Watson, Sr., R.I. (1978). The great psychologists. (4th
edition). New York: J.B. Lippincott Co.
CHAPTER 17
JAMES MCKEEN CATTELL
In the course of an afterdinner speech, James McKeen Cattell
once told the story of his boyhood visit to a phrenologist. After
due inspection of the bumps of his head, the phrenologist proceeded
to reel off characteristics that were laudatory with one distinguished
exception-he suffered from a deficiency in will power! The eruption
of laughter from his friends that greeted this remark seemed to
surprise Cattell. In point of fact, many of Cattell's major characteristics
centered around this salient trait. Dogged determination, unflagging
energy, and resistance to domination by those having what he considered
to be undeserved authority seemed to have characterized this American
psychologist and scientific statesman.
James McKeen Cattell, met before as Wundt's self-appointed first
assistant and as a student at Johns Hopkins, was born in 1860
in Easton, Pennsylvania, where his father was Professor of Classics
and later President of Lafayette College. Here, in 1880 Cattell
took his bachelor's degree. His undergraduate interests had been
primarily in literature, but they changed so that he followed
the then usual custom of graduate study abroad and went to Gottingen
and to Leipzig to study philosophy. Naturally he studied under
Wundt. After a paper in philosophy had won him a fellowship at
Johns Hopkins for the years, 1882-1883, he returned to the United
States, just at the time Hall was starting his laboratory. In
the laboratory Cattell started research on the time taken for
different mental activities. This research reinforced his desire
to become a psychologist, so he returned to Leipzig the following
year. It was on his return to Leipzig that he announced to Wundt
he was to be his assistant.
Indications of his independence and firm convictions appeared
early. Contrary to the usual custom of being assigned a problem
by Wundt, Cattell worked on his own problems in reaction time.
He also became convinced that the introspective efforts directed
toward fractionation of the reaction time into perception, choice,
and the like, then current gospel in Wundt's laboratory, was something
which he could not carry out and, indeed, he doubted whether others
could do so. The situation reached the point that he did some
of his experiments at his lodging rather than in the laboratory,
since Wundt would not permit subjects in his laboratory who could
not profit from introspection. Although somewhat strained, relations
never reached a breaking point. Wundt and Cattell did agree on
the value of the study of reaction time. In Cattell's eyes it
was a valuable tool for the study of the time necessary for mental
operation, especially, for investigation of individual differences.
As early as 1885 Cattell published a paper on the exposure time
necessary before perception of colors, letters, and words. It
concluded with a discussion of what he called a matter of "special
interest," the "individual differences" he had
obtained. Cattell worked prodigiously during the Leipzig years
of 1883 to 1886 publishing nine research papers before the following
year was out. Studies on the influences of stimulus intensity
upon reaction time (1885 ), the time of word perception (1886
), and the association time for various categories (1887) were
typical subjects of his research.
After taking his degree-at Leipzig in 1886, Cattell divided the
next two years between the United States and England. On one side
of the Atlantic he taught at Bryn Mawr College and at the University
of Pennsylvania and on the other worked in Calton's laboratory
in London and lectured at Cambridge.
Cattell found in Galton a kindred spirit "the greatest
man whom I
have known." 3' Contrary to the opinion sometimes expressed,
his interest
in individual differences, as we have seen, had made themselves
apparent
before his contact with Calton. In fact, his research concerned
with indi
vidual differences was begun in American before he went to Leipzig
and,
consequently, before working with Galton. From the tone of his
writings,
the most specific reason for his interest in variability is the
climate of the
times in the United States.
In 1888, Cattell was appointed Professor of Psychology at the
University of Pennsylvania. This was the first professorship in
psychology, not just in the United States but anywhere in the
world. Psychologists before him had been appointed in the department
of philosophy. With the appointment of Cattell, the field of psychology
had the recognition of its independence from the older discipline.
Thereafter the practice of naming professors of psychology spread
rapidly, and before the beginning of the twentieth century there
was a considerable number. Cattell founded a
laboratory at Pennsylvania in 1887, although it was not until
1889 that an adequate laboratory was opened. While not the first
in the country, it did have the distinction of being the first
to serve to introduce the undergraduate student to the methods
of experimental psychology.
In 1891 Cattell moved to Columbia University as Professor of
Psychology and administrative head of the department and, at first,
with the additional task of administering the work in anthropology.
His rapid rise on the American psychological scene is shown by
a professorship at the University of Pennsylvania at twentyeight,
the chairmanship of the department of Columbia University at thirty-one,
the presidency of the American Psychological Association at thirty-five,
and the first psychologist to be elected to the National Academy
of Sciences at forty.
Meanwhile, Cattell had continued to be active in research. In
a paper published in 1890 in Mind, the British journal, he had
coined the term, "mental tests," in describing a series
of tests administered to students at the University of Pennsylvania.
As distinguished from Binet's later more complex tasks, these
involved more elementary operations. The basic tests of this series
were dynamometer pressure, rate of movement, sensation areas by
means of the two-point threshold, just noticeable differences
in weight, reaction time for sound, time for naming colors, bisection
of a line, judgment of times, and memory span for letters. In
an appendix to the article, Calton commented on other tests that
could also have been used.
At Columbia, Cattell continued his testing program with a substantially
similar battery of tests. After collecting data from several entering
classes, an analysis of the results was made by Wissler in 1901
Correlations of the individual test scores with academic class
standings were found to be inconclusively low, as were the intercorrelations
among the scores of the tests themselves. In sharp contrast, academic
grades in the various subjects and overall academic standing were
substantially correlated with one another. Results with specific
sensory-motor tests, likewise showing negligible correlations
with other measures, also emerged from Titchener's laboratory
at Cornell It began to appear that the then available psychological
tests were relatively useless as predicators of ability. Further
exploration along the lines suggested by these studies tended
to dwindle. Knowledge of Binet's results, which were later to
dominate, had yet to show themselves in the university setting.
In the spirit of the earlier work of Calton, but with vastly
improved methodology, Cattell also carried on studies of the nature
and origin of scientific ability, using the method of the order
of merit. This method is
applicable to any set of stimuli which is capable of being ranked
according to some criterion, such as the relative pleasingness
of pictures or the appeal of colors. A number of judges would
be asked to arrange the items to be evaluated in a rank order,
the first in order of merit ranked first, and so on. The average
ranking for each item is then calculated and a final rank order
obtained.
This method was applied by Cattell to the relative eminence of
American psychologists in 1903. For obvious reasons, the actual
names associated with specific ranks were not published immediately.
It was not until 1929 that the order of names was released. Rank
number one went to William James, while the next five ranks went
to Cattell, Hugo Munsterberg, G. Stanley Hall, J. Mark Baldwin,
and Edward Bradford Titchener. In present perspective two of these
men do not rank as among the great psychologists. It will be instructive
to pause and examine their careers.
Hugo Munsterberg has been met before as James' rather unfortunate
choice to head the laboratory at Harvard. It is probable that
his present lack of influence can be attributed to the fact that
he turned to fields for the application of psychology before they
had a research basis on which to operate. A glorification of matters
German immediately preceding World War I resulted in personal
unpopularity and public disfavor.
James Mark Baldwin (1861-1934 ), whose most productive period
was a ten year stay at Princeton, was an "international"
psychologist, teaching not only in the United States but also
in Mexico and finally in Paris, where he died. A philosopher and
evolutionist, but knowing the "new" psychology, Baldwin's
influence today is negligible, although his works include books
on mental development, the history of psychology, and, in cooperation
with others, a huge Dictionary o f Philosophy and Psychology.
Perhaps his departure from the American scene as early as 1909
had something to do with his relative lack of influence.
In further developing the method of order of merit, Cattell
asked men
acknowledged to be competent in each of the various scientific
fields to
rate their colleagues in order. Those emerging at the top of the
lists for
each science were given a star in the Biographical Directory o
f American
Men o f Science, a source book which emerged from this work. Through
the seventh edition the starred men were asked to select the new
men
for the directory, a technique not followed in subsequent editions.
To
this very day, this directory in its successive editions is a
basic reference
book, comparable to a specialized Who's Who. Although originating
in a
purely scientific study, its practical value has been considerable.
After experiencing financial difficulties, Science, a weekly
journal, had
been acquired in 1895 by Cattell from Alexander Graham Bell. In
its publication, Cattell sought and secured the help of leading
scientists throughout the country. After overcoming the financial
difficulties, Sciencebecame the leading general scientific publication
in the United States I
and in 1900 it was made the official organ of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
Cattell and other American psychologists, including James, had
decided that the American Journal of Psychology was functioning
primarily as a house organ for the staff of Clark University and
some of their associates. Accordingly, in 1894 in collaboration
with J. Mark Baldwin, Cattell founded a rival journal, the Psychological
Review. In his hands this journal grew into an entire series of
journals. Editing a weekly and managing journals takes time, and
Cattell's personal research productivity began to drop off.
Robert S. Woodworth and Edward L. Thorndike had joined him at
Columbia very soon after his arrival and were associated with
him for many years. The separation of the psychologists at the
College and Graduate School from those at Teacher's College, where
Thorndike did his work and where Cattell did some of his teaching,
fortunately did not yet exist. It was only later that 120th Street,
separating Teacher's College from the main campus, became "the
widest street in the world."
During the years Cattell was at Columbia, more psychologists-to-be
studied at Columbia University than at any other institution in
the United States. They are active in the contemporary period
and, hence, beyond our scope. By and large, Cattell gave his students
freedom to go ahead on their own, and, while he remained available
for guidance, he stressed independent work.
He insisted on a similar independence for himself, arguing that
a professor's time, if spent within his areas of competence, should
not necessarily, be devoted solely to the university and to its
students. He established his home on a hilltop near Garrison,
forty miles from New York, coming to the university only on a
specified number of days each week. Later he equipped a laboratory
and an editorial office in his home. To some extent this served
to free him from the interruptions of university life.
Relations with the administration became strained. Moreover,
he believed that many decisions which were increasingly being
left to university administrators were properly matters for faculty
decision. He not only raised his voice in pursuit of the aim of
faculty participation, he also helped to found the American Association
of University Professors. Dur-
ing the years of the World War I Cattell wrote to members of Congress
a letter protesting the sending of conscientious objectors to
combat duty. This unpopular and personally disadvantageous position
was one from which he could not in good conscience desist, so
he stood by his position. The President and the Trustees judged
his action to be treason and on this ground dismissed him from
the University. Cattell, in turn, sued for libel, and the case
was settled by his receiving a large annuity.
Many of Cattell's most important activities thereafter continued
to be, in the best sense of the word, promotional in character.
His numerous presidential addresses often concerned growth and
the present status of psychology. He also served as a spokesman
of psychology to the other sciences in the United States, as his
editorships show. He did not hesitate to criticize and to advise
in print the universities, the philanthropic agencies, the Carnegie
Institution, and the National Academy of Sciences. He vigorously
defended the growth of applied psychology, and psychology as a
profession. As early as 1904, he predicted that there would eventually
be a profession of psychology as well as a science. In a similar
spirit he organized the Psychological Corporation in 1921 in order
to promote the application of psychology This corporation has
grown considerably, while using its profits to support other research,
and it still continues to play an important role in professional
psychology at the present time. Cattell remained active as an
editor and senior citizen scientist until his death in 1944.
Cattell epitomizes a major movement of American psychology. Never
given to theoretical writing, he remained in research for some
years of his life, thereafter maintaining a respect for and an
ability to criticize research. His interest in individual differences
was instrumental in his working for psychology as a profession
as well as a science. His bent toward administration and editing
placed him among that small group of men who gave the beginnings
of psychology in the United States its characteristic flavor.
