12 May in the History of Psychology

On May 12:

1857 — Henry H. Donaldson was born. Donaldson was a prominent neurologist whose thorough studies of the brain were published as a book, The Brain, in 1895. At the Wistar Institute, Donaldson introduced the albino rat as an experimental subject and developed the Wistar rat strain later used in many psychological studies.

1896 — The New York legislature passed the first act establishing a state psychiatric institute. Ira van Gieson was the first director.

1912 — Samuel B. Kutash was born. Kutash's interests were in clinical psychology, psychotherapy, and criminal behavior. He was a leader in the development of professional schools of psychology, helping to found the New Jersey School of Applied and Professional Psychology, the first independent, but university-related, program at Rutgers University (1974).

1956 — The organizational meeting of the South Dakota Psychological Association was held in Aberdeen for the purpose of drafting a constitution, electing officers, and appointing committees.

1986 — Susan Folkman, Richard S. Lazarus, Christine Dunkel-Schetter, Anita DeLongis, and Rand J. Gruen's article "Dynamics of a Stressful Encounter: Cognitive Appraisal, Coping, and Encounter Outcomes" was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

1986 — Paul D. Sweeney, Karen Anderson, and Scott Bailey's article "Attributional Style in Depression: A Meta-Analytic Review" was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The attribution of negative events to internal, stable, and global causes was found to be associated with depression.