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James McKeen Cattell

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: James McKeen Cattell
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(born May 25, 1860, Easton, Pa., U.S. — died Jan. 20, 1944, Lancaster, Pa.) U.S. psychologist. He studied with Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig and later assisted Francis Galton in London. Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania (1888 – 91) and Columbia University (1891 – 1917), where Edward L. Thorndike was his student, he oriented U.S. psychology toward use of objective experimental methods, mental testing, and applied psychology. Much of his career was devoted to editing and publishing scientific periodicals; he was a founder of Psychological Review (1894), edited Science for 50 years (from 1894), and founded the directory American Men of Science (1906).

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Biography: James McKeen Cattell
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The American psychologist and editor James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944) was a pioneer in American psychology who influenced the profession to use objective methods of study and to apply psychology to practical aspects of life.

James McKeen Cattell was born on May 20, 1860, in Easton, Pennsylvania. His father was president of Lafayette College in Easton, and his family supported Cattell's education and his early desire to travel and work abroad.

During the eight years following acquisition of a B.A. degree from Lafayette College in 1880 Cattell studied in Europe at Leipzig and at Göttingen under the famed European psychologist Wilhelm Wundt. Moving to England, Cattell worked with Sir Francis Galton, who strongly influenced him. Cattell also admired the American psychologist and philosopher William James. Returning to the United States Cattell worked at Johns Hopkins University.

From 1888 to 1891 Cattell held the first professorship in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. He made his greatest personal contributions to the field of psychology during 1891-1917 when he was professor at Columbia University. He died in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on January 20, 1944.

Cattell had a strong and lasting impact on psychology in at least three ways. First, he began his career at a time when psychology and other behavioral sciences were allied with philosophy. Cattell championed the notion that psychology and other behavioral, biological, and social sciences could carry on rigorous, objective, scientific research. His impetus hastened a turning point in methodological practices in these disciplines. Some say Cattell probably did more than anyone else of his time to foster the development of the behavioral and biological sciences in the United States.

In his own work, Cattell demonstrated the rigor of a scientific approach as he researched reading and perception, psychophysics, individual differences, and individuals' reaction times to various stimuli. Examples of findings from his research still cited today are that eyes jump during reading, that words in print are only perceived when the eyes are at a standstill, that many words can be learned and remembered more easily and accurately than most letters, and that words and phrases can be read in a small fraction of a second.

Second, Cattell advocated that scientific findings could and should be utilized in practical ways. His conclusions from his study of reading, for example, along with others on reaction time revolutionized some educational practices such as methods of teaching reading and spelling. In 1921 Cattell founded, and for many years served as president of, the Psychological Corporation, the first of many groups applying psychological techniques to practice. Psychological Corporation became and remained a leader in the development of tests for use in education and industry.

Third, Cattell made a mark in history through his service to professional organizations and journals. He was one of the founders of the American Psychological Association and of several other scientific societies. He launched and published several scientific journals, including Psychological Review, Science, Scientific Monthly, School and Society, and The American Naturalist. He also prepared and published the first and subsequent editions of American Men of Science and Leaders in Education.

Further Reading

Complete reports of Cattell's life and work are in James McKeen Cattell; 1860-1944: Man of Science. Volume one, Psychological Research, contains Cattell's own reports of his research and volume two, Addresses and Formal Papers, consists of Cattell's own presentations.

An Education in Psychology: James McKeen Cattell's Journals and Letters from Germany and England, edited by Michael M. Sokal (1981), gives an interesting personal accounting of the beginnings of Cattell's career. The book also contains brief sections on Cattell at Columbia, Cattell as psychologist, Cattell as editor, and the Cattell family.

World of the Mind: James McKeen Cattell
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(1860–1944). American psychologist born in Easton, Pennsylvania, the son of the Presbyterian president of a small East Coast university. He studied under Rudolf Lotze (1817–81) at Göttingen, following which he worked for three years with Wilhelm Wundt at Leipzig and took his doctorate. He then spent a year at St John's College, Cambridge, and at this time made the acquaintance of Francis Galton, by whom he was immensely impressed. Had he stayed permanently in Cambridge — which at the time he was strongly tempted to do — it is likely that he would have played an important role in the growth and development of experimental psychology in the university.

Cattell's work at Leipzig was largely concerned with measurements of reaction times, which he continued for some time at the University of Pennsylvania after his return to the United States, publishing an important paper with C. S. Fullerton on the perception of small differences. His next move was to Columbia University, where together with E. L. Thorndike he built up the leading laboratory in America principally concerned with mental tests and the measurement of individual differences. It would thus appear that it was Galton rather than Wundt who had the major influence on his career.

(Published 1987)

— O. L. Zangwill

    Bibliography
  • Sokal, M. M. (ed.) (1981). An Education in Psychology: James McKeen Cattell, Journal and Letters from Germany and England 1880–1888.

Wikipedia: James McKeen Cattell
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James McKeen Cattell

Born May 25, 1860 (1860-05-25)
Died January 20, 1944 (1944-01-21)
Nationality American
Fields psychologist, psychometrics
Institutions University of Cambridge, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University

James McKeen Cattell (May 25, 1860 - January 20, 1944), American psychologist, was the first professor of psychology in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania and long-time editor and publisher of scientific journals and publications, most notably the journal Science.

At the beginning of his career, many scientists regarded psychology at best a minor field of study, or at worst a pseudoscience such as phrenology. Perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, Cattell helped establish psychology as a legitimate science, worthy of study at the highest levels of the academy. At the time of his death, the New York Times hailed him as "the dean of American science." Yet Cattell may be best remembered for his uncompromising opposition to American involvement in World War I. His public opposition to the draft led to his dismissal from his position at Columbia University, a move that later led many American universities to establish tenure as a means of protecting unpopular beliefs.

Contents

Early life

Born in Easton, Pennsylvania in 1860, Cattell grew up the eldest child of a wealthy and prominent family. His father, William Cassady Cattell, a Presbyterian minister, became president of Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania shortly after James' birth. William Cattell could easily provide for his children, as he had married Elizabeth "Lizzie" McKeen in 1859; together they shared Lizzie's substantial inheritance. To this picture of the family's success one could add political power as well, as James' uncle Alexander Gilmore Cattell represented New Jersey in the United States Senate.

Cattell entered Lafayette College in 1876 at the age of sixteen, and graduated in four years with the highest honors. In 1883 the faculty at Lafayette awarded him an M.A., again with highest honors. Despite his later renown as a scientist, he spent most of his time devouring English literature, although he showed a remarkable gift for mathematics as well.

Cattell did not find his calling until after he arrived in Germany for graduate studies, where he met Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig. Cattell left Germany in 1882 to study at Johns Hopkins University, but returned to Leipzig the next year as Wundt's assistant. The partnership between the men proved highly productive, as the two helped to establish the formal study of intelligence. Under Wundt, Cattell became the first American to publish a dissertation in the field of psychology. The title of his German dissertation was Psychologische Untersuchungen (Psychometric Investigation). The dissertation was accepted by the University of Leipzig in 1886. More controversially, Cattell tried to explore the interiors of his own mind through the consumption of the then-legal drug hashish. Under the influence of this drug, Cattell once compared the whistling of a schoolboy to a symphony orchestra. While recreational drug use was not uncommon among early psychologists, including Freud, Cattell's experimentation with hashish reflected a willingness to go against conventional opinion and morality.

The main street in the College Hill Neighborhood of Easton, Pennsylvania, home to Lafayette College, is named after Cattell.

Academic career

After completing his Ph.D. with Wundt in Germany in 1886, Cattell took up a lecturing post at the University of Cambridge in England, and became a 'Fellow Commoner' of St John's College, Cambridge.[1] He made occasional visits to America where he gave lectures at Bryn Mawr and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1889 he returned to the United States to take up the post of Professor of Psychology in Pennsylvania, and in 1891 moved to Columbia University where he became Department Head of Psychology, Anthropology, and Philosophy; He became President of the American Psychological Association in 1895.

From the beginning of his career, Cattell worked hard to establish psychology as a field as worthy of study as any of the "hard" physical sciences, such as chemistry or physics. Indeed, he believed that further investigation would reveal that the intellect itself could be parsed into standard units of measurements. He also brought the methods Wilhelm Wundt and Francis Galton back to the United States, establishing the mental testing efforts in the U.S. The money he won from his tenure lawsuit was used to establish The Psychological Corporation, one of the largest mental testing firms in the U.S.

Journals

Cattell is well known for his involvement in creating and editing scientific journals. He was so involved in owning and publishing journals, that his research productivity declined. He founded the journal Psychological Review in 1894 along with James Mark Baldwin. He also acquired the journal Science and, within five years, made it the official publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1895-1900. In 1904, he also founded Popular Science Monthly, which later became Popular Science. In 1915 he founded and edited Scientific Monthly.

References

  1. ^ Cattell, James McKeen in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.

Further reading

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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World of the Mind. The Oxford Companion to the Mind. Second Edition. Copyright © Oxford University Press, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
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