- Lightner Witmer
Lightner Witmer (1867-1956) is regarded as the inventor of the term "Clinical Psychology " and the co-founder of the world's first Psychological Clinic in 1896 at theUniversity of Pennsylvania .Biography
Dr. Lightner Witmer was born in 1867, two years after the end of the
American Civil War , inPhiladelphia ,Pennsylvania to a devoutCatholic mother and father. He obtained hisA.B. from theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 1888. After teaching briefly at a secondary school and flirting with the possibility of a career in law, he entered the graduate psychology program at theUniversity of Pennsylvania underJames McKeen Cattell . Later, when Cattell moved toColumbia University in New York, Witmer transferred toLeipzig ,Germany , and earned his doctorate underWilhelm Wundt .After completing his work in
Germany , Witmer returned to theUniversity of Pennsylvania and took over Cattell's laboratory. Although Witmer resumed his experimental research, his interests gradually began to focus on the theme of making scientific psychology "practical" (Witmer, 1896, 1897), and in 1896 he established the world's first psychological clinic. However, his commitment to laboratory research continued for some time; thus, in 1902 he published a laboratory manual, and in 1904 he collaborated withEdward B. Titchener to form the group later known as the Society of Experimental Psychologists. In 1907, he inaugurated his journal, The Psychological Clinic, and in 1908, believing that it was sometimes necessary, in order to bring about successful behavioral change in a child, to have overall environmental control for a period, he established and staffed a small private residential school near Wallingford, Pennsylvania. Later, he established a similar, but larger facility in Devon, Pennsylvania.Both Witmer and
G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924), who founded theAmerican Psychological Association (APA) in 1892, were important in the early stages of what is now School Psychology. Witmer used an idiographic clinical model, while Hall used a nomothetic approach. Idiographic has been defined as "attempts to understand a particular event or individual", and a nomothetic model is defined as "characterizing procedures and methods designed to discover general laws" (Fagan & Wise, 1994, p.28). Their students combined their concepts and practices, which influenced the acceptance of school psychological services (Fagan & Wise, 1994).Lightner Witmer was married to Emma Repplier Witmer who was also a Catholic.
ee also
"Main"
*University of Pennsylvania
*Clinical Psychology
*University of Leipzig
*School Psychology
*American Psychological Association (APA)"Lists"
*List of University of Pennsylvania people External links
* [http://www.psych.upenn.edu/history/history.htm Lightner Witmer and the Psychology Department of the University of Pennsylvania]
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