Chapter 9: The Golden Age of American Psychology Flashcards
How did psychology prepare and react to WW2?
Anticipated WW2, were prepared this time
Six largest national organizations including APA and AAAP meeting August 1940
The Emergency Committee in Psychology (ECP)
Eventually APA and AAAP merged and gave support to clinical psychologists who were considered practical psychologists.
What led to the formation The National Council of Women Psychologists? Who was the leader of this council? Why was this situation tricky for them?
No women in committees. They were told to stay at home if they wanted to contribute to the war effort. They waited two years and still weren’t let in
Women formed their own committee: The National Council of Women Psychologists (NCWP)
Florence Goodenough president
Tricky situation for them because they didn’t want to be seen as exploiting the war for personal gain
What kind of work were female psychologists limited to?
No success in military and academic position even as more men were being drawn away to war and positions were opening up.
Remained largely tied to civilian work, child care training and helping locals
One exception: Mitchell was able to do clinical and personnel psychology for navy. Not the same status as her male counterparts.
What kind of psychological work did Walter Van Dyke Bingham contribute to the War Effort?
Committee on the Classification of Military Personnel
Army General Classification Test (AGCT):
50 items assessing vocabulary, arithmetic, and block counting
Supposed to measure general learning ability, influenced by inborn ability as well as education
Test used to decide placement in war effort
No emphasis on innate ability this time, not controversial
What kind of psychological work did Robert Tryon and Henry Murray contibute to the War Effort?
Office for Strategic Services (OSS) hired psychologists for selection and training for secret service operations.
TAT predictive test (pen and paper tests) Multi-Site University Lab tests: -Simulated enemy interrogation -Stress and frustration-inducing tasks -Training and selecting aircraft pilots
What kind of psychological work did William Jenkins contribute to the War Effort?
Human factors psychology
Pilots making mistakes with nobs and crash landing
Reduced errors
Developed 8 different shapes of nobes
How did the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings change the way psychologists like Murray and Allport viewed the relationship between psychology and the military? What are the problems with this relationship?
Before the bombs few questioned ethics and aims of military
Lots of patriotism and pride in working for your country
Murray and Allport became vocal about questioning ethics
Psychology may benefit from war but how will people benefit? Psychology-Military Complex
Research goes where the money goes
Large-scale government funding overpowered ethical standards
How did Psychiatric Casualties contribute to the Consolidation of Clinical Psychology? What kind of work did psychologists do?
Clinical psychology got a big boost from all the psychiatric casualties (stress and fatigue of war, PTSD) and actually overwhelmed psychiatrists - short in numbers
Opened the door for psychologists:
Six psychologists commissioned to deal with war veterns
Systematic program to utilize clinical psychologists
Treatment and discharge - thought of as weak
Were losing to many men, changed approach:
Treatment and redeployment
Post-war continued services in VA hospitals, massive demand
Institutionalized clinical psychology developed in this context
The post war period is referred to as the “Golden Age.” What did American life look like at this time?
Post war social and political climate: economic growth, veterans coming home
The good life: purchase of an individual house in a suburban neighbourhood and the acquisition of modern technology were indicative of status and happiness.
Man is mastering their environment, we can buy stuff to make our lives easier, mental health became a commodity to be bought.
What kind of social-cultural issues and challenges characterized the Golden Age?
Socio-cultural context: Anxiety
Economic boom/baby boom
Threats of nuclear annihilation/communism infiltrating American society
Teachers asked to take oaths to American values
Racial tensions
Juvenile delinquency as values changed, teenagers getting more freedom (sexual research)
Gender roles had changed, but now that the men had come back they were being forced back into the home. That created conflict.
What kind of solutions were proposed to address some of the issues and challenges of the Golden Age?
Solution: Psychopharmacology
-Tranquilizers (anti-anxiety drugs)
-Psychological help (not well developed)/psychoanalysis
-Psychologization of North American culture
-Extensive federal grants
Commoditization of mental health: the transformation of mental health services and practices into an everyday commodity for Americans,
Fashionable for women especially to have anxiety pills and seek psychological help.
Consumerism caused mental health to be seen as a product.
Changes to American culture’s understanding of psychology and popularity of therapy modalities such as psychoanalysis, increase in concern for America’s mental wellbeing by policy makers in the postwar period.
Instant boom in clinical psychology and its training
Which school of psychology dominated during the “Golden Age”?
Psychoanalysis everywhere in popular culture
What caused the upswing of Postwar Initiatives for Training Mental Health Professionals?
Golden age of psychological research
Concern about nations mental health, programs to improve mental health for veterans and public
Focus on training of professionals because there weren’t many clinical psychologists
Aimed at improving human behavior and social functioning
What were some of the factors that contributed to the massive growth in psychology?
Extensive funding by policy makers
GI Bill - allowed returning veterans to pursue higher education, many chose to study psychology
Hospitals run by the Veterans Administration (VA) were overrun with psychiatric patients -> Demand
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) established
Tremendous growth of psychology
Lots of funding available for research - diverse topics studied, especially clinical psychology areas
What were the Postwar Initiatives taken for Training Mental Health Professionals?
Clinical Psychology primarily done in VA hospitals
Post war 60% of patients psychiatric illness
Established nationwide mental hygiene clinics - too many people, too few staff = group therapy
Established Neuropsychiatry Division
What challenges did the development of the new clinical psychology bring up? How did the APA and VA address this problem?
There was a need for standardizing training for psychologists
VA Clinical Psychology Training program - James Grier Miller in-charge
APA standards for clinical psychology training and certification emphasized science, wanted strong standards -> Scientist-Practitioner Model (minimum PhD)
Clinical training programs established within VA program in 22 universities
Instrumental in American psychology as science-based profession
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) 1946
Had to develop guidelines for education in clinical psychology
Financial support for research and training mental health professionals
Sponsored conference on graduate education in clinical psychology (1949) scientist–practitioner model of clinical psychology.
Some students were dissatisfied with the partitioner model, what new model emerged as a result?
PsyD established in 1970s which has less emphasis on research because people were dissatisfied. They wanted to work in the clinical field and were not interested in research. Scholar-practitioner model.
What were the criticism of the Scientist-practitioner model?
Critiqued:
- Overly medicalized
- Individual based (doesn’t take social and cultural context into account) Structural factors, poverty, discrimination ignored
Psychologists helping maintain unequal and discriminatory social systems.
