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Psyche Cattell

Psyche Cattell
Born	1893 07 02 Garrison, NY
Died	1989 05 17
Nationality	American
Occupation	Psychologist
Known for	Cattell Infant Intelligence Test
Notable work	The Measurement of Intelligence in Infants and Young Children

Psyche Cattell was an American psychologist who researched early brain development in young children.  She held the position of Chief Psychologist at Lancaster Guidance Clinic from 1939-1963, as well as writing a book regarding children’s education and starting a school out of her own home.  She began her education at Sargent School of Physical Education, and later attended Cornell University and obtained her Master's degree, and later Harvard University for her Master of Education degree and her Doctorate in Education.  Cattell also served as an instructor mental testing for the nursery training school of Boston.  During this time, she began performing research for her book, The Measurement of Intelligence Of Infants and Young Children, and was led to develop better ways to evaluate brain development in infants.  She made significant improvements to the Stanford-Binet scale, an intelligence scale for young children, to form the Cattell Infant Intelligence scale, a scale which is still used today.  Cattell never married, however she adopted two children, which at the time, was incredibly rare.

Early Life

Psyche Cattell was born to James McKeen Cattell and Josephine Owen Cattell.  There is not much documentation of her mother, however, her father was a famous psychologist and professor at Universities such as University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.  James Cattell had a large influence on Psyche as he was very involved in his children’s education.  Because he was a professor, he had many resources to provide his children with high quality education.  Cattell and her siblings were homeschooled by their father and other educators and tutors.  Cattell often fell behind her siblings throughout their education, likely due to dyslexia although she was never formally diagnosed.  Because of her struggles in learning, her father did not support her attending college, believing she would be unable to keep up at a collegiate level.  As a result, she became a research assistant in order to save up money for college.        

Academic Career

Education played a very large role in Psyche Cattell’s life, starting from an early age through her father.  When she earned enough tuition money, Cattell began college at Sargent School of Physical Education, where she obtained her undergraduate degree.  She went on to obtain a Master's degree from both Harvard University and Cornell University.  She was a research assistant at both Harvard University, starting in 1922 and Stanford University in 1925.  Her time at Harvard is what led her to further research on methods of testing infant’s IQ’s and while at Stanford she did work with Lewis Terman on the Stanford Achievement Test and the development of a masculinity-femininity test.  After her work at Stanford, she returned to Harvard in 1927 and became the first woman to receive a Doctor of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  While working as a research assistant at Harvard she participated and assisted many tests regarding intelligence in children.  While acting as a research assistant, she discovered that many of these mental tests could be improved, as they more so pertained to school aged children, but not infants.  By 1932, she was named a research fellow at Harvard and began developing a new testing method, which resulted in the Cattell Infant Intelligence Scale and was published in her book, The Measurement of Intelligence Of Infants and Young Children.  She also was an instructor in mental testing for the nursery training school of Boston, and throughout summers she attended many courses at institutions including Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, and the University of Vienna.    

The Cattell Infant Intelligence Scale

While working at Harvard, Cattell assisted with many developmental intelligence tests which revolved around the brain development of children and the impact of their environment on on it.  These tests aimed to examine the ability of children aged from 2-30 months old.  Cattell derived this test from the Stanford-Binet scale and the work she did at Harvard (Hochman).  Cattell identified the issue with the available tests at the time, and therefore attempted to implement a new method of testing which worked for younger children.  The goal of these tests was to analyze brain development in young children as well as identify the ways in which birth conditions affect the central nervous system (Cavanaugh, 1957).  Cattell administered these tests using a variety of toys for each age group tested; each age level had five different items.  Cattell created a standardized form of testing early mental ability through these tests, administering 1,346 examinations to 274 children.  The Cattell Infant Intelligence scale was considered particularly impactful because of it’s younger age range, short administration time, and easy scoring methods (Cavanaugh).  Cattell implemented significant changes to the test by taking into account the use of objects which may be influenced by home life, and removing them from the test in order to make the test more objective.  Cattell published her findings in her book, The Measurement of Intelligence in Infants and Young Children, and sold some kits to perform the scale commercially. The scale is incredibly impactful because while it is not exactly able to identify specific problems in a child’s development, but it can catch that there may be a problem early on.    

References

Ball, Rachel Stutsman. Review of the Measurement of Intelligence of Infants and Young Children. Psychological bulletin 38.9 (1941): 900. ProQuest. Web. 20 Nov. 2017.

Cattell, Psyche (1940). The Measurement of Intelligence in Infants and Young Children. Psychological Corperation

Cavanaugh, Maxine C., et al. "Prediction from the Cattell Infant Intelligence Scale." Journal of consulting psychology 21.1 (1957): 33-7. ProQuest. Web. 20 Nov. 2017.

Hochman, Susan.  “Psyche Cattell” Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society http://faculty.webster.edu/woolflm/cattell.html

Human Intelligence.  Psyche Cattell. December 2016. http://www.intelltheory.com/pcattell.shtml  

Psychology's Feminist Voices.  Psyche Cattell. https://www.feministvoices.com/psyche-cattell/

Speyer, Helen. "Review of the Measurement of Intelligence of Infants and Young Children." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 11.3 (1941): 607. ProQuest. Web. 20 Nov. 2017.