The Evolution of Counseling Psychology Donald H. Blocher, Ph.D., is a profes- sor emertitus of counseling psychology at the State University of New York at Albany. Dr. Blocher received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology at the University of Minnesota. He is a Fellow of the Ameri- can Psychological Association and a past president of the Division of Counseling Psychology. Dr. Blocher has served on the faculties of the University of Minne- sota and the University of Western On- tario as well as at the University at Albany. He was also a Fulbright Professor at the University of Keele in the United Kingdom. He has been a visiting lecturer at a number of universities in the United States and abroad. Dr. Bbcher is the author of a number of books including Developmental Counseling now in its 4th edition, and has contributed numerous book chapters and journal articles to the counseling literature. Dr. Blocher has taught history in the public schools, served as a school counselor and school psychologist, and was an Intelligence Officer in the United States Air Force. He is currently engaged in writing and consulting. The Evolution of Counseling Psychology Donald H. Blocher, PhD Springer Publishing Company Copyright © 2000 by Springer Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, me- chanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Springer Publishing Company, Inc. Springer Publishing Company, Inc. 536 Broadway New York, NY 10012-3955 Acquisitions Editor: Bill Tucker Production Editor: J. Hurkin-Torres Cover design by Susan Hau/ey 0001020304/5432 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Blocher, Donald H, The evolution of counseling psychology / Donald H. Blocher. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8261-1348-6 1. Counseling—United States—History. I, Title BF637.C6.B473 2000 158'3-dc21 00-020289 CIP Printed in the United States of America Photo Credits John Dewey, James McKeen Cattell, G. Stanley HaE, Leona Tyler, Lewis M. Terman, Jean Piaget, courtesy of the Archive of the History of American Psychology, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio. Donald Super, courtesy of Donald Blocher. Henry Borow, courtesy of Marian Borow. Alfred Binet, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Carl Rogers, Ivan Pavlov, B. F. Skinner, courtesy of the University of Sonoma Web Site. To Henry Borow, a student of and maker of the history of counseling psychology This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Figures ix Preface xi Introduction xiii Part I In the Beginning 1 Chapter 1 Guidance; A Product of the American 3 Conscience Chapter 2 The Rise of Applied Psychology 33 Chapter 3 The Professionalization of Counseling 75 Psychology Chapter 4 The Search for a Professional Identity 97 Chapter 5 The Dawning of the Age of Psychotherapy 119 Part II Traditions, Traditions, Traditions 147 Chapter 6 The Individual Differences Tradition 149 Chapter 7 The Developmental Tradition 177 Chapter 8 The Humanistic Tradition 207 Chapter 9 The Behavioral Tradition 233 Part III From Here to Uncertainty 261 Chapter 10 From Theoretical Divisiveness to 263 Eclectic-lntegrative Therapies vii viii Contents Chapter 11 Coming of Age As a Profession 291 Epilogue 313 Appendix A The Expansion of Counseling Psychology 317 Appendix B Markers and Milestones in the Evolution 319 of Counseling Psychology Name Index 323 Subject Index 333 List of Figures 1.1 John Dewey 21 2.1 James McKeen Cattell 41 2.2 Alfred Binet 44 2.3 Donald G. Paterson 67 3.1 G. Stanley Hall 78 4.1 E. G. Williamson 98 4.2 John Darley 100 4.3 C. Gilbert Wrenn 104 4.4 Leona Tyler 107 5.1 Sigmund Freud 121 5.2 Carl Gustav Jung 125 5.3 Alfred Adler 127 6.1 Lewis M. Terman 167 6.2 Donald Super 173 7.1 Jean Piaget 180 7.2 Henry Borow 198 8.1 Carl Rogers 209 9.1 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov 235 9.2 B. F. Skinner 249 IX This page intentionally left blank Preface Some years ago in one of those all too rare moments of reflection it occurred to me that I was only three lifetimes away from the very beginnings of modern psychology. It is generally agreed, as we will see, that what we call "scientific psychology" began with Wundt's laboratory at Leipzig around 1879, Similarly, applied psychology is seen to have begun with the work of Francis Galton in England at about the same time. A short time later James McKeen Cattell, one of Wundfs first American students received his Ph.D. at Leipzig and went on to work briefly with Galton. Cattell coined the term "mental tests" and went on to a distinguished career in both academic and applied psychology. In 1911, E. K. Strong completed his Ph.D. with Cattell at Columbia, and in turn embarked on a distinguished career at Stanford. One of his students was C. Gilbert Wrenn, a pioneering leader of counseling psychology and my mentor and later colleague at the University of Minnesota. At this writing Gil Wrenn is alive and well and living in Arizona. I have been moved since that realization to try to understand and make sense out of all of the ideas, ideals and events in those three generations that have produced what we presently call counseling psychology. A dear friend and colleague who encouraged and stimulated me in the early phases of this project was the late Henry Borow. Unfortu- nately, his failing health and eventual death prevented our collabora- tion from really taking shape. This book is dedicated to him. Donald H. Bhcher Minneapolis, MN XI This page intentionally left blank Introduction The history of counseling psychology is part of the history of the twentieth century. It was born out of the compassion, idealism and social concern that ushered in a century that seemed full of hope and promise for a better world and a richer and more fulfilling life for all. It has survived two world wars, the Great Depression, and the past 40 years of turbulence and turmoil. The long trek from social reform to professional psychology is tihe story of many dedicated men and women whose ideas and ideals have paved the path to our present. There have been relatively few attempts to chronicle the lives and accomplishments of these pioneers. Much of our history seems to be buried in the musty pages of committee reports or proceedings of conferences and conventions. What has seemed to be missing from this rather sketchy and scat- tered body of literature is some feeling for the people, the flesh-and- blood men and women, who in three brief generations have articulated the ideas, advocated for the ideals, and engaged in the conflicts, competition, and cooperation out of which has come what we pres- ently call counseling psychology. Noticeably absent also from most of our chronicles of events has been any real appreciation or understanding of the monumental social, economic and political forces that have shaped our lives and our century. The role of social reform, the contributions of applied psychol- ogy to two great wars, the boom and bust of applied psychology during the Roaring Twenties and the counseling of the despairing jobless in the Great Depression are all integral aspects of our history. The return of the veterans after World War II, our nation's descent into the Cold War, and the race for space have all molded our profes- sion. The struggle for human rights, the Women's Movement, ethnic diversity, and multiculturalism are all vital parts of our past as well as our present. This book is an effort to create a set of fresh perspectives within which we can better understand ourselves, our profession, and our century. xiii This page intentionally left blank PART I In the Beginning This page intentionally left blank II Guidance: A Product of the American Conscience Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. .. .America is the only idealistic nation in the world. —Woodrow Wilson Speech at Pueblo, CO November 8, 1919 istoiy, like time itself, has no logical beginning and no discern- ible end. Every event, no matter how cataclysmic, is always Hpreceded by others that have helped to shape and cement it into the endless mosaic that is human history. It is historians, themselves, who choose the departure points and climactic events that best provide coherence and continuity to their own visions of a distant reality. The history of counseling psychology is no exception in this regard. It is possible to detect the roots of counseling in the education of squires in the Court of Charlemagne (Miller, 1961), or even to trace the origins of its literature to the earliest outputs of the Gutenberg Press (Zytowski, 1972). It is equally possible to choose the date of publication of a pioneering book, or the convening of a national conference (Aubrey, 1977) as points of departure from whence to unfold the story of counseling psychology's emergence as a profession. Such milestones may be important, but in themselves they seldom shed much light on the Zeitgeist out of which a new profession actually came into being. The history of counseling psychology is, after all, much more than a mere chronology of meetings and publications, organizations and 3 4 In the Beginning committee reports. It is rather a history of ideas, and the story of the men and women who generated, articulated, .and applied those ideas on behalf of the values, causes, and ideals to which they were person- ally committed.