James McKeen Cattell

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Lore & Background

Cattell was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, on May 25, 1860, the eldest child of a wealthy and prominent family. His father, William Cassady Cattell, a Presbyterian minister, became president of Lafayette College shortly after James' birth. Cattell entered Lafayette College in 1876 at age sixteen and graduated in four years with highest honors; in 1883 the faculty awarded him an M.A., again with highest honors. He found his calling in Germany, studying under Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig and Hermann Lotze at the University of Göttingen. An essay on Lotze won him a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Under Wundt, Cattell became the first American to publish a dissertation in psychology—titled *Psychometrische Untersuchungen* (Psychometric Investigation)—accepted by the University of Leipzig in 1886. The partnership between Wundt and Cattell helped establish the formal study of intelligence. Cattell once explored his own mind by consuming the then-legal drug hashish; under its influence, he compared the whistling of a schoolboy to a symphony orchestra. After completing his Ph.D. in 1886, Cattell lectured at the University of Cambridge and became a Fellow of St. John's College. He returned to the U.S. in 1889 as a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, then moved to Columbia University in 1891 as department head of psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1888 and became president of the American Psychological Association in 1895. Cattell's public opposition to American involvement in World War I and the draft led to his dismissal from Columbia University in 1917, along with English professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana. He sued the university and won an annuity, using the money in 1921 to start The Psychological Corporation. His dismissal later led many American universities to establish academic tenure as a means of protecting unpopular beliefs. Cattell held eugenicist beliefs, influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. His own research found that men of science were likely to have fathers who were clergymen or professors; his father was both. He offered his own children monetary gifts of $1,000 if they married the offspring of a university professor or academic professional. Cattell introduced the term "mental tests" and administered a battery of ten tests to student volunteers at the University of Pennsylvania, including measures of sensation, reaction time, memory span, and rate of movement. However, in 1901 his student Clark Wissler demonstrated no statistical relationship between scores on Cattell's tests and academic performance; the tests were later rendered irrelevant by Alfred Binet's intelligence measurements. Cattell co-founded *Psychological Review* with James Mark Baldwin, acquired *Science* and within five years made it the official publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and purchased *Popular Science Monthly* in 1900. He edited *Science* for nearly 50 years and created the Science Press Printing Company to produce his journals.

Reader's Guide

James McKeen Cattell's significance lies in his foundational role in establishing psychology as a legitimate scientific discipline in the United States. As the first U.S. professor of psychology, he brought the experimental methods of Wilhelm Wundt and Francis Galton to American academia, emphasizing mental testing and the study of individual differences. His introduction of the term "mental tests" and his battery of ten tests at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University were early attempts to quantify intelligence, though they were later shown by his student Clark Wissler to lack statistical relationship with academic performance. Cattell's long tenure as editor of *Science* for nearly 50 years and his ownership of other journals, including *Popular Science Monthly* and *The Scientific Monthly*, greatly influenced the dissemination of scientific research. His public opposition to World War I conscription led to his dismissal from Columbia University in 1917, a pivotal event that spurred the adoption of academic tenure across American universities to protect faculty with unpopular views. Cattell's eugenicist beliefs, while common among scientists of his era, reflect a controversial aspect of his legacy—he offered his children $1,000 to marry the offspring of a professor. His founding of The Psychological Corporation in 1921, though initially unsuccessful, marked an early effort to apply psychology commercially. Overall, Cattell helped transform psychology from a minor field into a respected science and shaped the infrastructure of scientific publishing in America.

Did You Know?

• Cattell was the first American to publish a dissertation in psychology, titled *Psychometrische Untersuchungen*, accepted by the University of Leipzig in 1886.
• He once consumed the then-legal drug hashish and under its influence compared the whistling of a schoolboy to a symphony orchestra.
• Cattell offered his own children $1,000 if they married the offspring of a university professor or academic professional.
• He was fired from Columbia University in 1917 for opposing the U.S. conscription policy during World War I, and later sued the university and won an annuity.
• Cattell introduced the term 'mental tests' and administered a battery of ten tests to student volunteers at the University of Pennsylvania.

Pioneering American Psychology

James McKeen Cattell arrived in a landscape where most scientists dismissed psychology as little more than a curiosity or a distant cousin of phrenology. His career was defined by the relentless effort to elevate the discipline into a field that could stand shoulder to shoulder with chemistry or physics. After earning his doctorate in Leipzig, he settled at the University of Pennsylvania in 1889, becoming the first person to hold a professorship in psychology on American soil. He then moved to Columbia in 1891, where he led the combined departments of psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. In 1895 he was elected president of the American Psychological Association, and in 1888 he had already been elected to the American Philosophical Society. Central to his vision was the conviction that human intellect could be broken down into standard, measurable units. He transplanted the experimental techniques of Wilhelm Wundt and the statistical methods of Francis Galton into American laboratories, insisting that rigorous methodology was the only path to legitimacy. By the time of his death in 1944, The New York Times had already crowned him the dean of American science, a testament to how far he had pushed a field that many had once written off entirely.

The Dismissal That Reshaped Academic Freedom

In 1917, Cattell took a public stand against American conscription in World War I, a position that cost him his position at Columbia University. He and English professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, grandson of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and of Richard Henry Dana Jr., were both fired for their opposition to the draft. Cattell subsequently sued the university and won an annuity. The episode became a catalyst across American higher education: many universities responded by instituting formal academic tenure protections, ensuring that scholars could voice unpopular political opinions without facing termination. Cattell later channeled the settlement money into founding The Psychological Corporation in 1921, an enterprise aimed at applied psychology. However, because he struggled to articulate how psychologists could practically apply their research, the organization faltered until other psychologists with hands-on applied experience took the helm. His final years were devoted instead to editing and publishing scientific journals, a role he sustained until his death in 1944. He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, the organization now known as the Society for Science, from 1921 until the end.

Eugenics and the Science of Individual Differences

Cattell's intellectual world was shaped by the eugenicist currents running through late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century science. He drew heavily on Charles Darwin's evolutionary framework, which in turn sharpened his focus on what he called the psychology of individual differences. He genuinely believed he possessed inherited intellectual gifts, yet he also acknowledged the role of environment, once remarking that a germplasm fairly well compounded had met circumstances to which it was unusually fit to react. His research in this vein produced a striking finding: men of science were disproportionately likely to have fathers who were clergymen or professors, a detail that, given his own father's dual role as a Presbyterian minister and college president, carried a personal resonance. His eugenic convictions extended into the domestic sphere as well. Cattell offered his own children a monetary gift of one thousand dollars if they married the offspring of a university professor or academic professional. These beliefs, while now widely condemned, were shared by many eminent scholars of his era and deeply influenced the direction of his experimental work on mental testing and individual variation.

From Easton to Leipzig: Forging a New Science

Born in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1860, Cattell grew up in a household steeped in wealth and public service. His father, William Cassady Cattell, was a Presbyterian minister who became president of Lafayette College shortly after James's birth, and his uncle Alexander G. Cattell served as a U.S. Senator from New Jersey. Cattell entered Lafayette at sixteen, graduated in four years with the highest honors, and earned a master's degree in 1883, again at the top of his class. His undergraduate years were dominated by English literature, though he also displayed a natural aptitude for mathematics, and he credited the philologist Francis March as a major influence. His true vocation crystallized only after he traveled to Germany for doctoral work. Under Wilhelm Wundt at Leipzig and Hermann Lotze at Göttingen, he found the experimental psychology that would define his life. A brief Johns Hopkins fellowship was not renewed, so he returned to Leipzig as Wundt's assistant. In 1886 he became the first American to publish a psychology dissertation, titled Psychometrische Untersuchungen. In a curious experiment, he even consumed hashish, then legal, to probe his own mental processes, once comparing a schoolboy's whistling to a full symphony orchestra under its influence.