Joseph Peterson | |
|---|---|
 Peterson, circa 1911 | |
| Born | (1878-09-08)September 8, 1878 Huntsville, Utah, U.S. |
| Died | September 20, 1935(1935-09-20) (aged 57) Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago |
| Known for | Past president,American Psychological Association |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology |
Joseph Peterson (September 8, 1878 – September 20, 1935) was an American psychologist and a past president of theAmerican Psychological Association (APA).
Joseph Peterson was born on September 8, 1878, inHuntsville, Utah.[1][2] His parents, Hans Jorgen Peterson and Inger Mary Christensen, were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who had immigrated from Denmark to the United States.[1][2][3]
Peterson attendedBrigham Young University, theUniversity of Utah and theUniversity of California, before earning a B.S. in 1905 and Ph.D. in 1907 from theUniversity of Chicago.[1][2]
Peterson was the principal of a school inKanab, Utah, from 1899 to 1901, followed by Cassia Academy inOakley, Idaho, from 1901 to 1904.[1][2] He was a Fellow at the University of Chicago from 1905 to 1907.[2] He taught psychology at Brigham Young University from 1907 to 1911, where he was a central figure in the1911 modernism controversy.[4][5] He was Professor of Psychology at theUniversity of Utah from 1911 to 1915, when he again resigned in protest against a serious institutional curtailment of academic inquiry.[1][2][5]
For at theUniversity of Utah in Salt Lake City a similar controversy to BYU's 1911 imbroglio erupted four years later in February 1915. There, the dismissals of two professors and two instructors by PresidentJoseph T. Kingsbury — and the subsequent resignations of 14 faculty members in protest — launched theAmerican Association of University Professors' first institutional academic freedom inquest, spearheaded by AAUP foundersArthur O. Lovejoy andJohn Dewey. The 1911 BYU controversy — involving some of the same professors, including Joseph Peterson andRalph V. Chamberlin — led in part to the University of Utah debacle.[5]
As a result of these intertwined academic storms, the AAUP published, in December 1915, its inaugural volume of theBulletin of the American Association of University Professors, including the document now known as the1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure — the AAUP's foundational statement on the rights and corresponding obligations of members of the academic profession.[5]
Following his second resignation in four years from a Utah institution of higher education, Peterson taught psychology atUniversity of Minnesota from 1915 to 1918, where he became Chair of the Psychology Department.[1][2] From 1918 to 1935, he was Professor of Psychology atPeabody College (now part ofVanderbilt University) inNashville, Tennessee.[1][2]
During his time at Peabody, Peterson conducted research into race and intelligence.[6] With his former student,Lyle H. Lanier, who by then taught at Vanderbilt University, he co-authoredStudies in the comparative abilities of whites and Negroes in 1929.[7] They concluded that "the whites were superior" due to "hereditary differences."[7] Moreover, they added that whites finished their tests more quickly;[8] they concluded this was due to "cultural factors."[7] A review published in theAmerican Journal of Sociology in 1930 suggested, "the results show enormous and statistically reliable superiority of whites over Negroes."[7] [sic] However, in a review for theAmerican Journal of Psychology,Otto Klineberg argued that based on their evidence, he came to a "totally different" interpretation.[9] He stressed the role of environment in mental abilities, as New York City blacks tested higher than Southern blacks.[9] Nevertheless, he added that the study offered "a number of other interesting results which would merit serious discussion."[9]
Peterson was a member ofSigma Xi, theNational Research Council and theSociety of Experimental Psychologists, as well as a Fellow of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science.[1][2] He served as the president of theSouthern Society for Philosophy and Psychology in 1922.[10] A decade later, he served as the president of theAmerican Psychological Association in 1934, becoming first APA president who worked at a Southern university.[2] He was also the editor ofPsychological Monographs.[2]
Peterson died of pneumonia on September 20, 1935, inBerkeley, California.[1][2]
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