Quinnipiac/Eastern History of Psychology, Summer 2015: July 12, 2015: Brenden, Sam, Alex

1. Lightner Witmer graduated from University of Pennsylvania in 1888 and went on to teach english and history at a secondary school. At this school, Witmer encountered a student who had difficulty with language. He helped the boy with his language problems through one-on-one meetings and eventually the boy made great progress. Witmer went on to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania for philosophy, and became James McKeen Cattell's assistant. At University, the two developed a psychology laboratory where they spent their early time studying individual differences in reaction time. The next year, Witmer left the University of Pennsylvania for the University of Leipzig where he graduated with a PhD and was awarded the "Magister" title for his work with psychology. Two years after graduating, Witmer went back to the University of Pennsylvania to lecture in experimental psychology. There, Witmer founded the first psychological clinic in the world and published a series of papers which explained how and why applying research to clinical practice is important, and also founded the world's "first scholarly psychology journal" (IN TEXT CITATION) titled "The Psychological Clinic". A large portion of Witmer's work focused on learning disabilities in children. He worked at the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children as a psychologist from 1906-1956, and at the Devereux School with disabled children. Witmer retired in 1937, but continued his involvement with the schools until his death in 1956.

Lightner Witmer (1867-1956) was the founder of clinical psychology. He coined the term "clinical method". The clinical method is team oriented and it involves a physician and a social worker to put their minds together in order to help the patient. As a team, they will run multiple tests on an individual and come up with a diagnosis. the type of tests that were administered were anthropometric, optometric, and psychometric tests. The social worker will then arrange a case study on the child's background. After a diagnosis has been made they will then design a treatment and then perform the treatment on the patient. The social worker, most often, would be the one to carry out the treatment and get involved with any consultation that may be necessary with teachers or family.

In 1896, a schoolteacher brought a fourteen year old male who showed difficulty when it came to spelling to Witmer. The teacher, who had been a student of Witmer, decided that the issue with the child was a mental deficiency, and figured that a psychologist would be able to assist him. The end result of this was that after successfully helping the child, word eventually spread, and Witmer eventually founded the first psychological clinic in the world. Originally, Witmer saw all of the cases in his clinic personally, which were mostly children with developmental or behavioral disorders. As more and more cases were brought before him, he hired other staff members and assistants, and as a result his clinic grew. He hoped that with the advent of his clinic and treatments, that other psychological experts would use their skills and knowledge to help those who were less fortunate when it came to matters involving the mind.

Benjamin, L. (2007). A brief history of modern psychology (2nd ed., pp. 64-66). John Wiley & Sons.

http://psyencelab.com/images/Discovering_Lightner_Witmer.pdf

2. Timeline:

1896- Witmer founded world's fist psychological clinic

3. Picture of big ben from the London Eye: