Psychologists recognized for lifetime achievements

APF to honor recipients at APA?s Annual Convention.
By Starla Crandall

The American Psychological Foundation (APF) selected five psychologists for its 1998 Gold Medal and Distinguished Teaching awards, which recognize outstanding teaching, lifetime achievement in the application, practice and science of psychology, and lifetime contributions in the public interest.

Awardees receive $2,000, and an all-expense paid trip to the APA?s Annual Convention. APF will present the 1998 awards at a convention ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 15, 5?6:50 p.m., at the Marriott Hotel, Yerba Buena Salon 7.

Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology

Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, PhD, will receive the 1998 Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology. Ainsworth stands as one of the major figures of the 20th century in the study of relations between young children and their caregivers. Her conceptualization of individual differences in attachment organization has been one of the major and lasting contributions to psychology.

Ainsworth earned her doctorate in 1939 from the University of Toronto where her dissertation was on the 'security theory' of her professor, W.E. Blatz. She held the position of lecturer in the psychology department until 1942, when she was commissioned in the Canadian Women?s Army Corps (CWAC).

Ainsworth?s work as consultant to CWAC?s director of personnel selection, and her work as superintendent of women?s rehabilitation in the Canadian Department of Veteran?s Affairs led to her interest in clinical psychology. When she returned to the University of Toronto as assistant professor in 1946, she began her work in diagnostic assessment techniques. In 1950, she moved to England, where she found a research position at the Tavistock Clinic in London investigating the effects of personality development on a child when it is separated from its mother in early childhood.

In 1955, Ainsworth moved to Baltimore, where the psychology department at Johns Hopkins University appointed her a clinical psychologist. She was named associate professor in 1958, and professor in 1963. In 1962, Ainsworth made a shift to developmental psychology in teaching and research and began planning the Baltimore longitudinal study of mother-infant interaction and development of infant-mother attachment during the first year of life. The study was the first in America to make extensive, systematic, naturalistic observations of mothers and infants in the home.

Ainsworth is most noted for devising a technique based on a 20-minute laboratory situation called the 'strange situation' that enabled researchers to distinguish three major patterns of attachment. One pattern was identified as indicating secure attachment, and the other two as anxious. The strange situation provided great impetus to infant-attachment research and eventually led to a variety of other assessment methods and to expansion of attachment research to other points in the life span.

In 1974, Ainsworth moved to the University of Virginia, first as a visiting professor, then as Commonwealth Professor from 1975 to 1984. Finally, she retired as professor emeritus in 1984, after which she remained professionally active until 1992.

Always active in professional organizations, Ainsworth served as president of the Society for Research in Child Development from 1977 to 1979. Among the honors and awards she has received are APA?s Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Knowledge, the C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development from the American Academy of Pediatrics and APA?s Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award.

Ainsworth?s work and its legacy now pervade textbooks of developmental psychology, the programs of major conferences and the contents of major journals.

Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology

Chris Argyris, PhD, who is most noted for his work in studying and creating new forms of organizational learning and change, will receive the 1998 APF Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology.

Argyris was born in Newark, N.J., in July 1923. At the beginning of World War II, he enlisted in the Army, eventually being discharged as a second lieutenant in the Signal Corps.

Argyris received his bachelor?s degree from Clark University, where he studied with Roger Barker and Fritz Heider, who visited frequently from Smith College. Argyris received a master?s degree in psychology and economics from Kansas University and a doctorate in organizational behavior from Cornell University under William F. Whyte.

Argyris married Renée Brocomm and moved to Yale University where he remained for 20 years. He was named the Beach Professor of Administrative Science and served as chair of the department. In 1971 he became the James Bryant Conant Professor of Education and Organizational Behavior at Harvard University, with a joint appointment at the Harvard Business School. He also held joint appointments at Harvard Law School and later at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Argyris returned to the business school in 1985 and remained there until his retirement.

From his early beginnings, Argyris was interested in using scholarly research in the service of justice within any organization. This interest led to his focus on the dilemmas and paradoxes that are part of changing the status quo. In his work, Argyris? primary methodology for empirical research has been intervention, fueled and guided by three realizations:

? The application of knowledge is the most robust empirical test of validity.

? Scientific research is descriptive and can become the bias for limiting its own validity.

? The methodology for conducting rigorous empirical research is also a means for controlling ideas and people.

Argyris has received nine honorary doctorates, the most recent being the Kurt Lewin Award. He has received APA?s Hasker Award in Consulting Psychology and was honored by the establishment of the 'Chris Argyris Chair in Social Psychology or Organizations' at Yale University.

Gold Medal Award for Enduring Contributions by a Psychologist in the Public Interest

Wilbert J. McKeachie, PhD, will receive the 1998 APF Gold Medal Award for Enduring Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest. Throughout his career, McKeachie has been involved in research, innovation and promotion to improve the teaching of psychology.

As a child, McKeachie was motivated by religion and fascinated by psychology, a convergence of values and perspectives that was to energize and shape his work for decades to come.

McKeachie entered the master?s program in clinical psychology at the University of Michigan in the fall of 1945, but soon shifted into the doctoral program. He was asked to stay at Michigan and teach introductory psychology after he completed his doctorate. The chair of the department, Don Marquis, made it clear that the department would support a career devoted to both the teaching of psychology and research into teaching.

In 1961, McKeachie became chair of Michigan?s psychology department. Under his guidance, it developed into one of the nation?s premier departments of psychology. The department created a doctoral program in community psychology, and it initiated one of the first psychology of women courses in the United States. McKeachie also assisted in obtaining approval for a service-learning component to the university?s psychology degree. Thus was born Project Outreach, one of the first service-learning courses in psychology.

McKeachie has devoted much of his life?s work to the understanding and improvement of educational practice, making myriad contributions through the direct teaching of thousands of undergraduate psychology students, and through his book 'Teaching Tips' (10 editions), which has been translated into several languages.

For the last 45 years, McKeachie has continually served on at least one committee of APA or its divisions, including stints as APA?s president, parliamentarian, and secretary.

Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Practice of Psychology

Stanley R. Graham, PhD, the recipient of the 1998 APF Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Practice of Psychology, has been a life-long champion of clinical psychology.

Following service in the Army and Air Force in World War II, Graham received his bachelor?s degree from the College of the City of New York in 1950 and a doctorate in psychology from New York University in 1953.

During Graham?s long and distinguished career as an educator, researcher and practicing psychologist, he has made seminal contributions to practice. He was a fellow at the New York State Institute for Psychobiological Studies in 1952. There he worked with Arthur and Mortimer Sackler, conducting research on the identification and development of psychoactive drugs for the treatment of severe mental illness. As a fellow, Graham helped to shape more than 40 research projects and was responsible for their experimental design, psychological evaluation and statistical analyses. In recognition of his contributions, he was made chair of the psychology department at the New York State Institute of Psychobiological Studies.

Graham became director of research and supervisor of treatment at the Long Island Consultation Center in 1954. He also served as consultant to the Disturbed Children?s Ward at Kings County Hospital and to the Division of Outpatient Children?s Services at Jamaica Hospital in New York.

Graham?s academic career started as instructor in psychology at New York University in 1953. In 1956 he became an adjunct professor at CW Post College, Long Island University. He was appointed associate professor of psychology at Yeshiva University in 1960, and in 1961 he became dean of the Greenwich Institute for Psychoanalysis, which he co-founded with Reuben Fine.

Graham founded the Fifth Avenue Center for Counseling and Psychotherapy in 1961 a community outpatient psychotherapy center in New York City. Joined by Alexandra Adler and Donna Deutsch, he founded the Federation of Mental Health Clinics (composed of 28 community mental health centers providing mental health care for more than half of the patients in the metropolitan New York area) to build an alliance of the community mental health centers.

On the national level, Graham?s leadership has been instrumental in the growth of practice psychology. He helped establish APA Div. 29 (Psychotherapy), APA?s Practice Directorate and its Committee on the Advancement of the Practice of Psychology. He was a founding member and the first president of APA?s Div. 42 (Independent Practice), and he initiated the development and served as first chair of APA?s College of Professional Psychology.

Among other positions, Graham has been elected president of APA and president of the New York Society of Clinical Psychologists. During his 1991 campaign to become APA president, he was the only advocate who resisted dividing APA into four societies.

Graham has received many honors: Distinguished Practitioner by the National Academies of Practice; a special award for contributions to the founding of APA?s Div. 43 (Family); and an award from APA?s Board of Professional Affairs for Distinguished Contributions to Applied Psychology as a Professional Practice.

Distinguished Teaching in Psychology Award

Diane F. Halpern, PhD, the 1998 recipient of the APF Distinguished Teaching Award, is a model university teacher, scholar and educator. She is the professor and chair of the psychology department at California State University?San Bernardino.

Growing up in inner-city Philadelphia, Halpern learned that higher education was the passport needed for entry into the middle class and made a commitment to help others obtain higher education. She first fell in love with psychology in an introductory class at the University of Pennsylvania. After realizing that psychologists were addressing the important topics in life, she changed her major from engineering to psychology.

Halpern received a master?s degree from Temple University and a second master?s degree and doctorate in experimental psychology at the University of Cincinnati.

Halpern?s scholarly work has had tremendous impact. She has written 'Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking' (Lawrence Erlbaum, 1996) which in the words of one reviewer, has become the 'critical thinking bible' for psychology. Her book, 'Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities' (Lawrence Erlbaum, 1992) provides a meaningful context for the study of social and physiological factors that result in similarities and differences between women and men.

Her work, much of it controversial, has received a great deal of public attention resulting in numerous television appearances and articles in newspapers throughout the world.

Halpern has also contributed to the field of international-comparative psychology. In 1994, she was awarded a Fulbright to Moscow State University in Russia, where she became the first American to teach classes in psychology. The following year the Rockefeller Foundation provided Halpern and a Russian colleague, Alexander Voiskounsky, with a working retreat in Bellagio, Italy. This collaboration resulted in the text, 'States of Mind: American on Contemporary Issues in Psychology' (Oxford University Press, 1997).

Halpern is a member of the Graduate Record Examination Technical Advisory Committee and is president of APA?s Division 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology).

She has served as president of APA?s Div. 1 (General) and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Educational Psychology and the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

In 1997, she was awarded APA?s Distinguished Career Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology Award.

Starla Crandall is the public relations coordinator for the American Psychological Foundation.