04 June in the History of Psychology

On June 4:

1887 — Samuel Fernberger was born. Fernberger was a psychophysicist who wrote several classic papers in the field. Other contributions studies of facial expression of emotion, professional psychology, and the history of psychology.

1897 — Edward L. Thorndike met James McKeen Cattell for the first time. After two years at Harvard University, Thorndike finished his doctoral work at Columbia under Cattell's supervision. His doctoral thesis, Animal Intelligence, described his studies of escape learning in cats and became a classic of early research in learning.

1901 — Everet Franklin Lindquist was born. Lindquist was a pioneer in educational assessment who developed the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and the Iowa Tests of Educational Development. During World War II, he developed a high school equivalency examination that has become the Test of General Educational Development (GED). His statistics text was a standard for many years.

1901 — Gregory Razran was born. Razran did extensive work in classical conditioning and served as an intermediary between American and Soviet psychologists.

1911 — Silvan S. Tomkins was born. Tomkins's early work explored personality assessment with the Thematic Apperception Test and the Tomkins-Horn Picture Arrangement Test. Later work focused on identifying a set of innate primary emotions and describing their features and development.

1922 — Stanley F. Schneider was born. Schneider's 25 years of service at the National Institute of Mental Health was marked by the promotion of innovative education, training, and research efforts in psychology. APA Award for Distinguished Education and Training Contributions, 1988.

1925 — In a letter to Wolfgang Köhler, Edwin G. Boring reported that the laboratory budget at Harvard University was $148, including $31 of Boring's own money.

1938 — Sigmund Freud fled Austria, a victim of Nazi persecution. Before leaving, he was forced to sign a document testifying that he had received respectful treatment from the Nazis. Freud signed and added the sarcastic comment, "I can heartily recommend the Gestapo to anyone." Freud traveled to Paris and then to London, where he resided at 20 Maresfield Gardens in Hampstead.

1952 — Gary B. Melton was born. Melton's research has focused on the concerns of children and adolescents, addressing such topics as children's understanding of their own rights, child abuse, the impact of school prayer, children in rural settings, and legal applications of developmental research. APA Distinguished Contribution to Psychology in the Public Interest Award, 1985.

1962 — B. J. Winer's authoritative book Statistical Principles in Experimental Design was published. From 1969 to 1977 this book was cited in 5,279 articles, four times more citations than any other social science book.

1965 — The drug Serax (oxazepam; Wyeth) was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Oxazepam is a benzodiazepine and is used as an antianxiety agent and as a sedative.

1965 — A dozen protest marchers appeared at the APA Headquarters Building in Washington, DC, carrying signs protesting "immorality practiced under the cover of phony science." The group represented the Committee to Bring Morality to the Mental Professions and attacked the APA, psychological testing, and psychotherapy by non-physicians.

1975 — The antiepileptic drug Klonopin (clonazepam; Hoffman-LaRoche) was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Clonazepam is a benzodiazepine used primarily for absence, or petit mal, seizures.

1982 — Social Scientists Against Nuclear War was founded at an organizational meeting at the City University of New York. Robert Rieber and Howard Gruber were organizers of this first meeting.