September 20 in Psychology

APA Historical Database: Selected Entries

On September 20:

1847 - At its annual meeting in Boston, the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists voted to become the American Association for the Promotion of Science. By the time of the next annual meeting, the name had changed to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

1848 - The first meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was held in Philadelphia. William Redfield presided over the 87 scientists in attendance.

1904 - G. Stanley Hall, George T. Ladd, James McKeen Cattell, and J. Mark Baldwin delivered papers at the International Congress of Arts and Sciences, meeting at the St. Louis World's Fair. The papers were summaries of the currents state and future prospects of psychology.

1916 - The first meeting of the National Research Council was held.

1917 - Behaviorist John B. Watson was ordered from his professorship at Johns Hopkins University into active military service. Watson went to England to test aviators for the Signal Corps. He irreverently assessed American officers as "nincompoops" and military service as "a nightmare." Despite a near court-martial, Watson was honorably discharged as a major on November 30, 1919.

1956 - Indoklon, a synthetic convulsant taken by inhalation, was first used in the treatment of schizophrenia. The trials were done at Spring Grove Hospital, Maryland, by John C. Krantz, Jr. Because naturally occurring convulsions sometimes accompany improvement in people with schizophrenia, chemically and electrically induced convulsions have been explored as therapeutic methods.

1966 - New Jersey enacted its psychologist licensure law, the Practicing Psychologists Licensing Act. The law became effective immediately.

1971 - B. F. Skinner appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

1974 - Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahnemann's article "Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases," was published in the journal Science. By 1983, this article had been cited in over 420 other publications and was chosen as a "citation classic" by the journal Current Contents.

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