James McKeen Cattell

James McKeen Cattell was very influential in psychology as an organizer, executive, and administrator of psychological science and practice, and as a vocal link between psychology and the larger scientific community. He studied under William Wundt, and was a leading American Psychologist.

Cattell was born in Easton, Pennsylvania in 1860. He attended Lafayette College and upon graduation left for Europe to travel. He earned a fellowship to Johns Hopkins University in 1882. Here he became interested in psychology with his own experimentation with drugs. Cattell used a wide variety of drugs from hashish and morphine to caffeine and chocolate. The results of these were of both personal and professional interest. He also began work measuring simple mental processes; such as, the time it took subjects to perform simple mental acts, such as naming objects or colors.

Cattell's Fellowship was not renewed and he returned to Leipzig to work under Wundt. Cattell often wrote letters home criticizing Wundt and how he was not respected as he should be. Wundt described him as a "typical American." While at Leipzig he continued his work on reaction time. He carried out classic reaction time studies to study individual differences. While here he published several articles, including his dissertation on "Psychometric Investigation." He was the first American student in Wundt's lab to have a dissertation published. He also built "gravity chronometer" which allowed material to be presented for controlled periods of time. Cattell received his Ph.D. from Wundt in 1886.

Cattell returned to the United States where he was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Here he founded the psychology lab. While at Pennsylvania he began to administer tests to students, and he introduced the term "mental tests." He left for the University of Columbia in 1891, where he became a Professor of Psychology and the Head of the Department.

Cattell was at Columbia for 26 years. At first he continued his work on administering "mental tests" to entering freshmen. His test was proven not reliable and replaced by Alfred Binet's Intelligence Tests. He soon abandoned this work and began work on administration, science editing, and publishing, and the development of a method for ranking according to merit.

Using his order of merit of ranking method, Cattell compiled a "Biographical Directory of American Men of Science." He edited it through the first six editions. Now it is the "American Men of Science," and is still published today. In 1917, Cattell was dismissed from Columbia for writing letters to Congress against the practice of sending draftees into combat in WWI. He was dismissed because he wrote these letters on college stationery. He sued the college, and was awarded compensation.

Cattell began working on publishing and editing. He edited Psychological Review, Science, Scientific Monthly, American Naturalist, School and Society, and American Men of Science. With James Mark Baldwin he founded Psychological Review and in 1900 he bought a failing Popular Science Monthly from Alexander Graham Bell, and turned it into one of the leading science magazines, Science.

Cattell was very confident in his abilities. His biggest influence on his students was more through his ability to inspire versus his teaching skills. Many prominent psychologists studied under Cattell including: F.L. Wells, Thorndike, Woodworth, S.I. Franz, E.K. Strong, and Margaret Washburn who was the first major American female experimental psychologist.

Cattell was one of the APA's founding members and the fourth President. He organized the Psychological Corporation with a mission to promote applied science. Many organizations and journals were started with the help of Cattell. He became an ambassador of psychology : delivering lectures, editing journals, and promoting the practical application of the field.