12 November in the History of Psychology

On November 12:

1902 — Norman Munn, a prominent developmental and comparative psychologist, was born. Munn's books Handbook of Psychological Research on the Rat (1950), The Evolution and Growth of Human Behavior (1955), and The Evolution of the Human Mind (1971) reflect his areas of specialization.

1912 — Frederic M. Lord was born. Lord's seminal work, Statistical Theories of Mental Test Scores (1974), summarized his contributions to the theory and practice of psychological measurement. His item response theory has established methods of latent trait measurement, test equivalence, and analysis of errors of measurement. APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, 1988.

1912 — Claude E. Buxton was born. Buxton was chair of the Yale University Psychology Department for 15 years, beginning in 1951. His research commitment to studies of education and the teaching of psychology was reflected in books titled Adolescents in School (1973) and College Teaching: A Psychologist's View (1957).

1925 — Joseph D. Matarazzo was born. Matarazzo's interests have been in clinical psychology and neuropsychology. An advocate for the advancement of professional psychology, he headed the nation's first medical psychology program, at the Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine. APA President, 1989; APA Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions, 1991.

1935 — The first modern surgery on the frontal lobes for treatment of mental disorders was performed by Egas Moniz at Santa Marta Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal. Moniz injected absolute alcohol into the frontal lobes of a mental patient through two holes drilled in the skull. Moniz later used a technique that severed neurons and led to the prefrontal lobotomy techniques of the 1940s.

1936 — The first verbal report of the use of insulin shock therapy for schizophrenia in the United States was made by Karl Bowman to the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry. Bowman was director of the Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in New York City at the time.

1952 — Hans J. Eysenck's article "The Effects of Psychotherapy: An Evaluation" was published in the Journal of Consulting Psychology. Eysenck's review of controlled studies of traditional psychotherapy showed nonsignificant differences between treated and untreated individuals. In 1980, this article was featured as a "citation classic" by the journal Current Contents.

1971 — The APA Monitor announced three new APA information services: Psychological Abstracts Search and Retrieval provided literature searches by mail, Psychological Abstracts Direct Access Terminal allowed direct online access to the Psychological Abstracts database, and Psychological Abstracts Tape Edition Lease or Licensing (PATELL) leased database tapes to subscriber institutions. Syracuse University was the first PATELL customer.

1975 — The Utah Psychological Association was incorporated.

2004 — The American Psychological Association signed the first PsycCRITIQUES license. PsycCRITIQUES is a searchable database of book reviews in psychology launched in September 2004. PsycCRITIQUES replaced the print journal Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, providing major enhancements, current reviews, and much more content. The first licensee was the University of Hamburg, in Germany.