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Vocational guidance during the depression: Phrenology versus applied psychology
Author(s) -
Risse Guenter B.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(197604)12:2<130::aid-jhbs2300120204>3.0.co;2-u
Subject(s) - phrenology , vocational education , opposition (politics) , entertainment , psychology , value (mathematics) , depression (economics) , applied psychology , visual arts , computer science , art , medicine , pedagogy , political science , law , machine learning , alternative medicine , pathology , politics , economics , macroeconomics
The paper describes the design and use of a machine, the “Psychograph,” which automatically measured the size and shape of the skull and provided evaluations of mental traits according to phrenological principles. Developed in 1930, the psychograph was billed as a diagnostic tool capable of providing suitable vocational guidance to the thousands of unemployed as a result of the Depression. Its appearance prompted a vigorous opposition from the Psychology Department at the University of Minnesota, especially in the person of Donald L. Paterson. Subsequently, the psychograph was merely exploited for its entertainment value and disappeared after the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago.