Part II: The Chicago Course

ABSTRACT

Part II offers an understanding of how unusual, creative, and meaningful the course taught at the Chicago Institute is. Chapter 1 explains how the course came into existence and outlines its structure, along with giving a syllabus for the course. Chapter 2 is probably the essence of this issue of the journal, as it gives detailed student responses to the analysts’ presentations. Chapter 3 details the student responses to one class in particular, a special class on Allen Siegel’s book, Heinz Kohut and the Psychology of the Self, at Allen’s house in which he addresses questions raised by the students about the book in particular and self psychology in general.     

Psychology strikes out: Coleman R. Griffith and the Chicago Cubs

Coleman R. Griffith is widely known as the father of sport psychology in the United States. He directed the Research in Athletics Laboratory at the University of Illinois in the late 1920s and early 1930s and produced many articles and books on the psychology of sport. In 1938, P. K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, hired him to help improve the team's performance. Griffith and an assistant filmed and measured the players' skills, attempting to build a "scientific" training program for the team. Many of Griffith's subjects, most notably the managers, objected to his interference (as they saw it) and attempted to undermine his work. Griffith wrote more than 600 pages of reports on his work with the Cubs between 1938 and 1940. This article examines the content of those reports and the reasons for the failure of Griffith's project.