History of the Psychology Department

HISTORY OF THE PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT BY MARY J. KIENTZLE AND ROGER T. DAVIS FALL 1988 HISTORY OF THE PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT Mary J. Kientzle and Roger T. Davis THE PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT The Psychology Department at Washington State University was established in 1946 and transferred from the School of Education to the College of Sciences and Arts in 194 7. Its development can be divided into several stages. These are: (a) pre-departmen talization, (b) coalescing into a department, (c) development of a doctoral program, and (d) a maturing program. Pre-Departmentalization Before it was departmentalized, Psychology was represented by individuals who had appointments in Education with academic rank in Psychology. The first of these was A. A. Cleveland who served from 1907 to 1921 as the only psychologist at Washington State College (WSC). Cleveland's research on the learning of chess was described in Woodworth's (1937, p. 781) classic text on Experimental Psychology as showing that " .. .insight in chess depends on the utilization of past experience." Cleveland, who set up the first psychological laboratories at Washington State, had been trained at Clark University, one of the first universities in the country to give Ph.D.s in Psychology. Cleveland was joined at WSC in 1921 by another psychologist, Carl I. Erickson. Erickson had been in the Army Mental Testing Program in the first world war and, like several of his successors, received his training at Iowa. The third position in Psychology was filled by Helen M. Richardson from 1924 until1929 when she was on leave of absence at Yale finishing her Ph.D. While Richardson was on leave, Marjory Elton took her place. Richardson returned to Washington State College from 1931 to 1933 during which time her classic monograph on problem solving in children was published (Richardson, 1932). Mter she left, her position was filled for 5 years by Paul Fredrick. Then beginning in 1940, it was filled by Lee J. Cronbach. He stayed at WSC for 7 years, establishing a tradition in psychometrics. Later, after he left, Cronbach served as President of the American Psy chological Association. Coalescing into a Department ( 1946-1949) The Department began in 1946. Three years later (1949) it was authorized to grant the Ph.D. degree. The Student Counseling Center (SCC) was also begun in 1946, and Psychology and SCC shared personnel for many years which helped Psychology rise to a critical mass for granting the doctorate. F. Nowell Jones was imported to head the new Psychology Department. Also included in the departmental roster were Carl I. Erickson, Lee Cronbach, Robert Otnes,s , John G. Watkins, EdwardS. Bardin (jointly appointed in 1 the SCC), Joseph L. McPherson (similarly appointed both in Psychology and SCC), and A. A. Cleveland who was Professor Emeritus. At the end of the first semester (1947), Lee Cronbach resigned and was replaced by Mary Kientzle who was to remain on the faculty until1981. Additionally, Margaret H. Jones taught classes as needed; and needed they were, as this was the period of the returning veterans of World War II. In the 3 years of coalescing, there were three deletions and six additions to the faculty. Otness, Watkins, and Bordin left; and David Ehrenfreund, Max Lewin, Harold B. Pepinsky (also director ofSCC), Ija Korner, Francis A. Young, and Dudley Klopfer were added. Forty years later, Young was still a member ofthe Psychology Department, and Klopfer remained for 34 years. Young published nearly 90 articles and established a primate laboratory. This building was shared with the Comparative Behavior Labora- tory where Klopfer and his students studied the behavior of birds, dogs, and pigs. Ehrenfreund ultimately moved to Southern Illinois University as chairman, and Pepinsky moved to Ohio State University. Development of a Doctoral Program (1949-1968) As in many psychology departments around the country, the period of 1949 to 1968 saw rapid growth. The reasons were related to: (a) the time in American history between the end of World War II through the Korean War and until the war in Vietnam characterized by high n-Ach students; (b) the institutionalization of clinical psychology by the American Psychological Association with site visits and accreditation; (c) federal funding of research and training grants to psychologists; and (d) the change from Washington State College to Washington State University. Beginning in 1949, the chairman of the Department was James H. Elder. Elder had obtained his Ph.D. with Robert Yerkes at Yale in 1933. Altogether Elder worked 9 years with Yerkes at New Haven and at the newly founded laboratory for great apes at Orange Park, FL, this was the longest period that any psychologist, excepting Henry Nissen, worked with this great pioneer of American psychology. At Orange Park, Elder had a distinguished research career doing what DeValois (1965) regards as the basic pioneering work on hearing by nonhuman primates as well as work on the relationship between hormones and mating in chimpanzees. Immediately before coming to WSC, Elder did war work in Washington, D.C., and served a short stint on the faculty at the University ofWisconsin. During this period the department grew from a modest size of seven faculty (Elder, Ehrenfreund, Erickson, Kientzle, Klopfer, Pepinsky, and Young) to its present size. Between 1949 and 1968, 45 faculty joined and 27left the department, leaving a net growth of18. 2 U ntil1966, the Department shared a temporary wooden military building with the School ofEducation, as well as temporary animal and human experimental laboratories and clinic space (Human Relations Center [HRC]) in the old Post Office building. Thanks to a building grant of$220,000 from theNational Institutes ofHealth to Frank Young, the Department's animal laboratories moved to a newly built Comparative Behavior Labo ratory and Primate Research Center. Later in 1966, the department, the Human Relations Center, and the facilities for human and small animal research moved to a long sought-for wing on Todd Hall named Johnson Tower. During this period of growth, Elder collected professional and personal items pertaining to the faculty and students and former faculty and students into 15 newslet ters, which were disseminated to all members of the WSC Psychology Department family. A copy ofthese newsletters is on file in the main office ofthe Psychology Department. This newsletter also provides an account of many distinguished outside speakers who came to Washington State College as guests of the Psychology Department. This source of outside stimulation has nearly ceased in the past 20 years. The Department continued to grow under James Whipple's acting chairmanship (1968-1970). Six faculty were added and only two left. The additions included Hopkins and Dengerink, who later assumed leadership positions in the University. The number of graduate students reached 85 people, a number that has remained relatively constant ever since. Although Dean Kennedy wanted Psychology to dispense with its animal laboratories, Elder and Whipple hung on to them tenaciously. In retrospect, this was a very key element in continuing to give the Ph.D. in experimental psychology. A Maturing Program in Psychology (1970-present) Since 1970, the number of faculty and graduate students in the Psychology Department has been relatively stable. Between 1970 and 1978, 24 faculty were appointed and 23 left; and between 1978 and 1986, 8 were added and 16left or entered higher administration. Eight faculty have been added between 1986 and 1988. --<>-- THE FACULTY Table 1 shows that 111 persons have been associated with the Department of Psychology, although some of these were psychologists who were at Washington State College before there was a Department ofPsychology. Of the faculty, 21 were women and 90 were men. They came to Washington State College (University) with their highest degrees from 51 different institutions: 31.4% coming from schools in the Big Ten Conference of schools (Iowa and Ohio State providing seven each); 11.4% from schools in the Pacific Ten Conference (excluding WSU); 9.5% from the Big Eight Conference of schools; and 7.6% from the Ivy League. The remaining 25.7% came from 23 different schools in the United States and England. 3 The faculty excluding those added between 1986 and 1988 can be divided into four groups according to their length of tenure: 1. temporary and rootless-0 through 2 years (N = 38); 2. those showing a good try at staying-3-10 years (N = 32); 3. permanent party-11-19 years (N = 20); and 4. real old timers-20 or more years (N = 13). Table 1 indicates that there was considerable stability in the Department. Most of the faculty that stayed for less than 2 years were ex-graduate students who were temporary faculty. The 13 faculty who stayed more than 20 years included: A. A. Cleveland (1907-1947), Francis A. Young (1948-1988), Mary J. Kientzle (1947-1981), F. Dudley Klopfer (1948-1982), Carl I. Erickson (1921-1953), James E. Whipple (1957- present), William Cass (1953-1980), Keith Wollen (1961-1988), F. L. Marcuse (1950- 1974), Gloria J. Fischer (1965-present), Bruce Palmer (1966-present), Harold A. Denger ink (1969-present), and Ronald H. Hopkins (1969-present). The long careers of Cleveland and Young, spanning 81 years with only 1 year separating their tenure, can be scaled against the history ofthe field of Psychology. In 1907 when Cleveland came to WSC, Thorndike had not published his seminal work, Animal Intelligence, which gave birth to modern learning theory; Watson had not published the behaviorist manifesto; and the American Psychological Association num bered in the hundreds. By the time Cleveland retired and Young joined the faculty, modern learning theory had bloomed with the writings ofTolman, Guthrie, Hull, Skinner, Spence, and others; Steven's Handbook of Experimental Psychology (1st ed.) was being conceived; and the American Psychological Association numbered about 3,000 members.

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