[APA World Wide Web Logo]

APA Historical Database: Selected Entries


On July 10:

1873 — Théodore Simon was born. With Alfred Binet, Simon produced the first intelligence test, and he continued to promote its appropriate use--while working to rectify its misuse--after Binet's death. Simon also developed an intelligence scale for infants and created the first psychological consultation service for juvenile delinquents.

1897 — George M. Stratton's article "Vision Without Inversion of the Retinal Image" was published in Psychological Review. This study of adaptation to a world viewed through vision-inverting goggles is still cited in introductory psychology texts.

1910 — Donald E. Super was born. Super's longitudinal study of career development, the Career Pattern Study, began in 1951 and provided the first empirical information about lifetime changes in occupations. He served on the first APA committees on ethical standards and on test standards. APA Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology, 1983.

1923 — Julian Hochberg was born. Hochberg's work has focused on the organization of perceptual elements and how this process is affected by information in the element, by perceiver expectations, and by selective attention. His work has extended to research with motion pictures. APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, 1978.

1925 — The Scopes "monkey trial" began. The trial was primarily a media event to promote Dayton, Tennessee, commercial interests. Lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debated the wisdom of teaching the theory of evolution, a major influence on modern psychology, in the public schools.

1950 — Hermann von Helmholtz, the great physiologist of the 19th century, appeared on a postage stamp of the German Democratic Republic (the former East Germany).

1950 — The first International Congress of Gerontology began in LiŠge, Belgium under the presidency of Lucien Brull. The conference was attended by 133 representatives of 18 gerontological societies in 14 different nations. The meeting was promoted by V. Korenchevsky of England, founder of the British Club for Research on Ageing in 1945. The International Association of Gerontology was founded at this meeting.

1973 — The Wayne County (Michigan) Circuit Court rendered a landmark verdict in Kaimowitz v. Michigan Department of Mental Health. The court ruled that a sexual psychopath prisoner was incapable of freely consenting to participation in a study comparing drug therapy with amygdalectomy in the control of his condition. The study was ruled unconstitutional.

1990 — The U.S. Department of Labor announced that it would discontinue the use of the General Aptitude Test Battery because of ethnic group differences in scores. An earlier policy to adjust scores for ethnic membership proved problematic. The decision affected 35 state employment services.


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