Robert K. Merton (4 July 1910 - 23 February 2003)

Robert K. Merton, one of the greatest sociologists of our time, and the doyen of the sociology of science, died in Manhattan on 23 February 2003, at the age of ninety-two. He was an exemplary discipline-builder who formulated key concepts with which to perceive and solve sociological problems, a masterful teacher, and a kind colleague. His passing left a large void in the intellectual world of social science.     

Konrad Bloch, 12 January 1912 - 15 October 2000

Konrad Bloch was a man of strong ethical principles. In personality, he was soft-spoken, kind, and generous. His home in Lexington, Massachusetts, with Lore, his wife of more than sixty years, his daughter, Susan, and son, Peter, was at the center of a joyous family life.     

Popularizing American psychotherapy: the Emmanuel Movement, 1906-1910

As late as 1907 Americans knew little of psychotherapy. The word itself was virtually nowhere to be found in either professional or popular literature. Talking cures were not talked about. Despite growing medical and cultural awareness of mental suffering, few physicians made any effort to treat such states by appealing to mind. Indeed, for more than 3 decades, American physicians--particularly those who specialized in the treatment of nervous and mental disorders--had scoffed at anything even remotely resembling mental therapeutics. By 1910 this situation changed dramatically. Whereas decades of vigorous internal professional debates had failed to generate a consensus among American physicians and academic psychologists regarding the scientific legitimacy and clinical efficacy of mental therapeuitcs, in 2 short years the Emmanuel Church Healing Movement had forced both physicians and psychologists to confront squarely and publicly a subject that they had long avoided. Lasting from 1906 to 1910, this popular mevement was the primary agent responsibile for the efflorescence of psychotherapy in the United States.     

Occluding the trajectory of an object: effects on predicting containment with 9-, 12- and 16-month-olds

Infants of 9-16-month-old repeatedly saw a block that was lowered into the opening of a container. It was found that the more time infants have to see the block relative to the container the easier they detect that the object relation specifies containment.     

Situating gender and professional identity in American child study, 1880-1910

The boundaries of psychological expertise in modern America were often imagined in gendered terms. Studies of child development served as one area where dominant notions of masculinity and femininity collided at a historical moment in which women were increasingly present inthe traditionally male worlds of science and higher education. Attributes that many female authors regarded as necessary qualifications for understanding child development (such as patience, sympathy, and maternal care) were routinely dismissed by male writers as contrary to an authentic scientific disposition. Thus, disputes over the meaning of child development (and the methods of studying it) indicate some of the ways that women's labor was both acknowledged and demoted during the formative years of American social science.     

The impact of epidemic, war, prohibition and media on suicide: United States, 1910-1920.

The paper utilizes a natural experiment approach to estimate the impact of exogenous social and political events on suicide behavior in the United States between 1910 and 1920. The study is concerned with determining the impact of World War I, the great Influenza Epidemic, and the prohibition experiment on suicide. Estimating the monthly population in the United States registration area from 1910 to 1920, monthly suicide and mortality rates are computed. A time-series model is postulated, and second-order autoregressive estimates are used to determine the impact of the independent variables in the model. It is concluded that World War I did not influence suicide; the Great Influenza Epidemic caused it to increase; and the continuing decline in alcohol consumption between 1910 and 1920 depressed national suicide rates. Further individual-level aggregate studies are needed to confirm the findings of the study.     

The economy and suicide in Japan, 1985-2000

From 1985-2000, unemployment was the strongest correlate of Japanese suicide rates.     

Lashley's shift from bacteriology to neuropsychology, 1910-1917, and the influence of Jennings, Watson, and Franz

From 1910 to 1917, Karl S. Lashley's research moved from bacteriology to neuropsychology through intermediate stages of zoology, comparative psychology, and the psychology of learning. This shift is examined with particular reference to Lashley's associations with John B. Watson, Shepherd I. Franz, and Herbert S. Jennings. Watson's impact was substantial, for he attracted Lashley to comparative psychology and was the source of many of his later research interests. The bridge to neuropsychological research was provided by Franz who trained Lashley in the lesion method of investigating the brain bases of learning. The influence of Jennings, Lashley's Ph.D. supervisor, was most evident in the divergence of the post-1915 interests of Lashley and Watson. Lashley's search for brain mechanisms of learning, as contrasted with Watson's concern with behavioral prediction and control, mirrored a similar earlier difference between Jennings and Jacques Loeb.     

In Memoriam: Edward S. Reed November 20, 1954- February 14, 1997

The career of Edward S. Reed is described and a list of his published articles, based on his curriculum vitae, presented. Reed was an Associate Editor of this journal and one of the most prominent scholars in ecological psychology.