RE: HH Goddard

[Aubyn Fulton]

Christopher wrote... When I referred people to H. H. Goddard's _Kallikak Family_ (1913) in my last post, I failed to realize that his name is not familiar to most people today. He was the director of the laboratory at the Vineland Training School in NJ and a very prominent American eugenicist in his day. (Vineland has an interesting website -- http://www.vineland.org/history/trainingschool/ .) Goddard, among other things, invented the word "moron," which he intended as a diagnostic term for children of slightly-below-average intelligence. Most famously, he is the man who arranged for the translation of Binet's intelligence test into English. (He did not, as is often reported, do the translation himself. That was done by his assistant, Elizabeth Kite). Without the translation, it is an open question whether Binet's work would have  come to he attention of Lewis Terman, and whether the Stanford-Binet, which dominated the US market for decades, test would have been born. Aubyn writes... I always appreciate Christopher's historical contributions; since we are on Goddard, perhaps I can squeeze in a follow-up question.   In his *Mismeasure of Man* Gould makes good dramatic use of the Kallikak story, and especially hits the punch-line that the photos used to bolster and illustrate Goddard's claims were "doctored". The Vineland site that Christopher referred us to does have some interesting background, and seems to acknowledge that Goddard's passion for eugenics led him to intellectual dishonesty, but it also says that not only has it not been established that Goddard himself knew of the "photo-doctoring" but that the process may have been a relatively innocent standard practice of photo publishing in books of the day.   The site gives some references for the more rehabilitative version of the Goddard "Photo-Gate" scandal: Fancher, R. E. (1987). Henry Goddard and the Kallikak Family photographs: "Conscious skullduggery" or "Whig history"? American Psychologist, 42, 585-590. Zenderland, L. (1998). Measuring minds: Henry Herbert Goddard and the origins of American intelligence testing. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. I have good intentions of looking these up, but in the event that more mundane items on my to do list intervene, I wonder if Chris or anyone else on the list has a take on the bottom line of this episode? Can we reasonably conclude that the Kallikak photos were deliberate attempts of forgery, and if so, is it reasonable to conclude that Goddard knew about it?     Aubyn **************************************************** Aubyn Fulton, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology Chair, Behavioral Science Department Pacific Union College Angwin, CA 94508 Office: 707-965-6536 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *****************************************************   -----Original Message----- From: Christopher D. Green [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 2:42 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: HH Goddard Dear TIPSters, Regards, -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 fax: 416-736-5814 http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ============================ . --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]