Gettting back to this issue, one name which never appears on such lists but would certainly qualify is that of the eminent child psychologist at the University of Virginia, Wayne Dennis (1905-1976). We have to be careful in using present standards to condemn actions of individuals of an earlier time, but it seems to me that what Dennis did would have fallen outside the bounds of acceptability even in his day.
Or perhaps not. He meticulously described what he did in his publication in the prestigious mainstream psychology journal, Genetic Psychology Monographs. It was cheerfully published without any hint that the work itself was morally questionable. Here's the reference: Dennis, W. (1941). Infant development under conditions of restricted practice and of minimum social stimulation. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 23, pp. 143-19. It describes how he and his wife "borrowed" a pair of one-month-old fraternal twins, Del and Ray, and brought them up under conditions of severe social deprivation-- with limited talking and playing with them, and not allowing them to see anything other than a bare room and the sky. For 14 months. As I recall, one of the twins did suffer developmental delay, but Dennis did his best to minimize his possible role in contributing to this. He concluded that social stimulation of babies was unnecessary to their development. Ironically, in his later research with institutionalized children in orphanages in Iran and Lebanon, he became known for the opposite conclusion that social deprivation causes harm to children. Not surprisingly, I also recall that he later preferred that his study of Del and Ray be forgotten. There's little available on the web to remind us of this unfortunate story, and even Wikipedia is uncharacteristically silent on the matter. However, there is a discussion of it by Nicholas Tucker in _The Times Higher Education_ (November 18, 1994) at: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=154285 (scan down about half-way). Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
