Psychology Department History

The Birth of a Department 
In the year 1875, renowned Harvard philosopher, William James, launched the discipline of Psychology in America by offering a course in Physiological Psychology and establishing the first Psychology laboratory in the country.  A mere decade later, in its first year of existence, Arizona State University’s progenitor, the Arizona Normal School, established its claim in Psychology with the initiation of a course in General and Educational Psychology.

	The Original Building, a 4-room Schoolhouse (1890) The original plot of land on which Arizona State University is built was purchased from Georgenand MarthanWilson of Tempe in 1885.  The Wilsons exchanged their 20 acre cow pasture for $500, and ASU has been a wellspring of fertile ideas ever since.  [Rumor has it DennisitheiMenace’s footprints can still be found in a garden plot near Old Main.]
	Our fifth Principal, Dr. James McNaughton, is credited with being the first Psychology Professor at the Normal School [though it would be some years before Abnormal Psychology was also taught].  (see <http://www.asu.edu/lib/archives/asustory/pages/07lead.htm > and <http://www.asu.edu/lib/archives/asufirsts.htm>).  Dr. McNaughton, Principal from 1895-1899, also introduced football to the burgeoning school.  The future ASU defeated the future U. of A., 11-2 in the first big game in 1899.	ASU’s 1st Psychology Professor, Dr. James McNaughton

In 1925, the Normal School became Tempe State Teachers College (and soon after the Arizona State Teachers College) and was authorized to grant a Bachelor’s Degree in Education.  At that time, three Psychology courses were offered in the Department of Education.  In 1932, a Department of Psychology was established and, with the part-time assistance of several faculty members from Education, 12 more courses in Psychology were gradually added.  In 1937, the College was authorized to grant a Master of Arts in Education, and graduate courses in Psychology were initiated.

The University and Department achieve National Acclaim

Due to the expanding curriculum, in 1946 the school was renamed Arizona State College, and in 1958, Arizona State University.  In 1946 the Psychology Department began to offer a major leading to a B.S. degree, and in 1953 it moved from Education to the newly formed College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  [Psychology is still recognized as the best department in its CLAS.]  In 1959 the department established both its Clinical Training Program and the Psychology Clinic (renamed the Clinical Psychology Center in 1969).  After many years of being located in the Old Main Building, and two in Lyceum, in 1960 the department moved to the new Social Sciences Building.  In 1965, Psychology began offering Ph.D.s, and in 1971 had programs offering degrees in three administrative areas: Clinical Psychology, Experimental & Physiological Psychology, and Social & Environmental Psychology.

Drs. Carolyn and Arthur Staats, Psychology Professors in the 1950s. [“Is that voltage level better?”]

In 1971, the department moved once again, to its current location in the Psychology Building on McAllister Avenue (we also later expanded northward into the Technology Center, renamed the Psychology North building in 2004).

The Psychology Building

In 1983, the Social Psychology faculty approved the addition of an applied emphasis to the program, and the Experimental program endorsed a plan to emphasize cognitive processes.  In 1985, a Developmental Psychology program was established, and the Clinical Psychology program added an emphasis in health psychology to its existing one in child & community psychology.  In 1998, a Quantitative Psychology program was established, and in 2002, the Experimental area regrouped into two programs, Cognition & Behavior, and Behavioral Neuroscience.  In 2004, the college of Liberal Arts and Sciences formed three subdivisions with Psychology in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics Division.  The department currently has six programs: Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical, Cognition & Behavior, Developmental, Quantitative, and Social (with each program area containing several interdisciplinary specialty options).  In recent national polls, we consistently rank as one of the top 50 Psychology programs in the country (e.g. National Research Council <http://www.socialpsychology.org/ranking.htm> and U.S. News and World Reports <http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/phdhum/brief/ psyrank_brief.php>).  [So, while it is true that Arizona State University was recently ranked as the top party school in the country (see <http://www.snopes.com/college/admin/playboy.htm>), we also have an outstanding Psychology Department.]

Expanding Numbers and Reputation

Table of Growth

Year	Number Faculty	Number Courses	Number T.A.s	Number Undergr.	Number Grad.Sts	Annual Publica.s	Annual Grant $
1885	1	1	0	0	0	0
1925	1	3	0	0	0	0	0
1932	2	15	0	0	0	0
1945	2	0	0	0	0	0
1959	13	53	0	0		0
1971	19	48	0	0	0	0
1974	0	0	19	700	104	0
1977	31	77	21	750	0	48	$0.2 * 106
1986	34	75	25	1000	0	70	$0.9 * 106
1991	0	0	0	1350	0	0	$2.2 * 106
1993	0	0	36	1398	100	0	$3.8 * 106
2000	48	0	40	1386	0	0

 

 

Graph of Faculty Expansion (showing linear growth rate of 0.8/yr since WWII)

 

Psychology Department Picture in front of Old Main, 2001

 

Office Manager Mary Redondo with her Six Consecutive Chairs Spanning Thirty Years (1974-2004)
From Left: Redondo, Darwyn Linder, Jay Braun, Bill Uttal, Stan Parkinson, Peter Killeen, Len Goodstein 

Past Luminaries

Departmental Chairs			aaaaa	Arizona State Regents Professors
NAME	Ph.D. INSTITUTION	YEARS CHAIR
John O. Grimes	U. Michigan	1931-1941		Lee Meyerson
H. Clay Skinner	New York U.	1941-1959		Nancy Eisenberg
Hudson Jost	Yale University	1959-1962		Robert Cialdini
Art J. Bachrach	U. Virginia	1962-1968		Nancy Russo
George A. Peek [CLAS Dean - Interim Chair]		1968-1969		Irwin Sandler
Gus Levine	Columbia U.	1969-1970
Austin Jones	U. Rochester	1970-1974
Len Goodstein	Columbia U.	1974-1979
Peter Killeen	Harvard U.	1979-1983
Stanley Parkinson	U. California, Davis	1983-1988
William Uttal	Ohio State U.	1988-1991
Jay Braun	Ohio State U.	1991-1998
Darwyn Linder	U. Minnesota	1998-2004
Keith Crnic	U. Washington	2005-Present

M²