James McKeen Cattell

Career

Academia

After completing his Ph.D. with Wundt in Germany in 1886, Cattell took up a lecturing post at the University of Cambridge in England, and became a Fellow of St. John's College at the University of Cambridge. He made occasional visits to the U.S., where he gave lectures at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

In 1889, he returned to the U.S. to become a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1891, he moved to Columbia University, where he became department head of psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. In 1895, he was appointed president of the American Psychological Association. In 1888, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.

From the beginning of his career, Cattell worked to establish psychology as a field as worthy of study as any of the physical sciences, such as chemistry or physics. He believed that further investigation would reveal that intellect itself could be parsed into standard units of measurements. He also established the methods of Wilhelm Wundt and Francis Galton, including mental testing, in the U.S.

In 1917, Cattell and English professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, grandson of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Richard Henry Dana Jr., were fired from Columbia University for opposing the United States’ conscription policy during World War I. He later sued the university and won an annuity. In 1921, he used the money that he gained from the settlement to start The Psychological Corporation to foster his interest in applied psychology. Because he was never able to really explain how psychologists apply their work, the organization failed until it was taken over by other psychologists who had experience in applied psychology. Towards the end of his life, Cattell edited and published journals. To help himself in the process, he created the Science Press Printing Company in order to produce his journals. He continued his work on journals until his death in 1944.

Eugenicist beliefs

Like many eminent scientists and scholars of the time, Cattell's thought was influenced by belief in eugenics, defined as the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population, usually referring to human populations." Cattell's belief in eugenics was heavily influenced by the research of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution motivated Cattell's emphasis on studying “the psychology of individual differences”.

In connection with his eugenicist beliefs, Cattell's own research found that men of science were likely to have fathers who were clergymen or professors. Incidentally, Cattell's father was both.

Cattell believed that he had “inherited ability", but he also credited the influence of his environment, saying "it was my fortune to find a birthplace in the sun. A germplasm fairly well compounded [good genes] met circumstances to which it was unusually fit to react”. Cattell's belief in eugenics even motivated him to offer his own children monetary gifts of $1,000 if they married the offspring of a university professor or academic professional.

Mental tests

Cattell's research on individual differences played a significant role in introducing and emphasizing the experimental technique and importance of methodology in experimentation in America. Cattell's design of mental tests was influenced by Wundt's definition of psychology regarding the achievements of psychophysics and by Galton's view on the importance of the senses for judgement and intelligence. Regarding the beginnings of his mental tests, in Leipzig, Cattell independently began to measure “simple mental processes”

Between 1883 and 1886, influenced by Francis Galton, Cattell published nine articles on human reaction time rates and individual differences. As a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Cattell administered a battery of ten tests to student volunteers, and for the first time introduced the term "mental tests" as a general term for his set of tests. These tests included measures of sensation, using weights to determine just-noticeable differences, reaction time, human memory span, and rate of movement. There are two types of perspectives on measuring intelligence. The first type was derived from Aristotle that asserts that it is only through the identification of intelligence that its measurement becomes possible; through identification does not necessarily imply a definition. Secondly, all measurement is based on comparison, and that different bases of comparison are possible. When Cattell moved to Columbia University, the battery of tests became compulsory for all freshmen. Cattell believed that his mental tests were measuring intelligence; however, in 1901 Clark Wissler, a student of Cattell, demonstrated that there was no statistical relationship between scores on Cattell's tests and academic performance. The tests were finally rendered irrelevant with the development of Alfred Binet’s intelligence measurements.

Journals

Cattell was well known for his involvement in creating and editing scientific journals. He was so involved in owning and publishing journals, that his research productivity declined. Along with James Mark Baldwin, he co-founded the journal Psychological Review. He also acquired the journal Science and, within five years of acquiring it, made it the official publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1900, Cattell purchased Popular Science Monthly from D. Appleton & Company. In 1915, the title was purchased from him and became Popular Science. He, in turn, founded and edited The Scientific Monthly, which went to the subscribers of the old Popular Science Monthly as a substitute.

Cattell was the editor of Science for nearly 50 years. During that time, he did much to promote psychology as a science by seeing to it that empirical studies in psychology were prominently featured in the journal. On Cattell's editorship of Science, Ludy T. Benjamin wrote "there is no denying that it significantly enhanced psychology’s visibility and status among the older sciences."

American Men of Science

In 1906, Cattell became the first compiler of American Men of Science. Despite the name, two women, Grace Andrews and Charlotte Angas Scott, were listed in this first edition of American Men of Science.

Skepticism

Cattell was skeptical of paranormal claims and spiritualism. He dismissed Leonora Piper as a fraud. He was involved in a debate over Piper with the psychologist William James in the Science journal. He took issue with James's support for psychical research. In a letter to James, Cattell wrote that the "Society for Psychical Research is doing much to injure psychology".

Personal life

Cattell married Josephine Owen, the daughter of an English merchant, in 1888. Their seven children obtained their pre-college educations at home with their parents as instructors. The whole family shared in Cattell's editorial work. One daughter, Psyche Cattell (1893–1989), followed in her father's footsteps, establishing a small child psychology practice in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and developing tests to assess the intelligence of infants.

Death

Cattell died at Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on January 20, 1944, at age 83.

Legacy

The main street in the College Hill neighborhood of Easton, Pennsylvania, home to Lafayette College, Cattell's alma mater, is named after Cattell.