psychology.
• Seminar: Attend the seminar or complete
the option 2 assignment
• Discussion: Answer the two discussion
questions and provide 2 responses to
other student posts
• Discussion: Answer the two discussion
questions and provide 2 responses to
student posts
American Zeitgeist in early 20th century
Social Darwinism and America
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
• Believed that human behavior and
social institutions could be explained
by evolution
• Everything should operate freely and
fittest survive
• Synthetic philosophy – applied
evolutionary theory to human
knowledge and experience
• Machines and evolution
• John D. Rockefeller’s thoughts on
evolution
Applied Psychology & Functionalism
Hall (1912) “We need a psychology that is
usable” (as cited in Schultz & Schultz,
2008, p. 222).
Psychology was applied to American
schools, factories, mental health centers,
advertising agencies, etc.
Since American universities did not take
psychology seriously, psychologists applied
concepts to real world problems to show its
value and make a living.
Mental Testing in the U.S.
James Cattell (1860-1944)
• Trained more graduates students at
Columbia than anyone else
• Started testing programs and
developed term “mental test”
Binet, Terman & IQ tests
Intelligence Testing in the Army
• Robert W. Yerkes & Army Testing Program
during WW1
Women and the Testing Movement
• Maude Merrill James
• Psyche Cattell
• Anne Anastasi and others
Clinical Psychology Movement
Lightner Witmer (1867-1956)
• Professor at University of Pennsylvania
• Credited for founding clinical psychology
• Interest in children with learning and
behavioral problems which is considered
“School Psychology” today
• Developed clinics to help children
overcome learning problems.
• First course on clinical psychology
• First journal on clinical psychology called
Psychological Clinic
Clinical Psychology after Witmer
• Spread of clinics
• Influence of Freud, WW2, etc.
Industrial & Forensic Psychology
Industrial Psychology
• Walter Dill Scott and work on
advertising and employee selection
• Impact of WW1 and WW2
• Hawthorne effect
• Women and Industrial-organizational
psychology
Forensic Psychology
• Hugo Münsterberg (1863-1916)
• Contributed to clinical, industrial, and
forensic psychology
• Early eyewitness testimony research
• Therapeutic approach
References
Leahey, T.H. (2004). A history of psychology: Main
currents in
psychological thought (6th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Schultz, D.P. & Schultz, S.E. (2008). A history of
modern psychology (9th ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.