Psychology

Florence Laura Goodenough, a pioneer in psychology, was born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania on August 6th, 1886. She was the youngest of the 9 children. She was home schooled that is similar to a high school degree. Florence graduated with a Bachelor of Pedagogy (B.Pd.) from Normal school in Millersville, Pennsylvania in 1908 (Bosler, 2000). She started teaching and continued up to 8 years. She earned her B.S. in 1920 from Columbia University. She received her M.A. in 1921 from Columbia University under the psychologist Leta Hollingsworth (Bosler, 2000).  During the period from 1920 to 1921, Florence Goodenough was also the director of research in Rutherford and Perth Amboy, New Jersey public school systems. Today, the job description of hers would be considered as a school psychologist. It was in public schools that Miss Florence Goodenough did her first research experiments and collected data on drawings of children (Bosler, 2000). It was in 1921 that Goodenough started working with Lewis Terman at Stanford University. At that time, Terman was working on Stanford-Binet IQ test for children. Under the instruction of Terman, Goodenough was involved in the studies of gifted children. In 1924, Goodenough earned her Ph.D. when she was under Terman. Later, in 1924, Goodenough relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota to work in the Minneapolis Child Guidance Clinic. That following year, she was appointed as an assistant professor in Institute of Child Welfare at Minnesota University. In 1931, she was promoted to full professor (Bosler, 2000). Becoming an assistant professor was the clear beginning that resulted in many publications. Goodenough became involved in gifted children sought methods for measuring intelligence. She found the tools unsatisfactory and invented new tests for children. Her career involved studying child psychology, exceptional children, and fear and anger (Bosler, 2000). The title of Goodenough became Professor Emeritus in 1947, but she took the retirement early due to her physical illness.

Contributions to psychology
Florence Goodenough contributions began with Genetic Studies of Genius in 1925 with which she spread her research, influence and theory. Goodenough published her first book in 1926 with title The Measurement of Intelligence by Drawings. In 1931, she published Anger in young children and The Measurement of Mental Growth. The next publication was The Handbook of Child Psychology in 1933 (Bosler, 2000). In 1947, she published Genetic Studies of genius. In 1949, the book Mental Testing Its History, Principles and Applications was published. In 1956, she published Exceptional Children. Genetic Studies of Genius followed in 1959 (Bosler, 2000). Florence Goodenough published her first book in 1926 with the title Measurement of Intelligence by Drawings in which she introduced Draw-A-Man Test. Draw-A-Man test is a test to measure nonverbal IQ. When directing the Draw-A-Man test, each child was given ten minutes for drawing a man. The test was given for the children aged 2 to 13. The test was found trustworthy and valid to measure the success in academics (Brice, 2002). In spite of less time of ten minutes, the reliability of the test was high and it compared with standard intelligence tests at that period. These drawings help to know the mental processes and organization as children draw what they know, but not what they see. Draw-A-Man test got extensive reputation. After 20 years of introduction also, it stood as the third most regularly used test in clinical psychology. In 1961, it was among top ten. Dale Harris, along with Goodenough revised the Draw-A-Man test. The test was renamed as Draw-A-Woman test and used well into 1950s (Brice, 2002).

Following the work of Draw-A-Man test, Florence Goodenough concentrated more on developing traditional verbal tests of intelligence for children. Therefore, she revised the Binet scale for preschool children into Minnesota Preschool Scale. It includes younger children in its population. Both verbal and nonverbal sections and scores were included in the test. At this period, methods were developed to use in observational studies by Goodenough (Brice, 2002). The two methods are time sampling and event sampling. Time sampling is defined as the method in which the behavior of the participant is studied for a specific period of time. For observing the participants behavior, consistent series of small time intervals are set. A record will be produced by considering all the observations, which shows the happening of the behavior under that particular observation period (OConnell  Russo, 1990, p.127). Event sampling is defined as the method in which the participants behavior is being observed and counted. A researcher who works with children stays for the events to occur and then explains about the events when they can happen. These sampling methods were supposed to be useful to study the natural behavior of animals and humans (Brice, 2002). Goodenough was also accountable for developing improvements to testing. She was the first one to critique the use of IQ ratio. In the Handbook of Child Psychology of 1933 edition, she argued that for all children the mental age was not same (OConnell  Russo, 1990, p.127).

Goodenough became a predecessor in documenting environmental effects on intelligence scores in the beginning of 1920. Although the debate on nature versus nurture caused much controversy on Goodenoughs career path, she stick to the statement that intelligence is a steady entity and challenged the environmental effect on childrens intelligent test scores. In all, Goodenough contributed much to the field of psychology, particularly child psychology. She published 26 research articles and 9 text books. She is also responsible for creation of most useful IQ tests, which also have been used for developing other intelligence tests.Goodenough was greatly accepted and honored in her period. In 1946 and 1947, Goodenough was the president of society for Research in Child Development. At the same time, she was appointed as secretary and president of Division on Childhood and Adolescence of the American Psychological Association. In 1942, Goodenough became National Council of Women Psychologists president. With that position, she was never comfortable (OConnell  Russo, 1990, p.127).All through her profession, Florence Goodenough was a trendsetter of the first extent.

Goodenough was one of the foremost in her psychology field, beginning with the first edition of Developmental Psychology, to fight for life-span method for human development. While, it was argued for the integrative approach for life span by Goodenough, she also was one of the foremost to concentrate on adaptive and integrative implications for behavior of young children (OConnell  Russo, 1990, p.127).Until her time of work, many of the developmental psychologists concentrated in studying child developmental norms, like those for speech or motor development, as remote behavior units. Goodenough, one of the first, concentrated on the requirement to study the interrelationships between human behaviors. She was appreciated for the interest in testing that showed differences that present between children. All through her work, many references are made to ethnic, cultural, socio-economic, racial, and mainly sex differences. Florence Goodenough, a thorough and extensive scholar, was more open than most to adjust. In mid 1930s, concerning a paper presented about the Advancement of Science before American Association, she argued in opposition to the categorization of traditions as inferior and superior. In a later paper, she also argued that searching for tradition-free intelligence test, appropriate for categories of people, was not achievable.

Theoretical perspective
Goodenough spent much part of her life in developing tools to access intelligence in young children and child psychology. As a part of studying child psychology, she worked on determining age changes in anger. Good enough argued that only facial expression was not an exact sign of emotion. She supposed that to interpret emotional behavior, one should know precipitating stimuli. Therefore, she was convinced to get data from inspections made by mothers in their houses. Goodenough employed mothers to be skilled in observation and then to present details on behavior of their children when angry (Magai  McFadden, 1995). The mothers have to explain their childrens behavior as well as note down the length and frequency of the angry outbursts immediate causes of the anger and the methods mothers used to manage the behavior. The mothers recorded the details for one month and from this Goodenough got data on 1878 anger events in 45 children of age between seven months to seven years ten months. Goodenough concluded that with age and development, behavior of anger changes (Magai  McFadden, 1995). Goodneough stated that in below one year children, one-fourth had outbursts regarding child routine care such as bathing or dressing, one-fourth had slight physical uneasiness, and the remaining children had problem with body movement restrictions (OConnell  Russo, 1990, p.128). Goodenough also observed that the occurrences of anger outbursts attain its peak approximately at age two. After the age of two, boys exhibit anger more often than girls. The factors like exhaustion, illness, hunger and presence of elder siblings augment the likelihood of childrens anger behavior. Goodenough observed adults responses to their childrens angry behavior varied depending on the age and gender. Adults ignored the anger of girls, whereas for boys, their reactions were spanking, bribery, remoteness and threatening. Goodenough also observed that the increase in anger in children mainly depends on the atmosphere of home. Children show slightest anger whose parents maintain a good sense of humor in the home, respond in a consistent way to their childrens behavior, and set appropriate standards for their children (Magai  McFadden, 1995). The observations of Goodenough based on anger in children are still greatly appreciated by modern researchers.

Furthermore, her studies regarding child rearing have been included into the American understandings and parenthood expectations. Goodenough was never married to concentrate on a thriving professional career. After retirement, Goodenough moved to New Hampshire, where she lived with other family members. Florence Goodenough died of stroke on April 4, 1959 in her sisters home in Florida (OConnell  Russo, 1990, p.127).