Chapter 9: The Golden Age of American Psychology

Emergency Committee in Psychology (ECP)

formed to provide national level coordination and oversight of psychology’s involvement in the war

National Council of Women Psychologists (NCWP)

formed by female psychologists who met to discuss how they could use their professional skills in the national emergency.

Army General Classification Test (AGCT)

the primary personnel selection tool throughout the war developed by Walter Van Dyke Bingham (1880-1952)

Human factors psychology

developed during the war to best design instruments and consoles so as to reduce the possibility of human error

good life

measured by the purchase of an individual home in a neighborhood, often far from the cramped urban spaces of the previous generation

commoditization of mental health

the process during the golden age of psychology where mental health was beginning to be seen as a purchasable commodity to the public through the use of psychopharmeceutials and therapy

James Greer Miller (1916-2002)

worked with the leadership of the APA to establish training standards for this kind of clinical psychologist.

David Shakow

developed suggestions for training for doctoral degrees in psychology that was used as a guilde for high training standards

scientist-practitioner (Boulder) model

emphasized the importance of training clinical psychologists to be scientists first, practitioners second

antipsychiatry movement

a period during the late 1950s that critiqued psychiatry and the treatments used for mental illnesses

Thomas Szasz

argued that attributing deviant behaviors to mental illnesses stigmatizes the sufferer, gives power to the psychiatrist, and deprives those labelled mentally ill of individual freedom and responsibility for their own actions.

Ronald D. Laing (1927-1989)

believed that to be sane in an insane world was itself a sign of pathology, and that many people who suffered from “schizophrenia” were reacting justifiable to maddening circumstances

Robert Felix

the first director of the NIMH who argued that since we didn’t now the cause of most mental disorders or their treatments, investigators should be free to pursue a topic wherever it led them

progrmmed instruction (Skinner)

the method of breaking large units of material into incremental steps to be presented sequentially via a teaching machine

behavior modification

programs that aimed to improve classroom behavior and learning, schizophrenic patients functioning, and rehabilitate juvenile delinquents and incarcerated criminals; also found to be beneficial for autism treatment

third force (humanisitc psychology)

argued that adaptation and adjustment to normalcy had obscured our ability to know our true needs and live authentically as humans—creativity, agency, free will, intentionality, self-determination, imagination, and values

Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

was best known for formulating client-centered (nondirective) psychotherapy

client-centered (nondirective) psychotherapy (Rogers)

recommended that counselors be active listeners but in a nondirective way, instead of offering advice, and argued that therapists who provided empathy, congruence, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard were more likely to help clients grow in therapy

conditions of worth (Rogers)

refers to the implicit and explicit messages that people will only be acceptable and accepted if they are a specific way

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

developed a hierarchy of needs and stressed self-actualization as the highest form of human development

peak experiences (Maslow)

mystical states in which awareness and self-consciousness were heightened, one felt simultaneously powerful and powerless, and one was filled with awe and ecstasy—all of which resulted from self-actualization

Kenneth (1914-2005) and Mamie (1917-1983) Clark

found that many African American children equated attractiveness and positive qualities with white dolls and the opposite for darker-colored dolls, even though they accurately perceived themselves as Black

incident control project

designed to teach people how to intervene in a public display of racist remarks and behavior

contact hypothesis

stated that intergroup contact under certain conditions can reduce prejudice and produce more positive intergroup attitudes