I like Abraham Maslow, who created the hierarchy of needs. He focused on how people could live happily as their best self. Contrary to Freud, who theorized all human motivation stems from an innate urge to do evil, Maslow theorized that every human has an innate urge to do good. This was a remarkable, unique thought, not only because psychology at the time focused on reductionist, pessimistic views of human motivation, but because he had a childhood that made him wonder how he turned out sane. He had wondered what made people become excellent, and in the same vein, why people did not shine so bright (Valiunas, 2011).

I also like everyday life– the fabric and texture of a daily experience really engages me. In fact, the further back in time I learn about, the more enchanted I become.

So when I came across Maslow’s high school diary in his finding aid (a convenient list of what and where to find it) in the Center for the History of Psychology’s archive, I was ecstatic. For me, it was the first, but not the last, time in the archives that I deeply felt I had found something really cool. The cover was torn and crumbling, but the inside pages were in good condition, and the handwriting was legible (something I couldn’t say about his later journals).

Title page of Abraham Maslow’s Diary 1922-1924

The first page, rendered in blue ink and attempted calligraphy, displayed “Ye Diary , Records Of Ye Events , Happening of Ye Abe Maslow”. The following pages were exactly that. He started writing when he was 15 years old, starting the second day of his high school career at Boys High School. One can read the rise and fall of the chess club he founded, various outcomes of the baseball games he played in, his brief but optimistic foray into football, his contribution of Latin puns to the school newspaper, tales of his abrasive family members, lazy Sundays, perspectives on his teachers and grades, summer jobs, political commentary, and newspaper clippings. In all, it was an intimate perspective, full of personality and humor– attributes which grew with the years. It was a pleasure not only to have a glimpse into his life and enjoy the 1920’s slang, but to see his writing style become steeped in personal flare, in contrast to the daily lists of events when he first started to journal.

Maslow Makes a Latin Pun: Causa Belli

It was a humbling experience to read the diary of an ordinary yet ambitious teenager who would one day radically change the way we think about the human experience. Halfway through the diary, Maslow celebrates the anniversary of the diary’s inception, and he prides himself on keeping with it so consistently. From then on until his death at 63 years old, he kept meticulous journals and rich diaries, exploring and recording his thoughts, feelings, instincts, hopes, and theories. Not only that, but the fact he kept and preserved his first journal must attest to his character, as his collection in the archives is noticeably larger than other psychologists’.

Valiunas, Algis (2011). Abraham Maslow and the All-American Self. Retrieved from: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/abraham-maslow-and-the-all-american-self

The Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo is one of the most well-known experiments in psychology, and is remembered in part due to the shocking nature of the experiment. While the experiment garners a great deal of attention for its unique nature, people may not be as aware of the public’s response to the experiment and the broader implications of the experimental results.

’Stanford County Prison’ sign from the experimental basement prison, courtesy of The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology

Zimbardo designed the study to investigate what makes good people act evil in certain situations. The basement of the Stanford University Psychology Department was transformed into a prison and twenty-four male college students were randomly assigned to be either prison guards or prisoners for two weeks. The experiment was stopped after only six short days because the prison had become a reality for the students. Typical college students had been transformed into completely different people simply by taking on the role of either a member of a powerless group or a member of a controlling group.

One of the prisoner’s outfits from the experiment, courtesy of The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology. The prisoners wore only thin sheets with their number on them for identification.

One of the khaki uniforms worn by the guards during the experiment, courtesy of The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology

The results of this experiment had a much wider realm of application beyond the basement of the psychology building at Stanford University. Throughout the United States an entire prison system was operating on the basic principles that Zimbardo had recreated in his fictional experimental prison. He recognized the problems of that system, as did other people throughout the United States. In a statement to the US House of Representatives in 1971, Zimbardo even called the prison system “the ‘experiment’ which our society is conducting using involuntary subjects.”

The cover page of Dr. Zimbardo’s statement to the U.S. House of Representatives about the Stanford prison experiment and his findings, courtesy of The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology.

A page of one of the daily logs for the experiment, August 18, 1971 courtesy of The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology. Each daily log included a chronology of events through the day and notes about actions of the prisoners and guards.

Zimbardo received letters from a wide range of people including navy officials, lawyers, prisoners, governors, police chiefs, and even a few attorney generals, all praising his efforts and wanting to know more about the results of the experiment to help enact change in the United States prison system. An amazing thing about the experiment that I realized while reading the letters he received was that he sparked a movement. Many of the letters were requesting slide shows of the experiment to show as training videos in addition to asking his opinion about prison reform or telling him about steps being taken to monitor the treatment of prisoners. One person even wrote asking for Zimbardo’s help to stop funding for 2 maximum-security prisons and was successful in his endeavor to stop the prisons from being built.

One of the many letters received by Zimbardo praising the Stanford prison experiment and his work towards prison reform. Courtesy of the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology.

Zimbardo served as a leader and the spark for people across the country that saw problems in the system and wanted to help make a change. He helped them with their cause, being able to provide data that the current prison system in place was detrimental to both guards & prisoners in a 6-day simulation, let alone the real prison system where some people spend the majority of their lives as either guards or prisoners. Through the drastic nature of the Stanford prison experiment Zimbardo was able to grab the attention of the general public and turn it towards the importance of humane treatment for prisoners.

The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology has many interesting and unique collections in the archive.  I stumbled across a chapter in an edited volume written in 1928 by Felix Krueger entitled, The Essence of Feeling. This chapter is extensively annotated with handwritten critiques, questions and comments of Krueger’s work.  Whose handwriting could it be?  I did some digging, and with the help of one of the archivists, I found out that the book came from Robert Ward Leeper’s private library.

This is a picture of Krueger’s chapter The Essence of Feelings annotated by Felix Leeper.

I had never heard of Robert Leeper and was curious to find what contributions he made to psychology.  Upon doing some research, I found he was born in 1904 and passed in 1986. Throughout his career, he published several written works as a theoretical psychologist with a focus on personality.  He briefly taught at the University of Arkansas, and later worked with Karl Lashley, a psychologist and behaviorist, on a fellowship in Chicago, before moving to the University of Oregon for the remainder of his career (Taylor, 1987).

Leeper appears to give much thought to Krueger’s chapter!  When flipping through the book, Krueger’s chapter was the only chapter extensively annotated with comments! He even notes throughout the chapter using exclamation points, “Xs,” question marks and large slashes through the text to give indication to how he felt about Krueger’s proposal.

I found that Leeper’s notes described Krueger’s work as “easy to see why his writings have not had much influence in this country.” These notes on Krueger’s chapter are dated February 22, 1969, but Leeper returns to this chapter and notes on September 7, 1969 “I think his proposal is less like mine than I thought.”  I believe Leeper’s interest in psychology outside empirical data may have initially contributed to some likeness of Krueger’s work.

Leeper’s note in quotation that Krueger is “really something” brings a lot of personality to Leeper.  The extensive notes really give you a sense of who Leeper was, and how critical his thought process was! It is fascinating to see the compelling comments Leeper makes on Krueger’s work.  Leeper seems to have an intelligent opinion about everything and it is very exciting to read!

The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology really has amazing things to discover.  Krueger’s The Essence of Feelings annotated by Leeper is truly one of those great finds!  The personal notes and reactions Leeper makes about Krueger’s chapter add conflicting view points to really help interpret the discussion of feelings in the chapter.  It is like reading a debate between two great minds of the past!  Leeper’s dedication to annotating so thoroughly, really makes me excited about other works in his private library he may have annotated!

References

Krueger, F. (1928). The Essence of Feeling. In Arnold, M.B (Eds.), The nature of emotion (97-108). Great Britian: Penguin Books.

Tyler, L. E. (1987). Robert Ward Leeper (1904-1986). American Psychologist, 42(7), 752-753. doi:10.1037/h0090790

Albert B. Hood, a professor at the University of Iowa from 1965 to 2000, made it his goal to help college students reach their full potential. His wanted to find probable factors for student success in college, and attempted to find parallels from student home life or personality and success in certain atmospheres or learning environments.

courtesy of the University of Iowa Alumni Association

Over the course of his career, he was credited with creating several tests to measure student identity and college success; however it all started with his 1968 study called “What Type of College for What Type of Student.”

This correlational study followed every graduating high school senior in the state of Minnesota in 1961 through their first semester of college, all 18,000 of them!

The sample could have been even larger but Hood excluded students from the study who were not planning on continuing their education in state, or who had the same name as another student already participating in the study- which could have been avoided by using numbers to identify participants instead of names, but that is beside the point.)

Hood asked students to complete an extensive questionnaire to determine their personality type, socioeconomic status, parents’ education level and income, among other factors A blank questionnaire is pictured below.

Hood’s student questionnaire from “What Type of College for What Type of Student”

Hood tracked students GPAs in both high school and their first semester of their freshman year of college and had students take the MSAT (Minnesota Student Aptitude Test).

Hood’s showed that students whose fathers were unskilled laborers had no difference in college GPA than students whose fathers were skilled workers, and that a father’s occupation seemed to have no bearing on the college or university the student chose to attend (pg. 47). He found that students with equal or similar high school GPA and MSAT scores did slightly better in school if they scored high on extraversion (pg. 74). However, extroverted students did poorly in schools of agriculture or Technical Institutes while introverts seemed to thrive in these schools (pg. 73).

Hood also found that students who were raised on a farm had significantly higher college GPAs than their city counterparts (pg. 55). That data is growing increasingly out of date, as the farming industry has shrunk significantly in the United States since 1961, and it would be interesting to see if that conclusion still holds even as the population size has shrunk.

Hood’s research questions are still being explored today. A large scale study is currently being conducted with Furman University, Davdison College, Duke University, and Johnson C. Smith University on the class of 2018 to try to determine college success through “individual, interpersonal, and institutional factors” just like Hood attempted to find in 1968 (Fourtitude).

[Albert B. Hood photograph]. (2005). Retrieved from http://www.iowalum.com/daa/search/profile.cfm?ID=202
Hood, A. B. (1968). Minnesota Studies in Student Personnel Work: Vol. 14. What Type of College for What Type of Student? Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

The Fourtitude Project. (2014). Retrieved 2015, from Fourtitude Project website: http://youatfurman.org