Paterson, Donald G

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Paterson, Donald G

Donald Gildersleeve Paterson (1892-1961), American applied psychologist, was a powerful force in shaping both content and method in applied psychology and in supervising the training of hundreds of students who now direct research and practice in applied psychology all over the world. He was especially active in the development of vocational and occupational guidance and became an important leader in the field of student counseling. He made significant advances in the measurement of intelligence, mechanical skill, and other abilities and wrote a notable book on the relation of physical to psychological traits. Outside these major areas of research, he became well known for a wide variety of contributions, ranging from studies on the legibility of type (see Paterson & Tinker 1940) to labor market research (see Minnesota, University of .. . 1948).

Paterson was born in Columbus, Ohio, the youngest of five children. Both his father and mother were totally deaf as a result of childhood illnesses, and his father taught at the state school for the deaf. After his mother died, when Paterson was four years old, his father married a woman who was also a teacher of the deaf.

The Paterson children grew up learning sign language and the finger alphabet. In addition, they gained an intimate awareness of the special problems the deaf individual faces in education and daily life, and they also acquired a sensitivity to the effects both of handicaps and of special abilities of all kinds.

In 1910 Paterson entered Olivet College, where one of his sisters was teaching. Two years later he transferred to Ohio State University, where he fell under the spell of the dynamic young psychologist Rudolf Pintner, whose lectures in abnormal psychology Paterson found extraordinarily stimulating. Paterson at first rejected Pintner’s claim that something as “intangible” as intelligence could be measured objectively. After a vigorous class debate, Pintner challenged him to take the Binet test materials home to test the children in his neighborhood. Paterson later wrote, “I .. . discovered the range of individual differences among these neighborhood children. From that day, I became enthusiastic about the possibilities of the mental test method” (1943, p. 51).

Pintner then suggested, since Paterson had ready access to deaf children, that he find out if the Binet tests were applicable to this special group. Paterson found that they were not, so he and Pintner together set about developing their own tests for the deaf. Paterson later wrote, “Before I knew it, we were hard at work on the development of nonlanguage performance tests. He (Pintner) had entered on a lifetime program of research on problems of the deaf and he quite simply swept me along with him” (ibid., p. 51).

Paterson took his A.B. in 1914 and his M.A. in 1916 under Pintner. By the time he left Ohio State, he and Pintner had written 15 articles and a pioneering book, A Scale of Performance Tests (Pintner & Paterson 1917). In four years Paterson had mastered the rigors of test construction and standardization, had committed himself to a career in research, and had become an apostle of applied psychology as an instrument for the realization of individual, educational, and social goals.

In 1916 Paterson was appointed instructor in psychology at the University of Kansas, where Walter Hunter was chairman. With Hunter’s encouragement he began a series of studies of the reliability of mazes and wrote a statistical critique of published maze studies, pointing out that the averages reported had not been tested for statistical significance; when they were, most proved to be only unreliably different (1917). This kind of attack, new to psychology, was published in the important journal Psychological Bulletin and must be counted as one of the specific forces which drove psychology toward a more scientific methodology.

It was also at Kansas that Paterson met Margaret Young, the only student in Hunter’s large class who could answer the first tough question Paterson asked in his quiz section. They were married in 1920 and had two children.

In 1917 Paterson left Kansas to undertake psychological work for the U.S. Army, first in a civilian capacity and later as an officer. He attained the rank of captain in the Surgeon General’s Office, becoming chief psychological examiner at Camp Wads worth. Here he gained experience in group testing with the Army Alpha and Beta (the latter test derived in large part from the work of Pintner and Paterson) and firsthand contact with the massive problems of personnel evaluation and placement that confronted the army.

After the war, Paterson joined the newly formed Scott Company, one of the first modern psychological consulting organizations. He remained until 1921, when R. M. Elliott, a close friend from his army days, invited him to accept an associate professorship in psychology at the University of Minnesota. In 1923 he was made full professor, a position he held until his retirement in 1960.

The department at Minnesota was in its infancy, having been separated from the philosophy department in 1919, and Elliott, its first chairman, was building a new kind of psychology department to meet the needs of the postwar world. Elliott and Paterson worked together to bring about the bright future they saw for applied psychology. At the same time, Paterson became associated with Dean John B. Johnston in effecting far-reaching developments in the university’s program of service to the individual student. The “Minnesota point of view” which emerged had three guiding principles: concern for the individual, with his unique combination of abilities, interests, and attitudes, all of which should be assessed and evaluated in relation to his opportunities, choices, and goals; respect for objective data and methods of data collection; and the belief that proper data would provide a sound basis for action. This program produced a large number of studies aimed at solving immediate and limited problems, as well as research on more general problems having psychological and social importance.

Paterson was keenly responsive to the social conditions of his time, and this sensitivity, coupled with his basic orientation, produced enduring proof that psychology can play an important role in society. The need for better vocational guidance led to the Minnesota Mechanical Abilities Project; the great depression of the 1930s led to the Employment Stabilization Research Institute and, later, to the Industrial Relations Center; and the dream of individual guidance within mass education led to the Student Counseling Bureau, all at the University of Minnesota. In each of these efforts Paterson was an instigator and worker, establishing prototypes for similar studies and programs throughout the country.

Outside the university Paterson’s influence was central in the organization of the Minnesota College Association and of a statewide college testing program. He worked for the founding of national, state, and city organizations in applied psychology that would stimulate opportunities for training psychologists, exchanging professional communications, and using informed lobbies where political and social action was needed. In addition, Paterson occupied many national advisory positions, such as the chairmanship of the Technical Committee of the National Occupational Conference from 1933 to 1938, membership in the Occupational Research Program of the U.S. Employment Service from 1934 to 1940, and chairmanship or membership in numerous committees of the American Council on Education for developing new instruments for evaluating achievement.

Paterson and his colleagues at Minnesota argued that the master’s degree should be recognized as a practicing professional degree; they believed the need for applied psychology was so great that the demand for workers could not be met by psychologists at the PH.D. level. Although Paterson’s point of view has won many adherents, it is still not accepted, for many pressures and sentiments tend to decree that the professional psychologist should hold the doctorate.

Approximately three hundred students earned M.A. degrees and 88 earned PH.D. degrees under Paterson’s guidance. Additional thousands of students were influenced by him in his courses in individual differences, personnel psychology, and vocational and occupational psychology. He communicated his zest for research to his students. While the total contribution of his students is neither precisely known nor complete, a booklet prepared in his honor at his retirement lists over 1,400 books, articles, and other publications by his students, in addition to his own bibliography of more than 300 items (Viteles et al. 1961).

From 1943 to 1954 Paterson edited the Journal of Applied Psychology and at various times also served as consulting editor for almost every applied psychology journal published in the United States. His skill in unraveling a manuscript and dissecting a body of data was unmatched. Students and colleagues alike profited from his keen (if sometimes lethal) comments.

Paterson’s research interests and talents exhibited great diversity. As an example, from 1928 to 1955 he and Miles Tinker conducted a series of studies of the legibility of type, with a major landmark, How to Make Type Readable, appearing in 1940. The central theme of most of his varied activities, however, was his concern with the individual person.

In his social and political views Paterson presents a reproof to those who associate a strong hereditarian position with right-wing opinions. He firmly believed (even in matters where such beliefs are unpopular) that the limits of psychological traits are genetically fixed, but he was always alert to data which suggested modifiability of traits and was constantly searching for better educational strategies and techniques which would permit the individual to capitalize on the aptitudes he possessed. His devotion to the individual led him to defend with ardor every form of civil liberty. He was a founder of the Minnesota branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and for six years edited its newsletter.

James J. Jenkins

[Other relevant material may be found inIntelligence And Intelligence Testing; Psychology, article onApplied Psychology; Vocational Interest Testing; and in the biography ofBinet.]

works by paterson

1917 The Johns Hopkins Circular Maze Studies. Psychological Bulletin 14:294-297.

1917 Pintner, Rudolf; and Paterson, Donald G. A Scale of Performance Tests. New York: Appleton.

1930 Physique and Intellect. New York: Appleton.

1930 The Measurement of Man, by J. A. Harris, R. E. Scammon, Donald G. Paterson et al. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

1930 Minnesota, University Of, Department Of PsychologyMinnesota Mechanical Ability Tests, by Donald G. Paterson et al. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

1936 Paterson, Donald G.; and Darley, John G. Men, Women and Jobs: A Study in Human Engineering.Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

1938 Paterson, Donald G.; Schneidler, Gwendolen G.; and WILLIAMSON, EDMUND G. Student Guidance Techniques: A Handbook for Counselors in High Schools and Colleges. New York: McGraw-Hill.

1940 Paterson, Donald G.; and Tinker, Miles A. How to Make Type Readable: A Manual for Typographers, Printers, and Advertisers. New York: Harper.

1943 Rudolf Pintner. Journal of Consulting Psychology 7:50-52.

1948 Minnesota, University Of, Industrial Relations CenterLocal Labor Market Research: A Case Study,by Dale Yoder, Donald G. Paterson, H. G. Heneman et al. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

1953 Paterson, Donald G.; Gerken, D. D’A.; and Hahn, Milton E. Revised Minnesota Occupational Rating Scales. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

1961 Jenkins, James J.; and Paterson, Donald G. (editors) Studies in Individual Differences. New York: Appleton.