Cattell, James Mckeen

BIBLIOGRAPHY

James McKeen Cattell (1860–1944), although primarily a psychologist, probably did more than anyone else of his generation to foster the development in the United States of the sciences, especially the behavioral and biological sciences. He was one of the founders of the American Psychological Association and of several other scientific societies. He established the Science Press for the purpose of fostering the publication of both technical and popular scientific materials. He launched and published such scientific journals as the Psychological Review, Science, Scientific Monthly, School and Society, and The American Naturalist. He prepared and published the first and subsequent editions of American Men of Science and Leaders in Education, and during his entire professional life he was the most vigorous promoter of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He became a member of many scientific societies and was honored by most of them. He was one of the first psychologists to be elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cattell graduated in 1880 from Lafayette College, of which his father was president. As an undergraduate he majored in English, but in graduate study he shifted to philosophy and psychology, mainly under Lotze in Göttingen and Wundt in Leipzig. During three years of study with Wundt, Cattell invented some extraordinary and ingenious laboratory apparatus and improved many older devices. He undertook investigations that led to a quite new “objective approach” in psychological study. His purpose was to develop “psychology into a science rivaling in activity and fruitfulness the other great sciences” ([1888–1943] 1947, vol. 1, p. 9). He saw the values of the “introspective” methods of studying consciousness which then prevailed but declared that “psychology cannot attain the certainty and exactness of the physical sciences unless it rests on a foundation of experiment and measurement” (ibid., vol. 1, p. 3). He became the champion of the idea that rigid, objective scientific work could be carried on in all the behavioral, biological, and social sciences. Thus he hastened the breakaway of psychology and other behavioral sciences from philosophy and promoted their comradeship with the physical and older biological sciences.

After his studies with Wundt and others on the Continent, Cattell moved to England for several years of work with Sir Francis Galton, whom he later rated as “the greatest man I have known” and who profoundly influenced his social and political as well as his psychological outlook. Galton’s ideas about individual differences in human and animal equipment, about the possibilities of measuring all abilities and capacities, and about the use of the new statistical as well as experimental devices for determining the possible roles of heredity and environment fired Cattell with a new zeal for cultivating the behavioral sciences.

Cattell’s vigor and enthusiasm were apparent in his early work at the University of Pennsylvania in 1888, when he developed a series of “mental tests” for college students. In 1891 he was called to Columbia and there first administered his “mental tests.” Thus he introduced basic ideas that later, in the hands of his students, especially E. L. Thorndike, grew into the “testing movement” with its array of new statistical and psychophysical methods. Cattell foresaw the important contribution the sciences could make not only to education but to philosophy and public affairs in general, as exemplified by the work of William James, whom he admired enormously, and of John Dewey, whom he called “John the Baptist of Democracy.” Cattell demonstrated the possibilities of fruitful cooperation among these disciplines during his years at Columbia, where he served at various times as head of the departments of anthropology, philosophy, and psychology.

After his retirement from Columbia in 1917, Cattell’s Science Press published works in many fields of applied science. Among these publications was the journal School and Society, in which, as editor, he encouraged experimentation and innovations in education and social life. He tried out with his own children an intriguing form of tutorial and independent study that replaced attendance at school until the children were ready for college.

Cattell’s purpose was to cultivate scientific methods for a wide range of subject matter. Although he favored “objective” methods, he recognized the value of other approaches, such as the introspective work of Edward B. Titchener and the observational methods of psychologist G. Stanley Hall and anthropologist Franz Boas. Cattell wrote no general text of psychology and developed no “system,” but he held theoretical psychology in high regard and at Teachers College, Columbia, supported such theorists as Thorndike, Robert S. Woodworth, and Harry L. Hollingworth. He regarded theoretical work as indispensable and thought that the use of psychological methods in many practical fields was equally vital. He became a vigorous promoter of “applied psychology” as well as laboratory study. Thus, in his own institution he encouraged Thorndike and Hollingworth not only in their theoretical work but also in the former’s application of psychology to education and the latter’s to business and industry. Also at Teachers College Albert T. Poffenberger was applying psychology to advertising and selling; Leta S. Hollingworth was working in clinical and abnormal psychology; and others were involved in animal, social, and other areas of psychology. In 1921 Cattell established the Psychological Corporation to make the findings of applied psychology available to business and industry. It became a flourishing institution in the applied field.

Cattell’s own shrewd contributions to psychophysical methods, such as the “order of merit” or “ranking” methods, led to the development of devices for measuring aesthetic and other intangible qualities. He demonstrated the fact that many words can be learned and later recognized more easily and accurately than most letters and that both are typically perceived on the basis of reduced or fragmentary cues. He showed that during reading, the eyes move along the line in a series of grasshopperlike jumps and that the words are perceived only when the eyes are at a standstill. He demonstrated that words and phrases can be read in a small fraction of a second. These and other of his earliest studies at Leipzig on reaction time, and his experimental analyses of his subjects’ symbolic material, led to the revolution of many educational practices, such as methods of teaching reading and spelling [seeReading Disabilities; Vision, article oneye movements].

Cattell’s constant encouragement of his students to devise objective procedures, rather than to use conventional anecdotal and observational methods, for studying the behavior of animals and infants led to conspicuously new movements in animal and child psychology. These ventures laid a foundation for several forms, or schools, of behaviorism, which appeared later. Thus, although Cattell did not try to develop a system of his own, his works produced important data for theoretical and systematic formulations of psychology. “Psychology is,” he frequently reminded his students, “what good psychologists do.” This conviction revealed his belief that psychologists should venture in many directions and pursue various types of study that could not be anticipated even by him.

Cattell invaded several practical areas with ideas and procedures developed in psychology. He was sarcastically critical of typical university teaching methods. Spoon-feeding by lectures and elaborate demonstrations he deplored. He did not “teach” in the ordinary sense. He left his students to their own resources and conducted most of his classes in the manner of the severe ph.d. oral. The student was expected to come up with new ideas and defend them against all present, including Cattell, who often appeared to be merciless but was in fact trying to challenge his students to think courageously and independently. He scorched many of his students but inspired all of them.

Cattell found college administration a field that gave full play to his penetrating insight and to what some persons, especially college presidents, might call his diabolic wit. In his address “Academic Slavery,” he remarked: “The disease which is endemic in the university is subordination of the teacher to the academic machine, a kind of hook-worm disease which leaves the entire institution anaemic” (ibid., vol. 2, p. 350). Irascible college presidents were advised not to listen to or read any of Cattell’s comments on this topic. The head of his own university disregarded this advice and, after several years of poorly concealed combustion, took action to remove Cattell from his university post. But, as Cattell later noted, this appeared to have been an illegal action, for the university, on the advice of frightened trustees, paid heavy damages.

Cattell launched a typical attack on the U.S. political leaders who led the nation into World War I. Although he was himself “ever a fighter,” he was a pacifist as far as international conflict was concerned. His stinging barbs were brilliant and devastating but not the kind to win popular political approval. They got him into much trouble, but in the course of time the university public, at least, arose to defend and applaud him.

Cattell died in 1944, in his 84th year. Shortly thereafter his colleagues and students published two commemorative volumes, which provide a most convenient and complete report of his life and work. Both carried the general title James McKeen Cattell, Man of Science, and were published in 1947 by his own Science Press, which one of his sons had taken over. Volume 1 contains his own reports of his researches, and Volume 2 his addresses and formal papers. Both contain expert appraisals of his characteristics and accomplishments. I have found no better brief characterization than the last paragraph of “An Appreciation” of Cattell by one of his students, Frederick Lyman Wells: “Agreeable associations await him on the Houseboat. Francis Galton and William Morton Wheeler will have arranged his introduction. With Plato, Freud and St. Paul he will have less in common; but Aristotle, Galileo, Francis Bacon and Voltaire—especially Voltaire—should find him highly congenial” (ibid., vol. 2, p. 6).

Arthur I. Gates

[For the historical context of Cattell’s work, see the biographies ofGalton; Lotze; Wundt.For discussion of the subsequent development of his ideas, seeAchievement testing; Aptitude testing; Intelligence and intelligence testing; Personality measurement; and the biographies ofThorndike; Woodworth.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cattell, James M. (1888–1943) 1947 James McKeen Cattell; 1860–1944: Man of Science. 2 vols. Edited by A. T. Poffenberger. Lancaster, Pa.: Science Press. ? Volume 1: Psychological Research. Volume 2: Addresses and Formal Papers.