August 18 in Psychology

APA Historical Database: Selected Entries

On August 18:

1785 - By order of Grand Duke Leopold I of Tuscany, Vincenzo Chiarugi was placed in charge of planning St. Bonifacio Hospital. In 1774, Leopold issued the "leggi sui pazzi" (law on the insane), Europe's first statue providing care for people with mental illness. The first patients were admitted to St. Bonifacio in 1788. Chiarugi was among the first in the world to institute humane standards of care.

1859 - George S. Fullerton was born. Fullerton's experimental work focused on psychophysics, especially the perception of small differences between stimuli. APA President, 1896.

1884 - Edward K. Strong, Jr., was born. Strong is known for his work in the area of vocational interest testing. His Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) was published in 1943 and continues to be a commonly used vocational interest inventory. The SVIB compares the examinee's responses with those of successful practitioners of various professions.

1908 - Else Frenkel-Brunswik was born. Frenkel-Brunswik's work on the psychology of prejudice contributed to the California F Scale for the measurement of the authoritarian personality. Authoritarianism was a dominant theme of the social psychology of the 1950s. She also coined the term intolerance of ambiguity to describe one authoritarian trait.

1945 - Jill N. Reich was born. Reich has played an important role in the development of education and training standards for psychologists. Under her direction, the APA accreditation manual was rewritten in the early 1990s. APA Distinguished Contribution to Education and Training in Psychology Award, 1993.

1961 - Arnold H. Buss's book The Psychology of Aggression was published. In 1982, the journal Current Contents chose Buss's book as a "citation classic" because it had been cited in over 450 other publications.

1966 - James J. Gibson's book The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems was published.

1986 - The petition to create APA Division 47 (Exercise and Sport Psychology) was submitted. William Morgan was head of the petitioning group.

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.

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