05 November in the History of Psychology

On November 5:

1871 — Arthur Rufus Trego Wylie was born. Wylie became the first American psychologist employed in a clinical setting when he was hired as a druggist and psychologist by the Minnesota School for Idiots and Imbiciles in Faribault, Minnesota in 1896. He later became superintendent of the Institution for the Feeble Minded at Grafton, North Dakota.

1885 — The first subject of Alfred Binet's studies of intelligence, his daughter Madeline, was born. Binet's first published account of infant development appeared in 1890.

1896 — Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was born. Vygotsky recast Soviet psychology in a mold consistent with Marxist thought. His special research interests were the social development of the child, especially as mediated by language, and the structure and function of consciousness and its relations to the unconscious. Vygotsky's life was cut short by tuberculosis at age 37.

1965 — The film Behavior Theory in Practice, by Ellen Reese, was copyrighted.

1981 — Psi Beta, the national honor society in psychology for community and junior colleges, was incorporated in Tennessee and officially founded. Carol Tracy was the founding officer.

1987 — Jeffrey G. Parker and Steven R. Asher's article "Peer Relations and Later Personal Adjustment: Are Low-Accepted Children at Risk?" was published in Psychological Bulletin.

1990 — In the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, Congress approved Medicare payments for independent psychological services delivered in any setting. The act expanded on similar legislation passed in 1988 and 1989 that opened the door to Medicare support of services delivered without medical supervision or referral.

1991 — The APA announced the formation of a new Public Policy Office to combine the legislative advocacy functions of the APA's Science, Education, and Public Interest directorates. Brian Wilcox was the first director of the office.