Remembering Joseph Brozek (1913-2004): Brozek's China connection.

In the pages of a recent issue of this journal, several historians of psychology wrote of their acquaintance with the late Professor Joseph Brozek, the naturalized American polymath born in central Bohemia (today known as the Czech Republic) who worked nearly all of his adult life in the Universities of Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Lehigh and championed the cause of international collaborations for the furtherance of studies in the history of psychology (Woodward et al., 2004). Apart from a brief biography, these historians mentioned his numerous investigations into the work of several Czech scientists who worked in psychology or related fields and who were either unknown or neglected in the West; they also discussed his numerous book chapters and reviews, some of which were in his specialty field, nutrition. But Brozek is most remembered for his desire to link up people in different parts of the world who had a common interest in the history of psychology. Although several of the contributors addressed this feature of his work, there was no mention of his attempts to bring Chinese psychologists into the international arena. What follows is the author's attempt to redress this omission. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Helmut E. Adler (1920-2001).

Memorializes Helmut E. Adler, known for his research on spatial orientation in birds and for his writings on the history of psychology. In the 1960s with the help of his son Barry, he used computer simulations to study bird migration patterns, a highly innovative technique for the time. His most notable work in the field of the history of psychology was his translation of Volume 1 of Fechner's Elemente der Psychophysik in 1966. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Award for distinguished teaching in psychology.

The 2001 Award for Distinguished Teaching in Psychology was awarded to Frank J. Vattano. He was cited for his major contribution to the teaching of psychology nationwide. Through his teaching and mentoriing of thousands of students and through his psychology Advanced Placement Program workshops for high school psychology teachers, Vattano has touched many lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paul Randolph Farnsworth (1899-1978).

This obituary for Paul Randolph Farnsworth (1899-1978) notes his accomplishments in the psychology of music at Stanford, his iconoclastic behaviorism, his work on the historical philosophical underpinnings of the various schools of psychology, and his publication with sociologist Richard La Piere of the textbook Social Psychology. After World War II, Farnsworth was elected president of APA Division 10 (Psychology and the Arts), and from 1956 to 1968 he was editor of the Annual Review of Psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Isidor Chein (1912-1981).

Presents an obituary for Isidor Chein. During his distinguished career Isidor Chein made significant contributions in many areas of psychology. He devoted himself especially to the study of four topics: attitude change in the context of intergroup relations, group identification among members of minority groups, the psychology of opiate addiction, and a philosophy of science for psychology. Following his death on April 18, 1981, a memorial symposium was held at the 1981 APA convention. In his comments, a colleague and close friend pointed to the quality that most of his friends and associates would agree best describes the essence of Chein's work. "If there is a single Word that I can use to characterize so complex an enterprise as Isidor Chein's psychological outlook," he said, "that word is humanism." Chein's legacy to psychology was indeed enriched by the centrality of this quality in his own life and career. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Carlos Albizu-Miranda (1920-1984): Obituary.

Carlos Albizu-Miranda died in Houston, Texas on October 6, 1984, several weeks after heart surgery. Albizu-Miranda was one of the early and continuing leaders of Puerto Rican psychology, and his death was a significant loss to Puerto Rican and American psychology. Puerto Rican psychology, as well as all of psychology, was enriched by his work and life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thomas Marshall Ostrom (1936–1994): Obituary.

Memorializes T. M. Ostrom, who was known for his work on social cognition. Ostrom sought to integrate theoretical and methodological advances in cognitive psychology with classic research problems in social psychology. He also co-organized the Person Memory Interest Group, an invisible college now numbering more than 100 researchers, and served as cofounder of the modern social psychology program at Ohio State University, of which he was a faculty member throughout his career. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguished Contribution for Applications in Psychology Award for 1978: Alphonse Chapanis.

Alphonse Chapanis was presented the Distinguished Contribution for Applications in Psychology Award for his contribution as a founder of the field of engineering psychology and for his pioneering research and leadership in the field over a 35-year period. He was the senior author (with Wendell Garner and Clifford Morgan) of the first systematic book to cover the field of engineering psychology, and he wrote the first important methodology text in the field. The enormous range of his contributions includes his early studies on basic visual mechanisms, his research on workstation design and man-machine systems relations, and his more recent studies on information processing and telecommunications. He has provided numerous insights on ways to apply sound psychological research to societal problems in a technological age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remembering Arthur Kornhauser: Industrial psychology's advocate for worker well-being.

Arthur Kornhauser was an early industrial psychologist whose contributions have been neglected in written histories of applied psychology. Throughout his career, he was a staunch advocate for an industrial psychology that concentrated on improving workers' lives. This article describes his contributions to improving worker well-being in the research areas of testing, employee attitude surveying, labor unions, and mental health of workers. His most enduring quality was his outspoken advocacy for an industrial psychology that addressed workers' issues instead of management's prerogatives. On the basis of Kornhauser's accomplishments, a case can be made for him as one of industrial and organizational psychology's most important early figures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stanley F. Schneider (1922-2002).

Reports the death of Stanley F. Schneider (1922-2002) and notes his contributions to the field of psychology training and education. Notable life works include his positions in training and career development at the National Institute of Mental Health. Scheider helped to influence post-World War II American psychology with his belief that a productive clinical psychology was not possible unless embedded in a more general psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hugo Münsterberg: Victim or visionary?

Historical treatments of Hugo Münsterberg have been less than adequate. Münsterberg was an early leader in the application of psychology in business and industry, was central to the development of psychology as a science in the US, and wrote and spoke on a broad range of issues. This article covers his contributions and examines possible reasons for his obscurity. Among those reasons are the various transitions occurring in psychology during his active period, his own personal characteristics, the tension between the US and Germany before World War I, and his untimely death. Although Münsterberg has name recognition among contemporary industrial–organizatonal psychologists, few are aware of his substantive contributions to the field. This article is intended to enhance that awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Edward C. Webster (1909-1989).

Presents an obituary for Edward C. Webster, recipient of the 1982 Distinguished Award for Contributions to Canadian Psychology as a Profession and Professor Emeritus of McGill University. Webster died on February 15, 1989. His career was dedicated to the application of psychological principles to real life problems, not just in practice but in research, in administration, and in service to his profession and community. Although committed to the development of applied psychology generally, Ed's major impact on theory and research was in industrial psychology, particularly in personnel selection. Like many other practitioners, he made extensive use of the interview as an information gathering technique, upon which recommendations to hire were based. Another major contribution he made to Canadian professional psychology was undoubtedly the role he played in the Couchiching Conference on the training of applied psychologists, which culminated in the book he wrote in 1967, The Couchiching Report: Training in Professional Psychology in Canada. Ed Webster will be long remembered for his commitment to and promotion of applied psychology at McGill and in Canada, for his contributions to the literature in personnel selection, and for his support of the work of students and colleagues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction: Lightner Witmer's Legacy to American psychology.

Presents an overview of the legacy and contribution of Lightner Witmer (1867–1956) to the field of applied psychology. Many psychologists, beyond isolated fact, know little about Witmer or his work as a psychologist. Witmer, who began the world's first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896, is credited for the radical contribution to the course of psychology's development, especially in the fields of clinical and educational psychology. Some contemporary historians have minimized Witmer's role in the history of psychology arguing that his version of clinical psychology failed to anticipate fully psychological practice independent of medicine. Witmer's legacy was to define and enact a social role for psychology and his prescient contributions established him as a signficant pioneer in the history of American psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Dalbir Bindra (1922-1980).

Presents an obituary for Dalbir Bindra (1922-1980), who used all his theoretical and experimental skills to examine the concomitance of neural and behavioral events. As a psychologist in the classic tradition, he was interested not only in sensation, perception, cognition, motivation, and emotion, but also in how the processes in these various domains relate and interact one with another. Eventually, his research interests expanded to include psychopharmacology and neuropsychology. Throughout his career, Bindra was active in psychology in Canada and played an important role in its growth. One of his interests was financial support for research in psychology, a topic on which he wrote reports and published articles. In addition, he was a well respected teacher and enjoyed a rich and textured life. His sudden death at the age of 58 was a misfortune to the discipline of psychology as well as to family and friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Report on the first conference on corporate consultation at Vail Colorado, March 13-15, 1993.

Presents an overview of the first conference on corporate psychology and consultation. The conference was kicked off by Kevin Somerville who presented his view of corporate psychology today and his vision for the field in the future. Bill Schneider presented his emerging model for conceptualizing corporate culture during the second session. Conference participants decided to use the third session to discuss application of Bill Schneider's corporate model in back home situations and to plan for next year's conference. The author also offers some of his personal observations and reactions as both director and participant in this year's conference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Hans J. Eysenck (1916–1997).

Memorializes H. J. Eysenck, who, before his death, was the world's most cited psychologist. Eysenck wrote on topics ranging from animal behavior genetics to the psychology of political behavior and the possibilities of parapsychology. Eysenck is remembered for his measurement-based personality research, identification of personality dimensions, connection of personality to health, scientific approaches to therapy and to clinical psychology in general, contributions to human intelligence, and popularization of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Carl Ward Backman (1923-2008).

Carl Ward Backman, a long-time fellow of the American Psychological Association, died at his home in Reno, Nevada, on February 16, 2008. He was 84. After earning a doctorate in sociology, he joined the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in 1955. There he remained until his death, serving as a professor, department chair, director of social psychology, dean, and emeritus professor. His time at UNR was interrupted only by a two-year stint as program director for sociology and social psychology at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC. Carl had a great influence on social psychology, the university he served, the department and the PhD program that he helped build, as well as on his colleagues, students, and friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hugo Münsterberg's attack on the application of scientific psychology.

No individual in the early history of American psychology is more identified with the promotion of applied psychology than Hugo Münsterberg, whose books and articles on applied topics such as industrial psychology, forensic psychology, psychotherapy, and educational psychology made him one of the most visible psychologists of his day. But there is an earlier chapter to Münsterberg's life that tells a very different story of a Münsterberg opposed to application. The story begins in 1898 when he wrote an article for an American magazine in which he told teachers that the findings of experimental psychology had no relevance for education, setting off a firestorm of controversy among his colleagues in psychology and education. This article describes Münsterberg's early denigration of applied psychology and his subsequent transformation as applied psychologist. Reasons for that transformation are discussed as well as issues involving the stigma associated with applied psychology and the popularization of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Charles Darwin and psychology at the bicentennial and sesquicentennial: An introduction.

This article provides an introduction to the special issue on Darwin and psychology at the bicentennial of his birth and the sesquicentennial of his publication of On the Origin of Species. His core contributions, as viewed today, were his theory of natural selection, his naturalistic philosophy, and his mass of evidence for evolutionary change. A brief summary of Darwin's life is also presented. Among Darwin's contributions to psychology were his demonstration of the continuity of species, a model for the study of instinct, a book on the expression of the emotions, and a baby biography. Previous celebrations of Darwin and the changing perceptions of his work since its publication are described. Darwin's theory remains an important part of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)