April 10 in Psychology

APA Historical Database: Selected Entries

On April 10:

1844 — Dorothea Dix began a series of articles in the Providence Journal, describing the neglectful care of people with mental illness in Rhode Island. These articles followed the format of thorough research and graphic descriptions of individual cases Dix had established in dealing with the Massachusetts legislature. Rhode Island's Butler Hospital for the Insane resulted from Dix's efforts and the philanthropy of industrialist Cyrus Butler.

1857 — Lucien Lévy-Bruhl was born. Lévy-Bruhl was an anthropologist who pursued the study of mental processes in primitive humans with the intent of demonstrating differences between civilized and primitive mentality. Lévy-Bruhl's theories, although mistaken, provided information about non-Western thinking.

1903 — Margaret Ives was born. She worked primarily in hospitals and courts, practicing psychotherapy with nurses and forensic patients and building internship and research programs.

1928 — In a letter to Carl Murchison, Edwin G. Boring proposed the series of History of Psychology in Autobiography volumes. The first volume in the series was published on August 23, 1930.

1953 — The APA's Ethical Standards of Psychologists was first published. Nicholas Hobbs chaired the committee that produced these first published standards of ethical professional behavior.

1953 — Tennessee Governor Frank Clement signed the state's original legislation providing for the licensing of psychologists. The board of examiners was appointed on July 21, 1953. Ted Landsman chaired the committee that developed the legislation and guided its progress through the legislature.

1958 — The Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior was first published by the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Charles B. Ferster was the journal's editor.

1958 — In an address to the International Association of Applied Psychology meeting in Rome, Pope Puis XII generally endorsed modern psychological practices, but opposed the use of truth serum, lie detectors, or other devices to "enter against his will into a person's interior domain."

Copyright © 1995, American Psychological Association. Web version by permission. Source: Street, W. R. (1994). A Chronology of Noteworthy Events in American Psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. The American Psychological Association and Central Washington University have supported the development of the APA Historical Database.

Choose Another Day
How to Cite This Page in APA Style