APA Historical Database: Selected Entries

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On October 25:

1774 — The Society of the New York Hospital authorized use of the cellar of the north wing of its proposed hospital building to be used "for wards or cells for the reception of lunatics." This facility was replaced in 1808 by a new building, the New York Lunatic Asylum, which became the Bloomingdale Asylum in 1821. The modern descendent of these facilities is the Westchester division of the New York Hospital in White Plains.

1884 — James McKeen Cattell presented his dissertation proposal to Wilhelm Wundt. The title was "An Essay on Psychometry, or the Time Taken Up by Simple Mental Processes." Wundt's legendary assessment was "Ganz Amerikanisch," meaning "typically American."

1922 — The first of a series of articles by journalist Walter Lippmann, attacking the Army Alpha Test of intellectual achievement, appeared in the New Republic. The articles, and replies by Lewis Terman and Edwin G. Boring, presented now-familiar controversies about intelligence testing to the American public.

1928 — Natalia Potanin Chapanis was born. Chapanis concentrated on physiological and clinical psychology, with special interests in neuropsychology, projective techniques, and transsexual behavior.

1937 — David Pablo Boder received his charter from the State of Illinois for a psychological museum, perhaps the first such museum in the United States. The Boder collection is now housed at the Archives of the History of American Psychology in Akron, Ohio.

1958 — The first annual meeting of the Wyoming Psychological Association was held.

1962 — Fuller and Company won the contract to build the APA headquarters building at 1200 17th Street, Washington, DC. The bid was submitted on October 18, 1962.

1972 — The publication of an operations memo marked the beginnings of Operation START (Special Treatment and Rehabilitation Training). Operation START was a trial application of behavior modification techniques at the Federal Medical Center for Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. The program was canceled in February 1974 amid protests over the abusive behavior of guards.

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