14 September in the History of Psychology

On September 14:

1873 — Edwin B. Twitmyer was born. Twitmyer used methods of classical conditioning to condition the knee-jerk reflex to the sound of a tone. His work preceded Pavlov's but was indifferently received by the American psychological community. His career was in speech therapy. He was the first director of the first special speech clinic in the United States, at the University of Pennsylvania.

1906 — George M. Haslerud was born. Haslerud had a lifelong interest in creative transfer of prior training but contributed substantially to the study of primate aggression and the establishment of relations with Japanese psychologists. He was a cofounder of the New Hampshire Psychological Association.

1907 — Solomon Asch was born. Asch is well known for his pioneering experimental studies of conformity. The Asch line judgment paradigm established a standard technique for studying factors influencing conformity. APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, 1967.

1919 — William H. Angoff was born. Angoff was a leading expert on psychometric theory and practice. His book chapter "Scales, Norms, and Equivalent Scores" (1971) became a definitive treatment of test scaling and equating. Angoff was one of the first psychologists hired by the Educational Testing Service, where he worked for 43 years.

1936 — J. P. Guilford's book Psychometric Methods was published.

1936 — The first frontal lobotomy performed in the United States was carried out by Walter Freeman and James Watts at the George Washington University Hospital. Freeman became a nationwide advocate for the procedure. By 1951, an estimated 18,608 lobotomies had been performed in the United States.

1943 — Clifford T. Morgan's book Physiological Psychology was published. This edition and its revisions became standard college texts.

1953 — Alfred C. Kinsey's book Sexual Behavior in the Human Female was published, creating popular discussion equal to the 1948 publication of Kinsey's book on male sexual behavior.

1957 — Social philosopher Auguste Comte appeared on a French postage stamp issued on this day.

1979 — Ohio's first school of professional psychology opened at Wright State University in Dayton. APA president Nicholas Cummings, Senator Daniel Inouye, and Allen Barclay, associate dean of the new school, presided at opening ceremonies.

1979 — In Rennie v. Klein, the U.S. District Court for New Jersey ruled that all mental patients must give written consent prior to the administration of psychotropic agents.