APA Historical Database: Selected Entries

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On May 4:

1776 — Johann F. Herbart, the founder of educational psychology, was born. Herbart developed the concept of apperceptive mass, defined as the accumulation of experiences too weak to stimulate conscious awareness but strong enough to enhance or interfere with each other or later experiences.

1825 — Thomas Henry Huxley was born. Huxley was a popular promoter and defender of Darwinism and the scientific method. He coined the term agnosticism to mean that nothing could be known without physical demonstration.

1917 — Walter Dill Scott and his associates at the Carnegie Institute of Technology's Bureau of Salesmanship Research completed a draft of a fourth of their Rating Scale for Selecting Captains. The scale was designed for use by the military in World War I. Scott worked through May, June, and July 1917 to convince the military to use the scale. It was approved on August 23, 1917, marking a milestone in personnel and military psychology.

1922 — The National Council for Mental Hygiene of Great Britain was founded. The organization was modelled after Clifford W. Beers's National Committee for Mental Hygiene, founded in 1909.

1954 — The Alabama Psychological Association was incorporated. Thomas F. Staton, Alonzo J. Davis, and D. A. R. Perryman were the incorporators.

1965 — The Education of Psychologists for Community Mental Health Conference was held at Swampscott, Massachusetts. The conference, sponsored by Boston University and the South Shore Mental Health Center, has been cited as a founding event in the history of community psychology. Chester C. Bennett chaired the conference committee.

1983 — The Society for Behavioral Pediatrics held its first scientific meeting in Washington, DC, in conjunction with the meeting of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association. At the meeting, Michael M. Cohen, of the Montefiore Hospital, New York, received the first W. T. Grant Foundation Lectureship Award in Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics.

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