“People were dying to meet the new mortician.”
James McKeen CattellBorn 25 May 1860; died 20 Jan 1944 at age 83. American psychologist who had a talent in mathematics from a young age, and accordingly applied objective, quantitative methods with his career in experimental psychology. As a university professor, he was the first in America to teach a course in statistical analysis. From 1890, he termed his investigations “mental testing,” with such goals as measuring the amount of pressure required to produce pain, or reaction time to sounds. He developed the order of merit ranking method. Fields in which he applied psychology were broad, including education, business, industry, and advertising. The ideas in Galton's eugenics theory also interested him, and he did support such concepts as sterilization of persons of lower intelligence. He originated professional directories, published scientific periodicals and founded the Science Press (1923).« |
