64 Matching Annotations
  1. Jul 2023
    1. "The final test of the value of what is called science is its applicability" are words quoted from the recent address of the President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. With Huxley and President Woodward, I believe that there is no valid distinction between a pure science and an applied science. The practical needs of the astronomer to eliminate the personal equation from his observations led to the invention of the chronograph and the chronoscope. Without these two instruments, modern psychology and physiology could not possibly have achieved the results of the last fifty years. If Helmholtz had not made the chronograph an instrument of precision in physiology and psychology; if Fechner had not lifted a weight to determine the threshold of sensory discrimination, the field of scientific work represented to-day by clinical psychology could never have been developed. The pure and the applied sciences advance in a single front. What retards the progress of one, retards the progress of the other; what fosters one, fosters the other. But in the final analysis the progress of psychology, as of every other science, will be determined by the value and amount of its contributions to the advancement of the human race.

      Here Witmer talks about how psychology can be used as a tool to help further humanity, much like tools that helped develop modern psychology. It's not just for science and knowledge that we use psychology, but to benefit the world.

    2. With this case, in March, 1896, the work of the psychological clinic was begun. At that time I could not find that the science of psychology had ever addressed itself to the ascertainment of the causes and treatment of a deficiency in spelling. Yet here was a simple developmental defect of memory; and memory is a mental process of which the science of psychology is supposed to furnish the only authoritative knowledge. It appeared to me that if psychology was worth anything to me or to others it should be able to assist the efforts of a teacher in a retarded case of this kind.

      Before the first psychological clinic, most psychology was only studied and for a better understanding. Pretty much academic purposes. However movements such as intelligence testing, advertisments, and education for children, helped move the field out of acadamia and more into society. Psychology cannot only teach us how the mind works, but also how we can determine the mind of others and help with their daily struggles.

    3. The second case to attract my interest was a boy fourteen years of age, who was brought to the laboratory of psychology by his grade teacher. He was one of those children of great interest to the teacher, known to the profession as a chronic bad speller. His teacher, Miss Margaret T. Maguire, now the supervising principal of a grammar school of Philadelphia, was at that time a student of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania; she was imbued with the idea that a psychologist should be able, through examination, to ascertain the causes of a deficiency in spelling and to recommend the appropriate pedagogical treatment for its amelioration or cure.

      This looks to be the start of focusing on examination of patients to help narrow down there initial issues. Much like a doctor doing the same for a medical diagnosis.

    4. I was confident at the time, and this confidence has been justified by subsequent experience with similar cases, that if he had been given adequate instruction in articulation in the early years of childhood, he could have overcome his defect.

      This also proves my point from the last paragraph. The earlier the better.

    5. In 1894-95, I found him as a college student in my classes at the University of Pennsylvania. His articulation, his written discourse and his verbal audition were very deficient for a boy of his years. In consequence he was unable to acquire the technical terminology of my branch, and I have no doubt that he passed very few examinations excepting through the sympathy of his instructors who overlooked the serious imperfections of his written work, owing to the fact that he was in other respects a fair student. When it came to the final examinations for the bachelor's degree, however, he failed and was compelled to repeat much of the work of his senior year. He subsequently entered and graduated from one of the professional departments of the University. His deficiencies in language, I believe, have never been entirely overcome.

      It sucks that the psychologist were not able to help this kid when he was younger. His speech development suffered as a result, even though they overall narrowed down the problem. This is important when looking at clinical psychology because it helps to understand that the sooner we can determine an issue, the better we are to help with their future.

    6. I had no sooner undertaken this work than I saw the necessity of beginning with the elements of language and teaching him as one would teach a boy, say, in the third grade. Before long I discovered that I must start still further back. I had found it impossible, through oral and written exercises, to fix in his mind the elementary forms of words as parts of speech in a sentence. This seemed to be owing to the fact that he had verbal deafness. He was quite able to hear even a faint sound, like the ticking of a watch, but he could not hear the difference in the sound of such words as grasp and grasped . This verbal deafness was associated with, and I now believe was probably caused by, a defect of articulation. Thus the boy's written language was a fairly exact replica of his spoken language; and he probably heard the words that others spoke as he himself spoke them. I therefore undertook to give him an elementary training in articulation to remedy the defects which are ordinarily corrected, through imitation, by the time a child is three or four years old. I gave practically no attention to the subjects required in English for college entrance, spending all my time on the drill in articulation and in perfecting his verbal audition and teaching him the simplest elements of written language. The result was a great improvement in all his written work, and he succeeded in entering the college department of the University of Pennsylvania in the following year.

      This is an excellent example of a psychologist breaking down the issues present in the patient, and narrowing down how to best help them learn. Psychology at the time did not have much focus on breaking down components of mental health into what may cause the problem, but this Witmer was able to figure it out.

    7. My attention was first drawn to the phenomena of retardation in the year 1889.

      It is important to note that even though this word is considered offensive in the present, it was a regular way of stating mental age during their time. Just a name.

    8. To illustrate the operation of the psychological clinic, take a recent case sent to the laboratory from a city of Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia. The child was brought by his parents, on the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools. Examination revealed a boy ten years of age, without apparent physical defect, who had spent four years at school, but had made so little progress that his ignorance of the printed symbols of the alphabet made it necessary to use the illiterate card to test his vision. Nothing in the child's heredity or early history revealed any ground for the suspicion of degeneracy, nor did the child's physical appearance warrant this diagnosis. The boy appeared to be of normal intelligence, except for the retardation in school work. The examination of the neurologist to whom he was sent, Dr. William G. Spiller, confirmed the absence of conspicuous mental degeneracy and of physical defect. The oculist, Dr. William C. Posey, found nothing more serious than a slight far-sighted astigmatism, and the examination of Dr. George C. Stout for adenoids, gave the child a clean bill of health, so far as the nose and pharynx were concerned. On the conclusion of this examination he was, necessarily, returned to the school from which he came, with the recommendation to the teacher of a course of treatment to develop the child's intelligence. It will require at least three months' observation to determine whether his present pedagogical retardation is based upon an arrest of cerebral development or is merely the result of inadequate methods of education. This case is unequivocally one for the psychologist.

      The story of this child is a sad one. This is around the time where mental testing was on the rise, however this kid was an anomoly because he did not have much physically or mentally wrong with him. The blame started to be towards the teachers, or the incompetence of the child. This was at the time very strange, because they can usually trace back school difficulties with "mental age",, but this kid did not have this issue.

    9. these children had made themselves conspicuous because of an inability to progress in school work as rapidly as other children, or because of moral defects which rendered them difficult to manage under ordinary discipline.

      I find it interesting that many people at the time thought that a childs issues with discipline can be fixed with psychology, even as early as 1907.

    10. The teacher's interest is and should be directed to the subjects which comprise the curriculum, and which he wishes to impress upon the minds of the children assigned to his care. It is not what the child is, but what he should be taught that occupies the center of his attention. Pedagogy is primarily devoted to mass instruction, that is, teaching the subjects of the curriculum to classes of children without reference to the individual differences presented by the members of a class. The clinical psychologist is interested primarily in the individual child. As the physician examines his patient and proposes treatment with a definite purpose in view, namely the patient's cure, so the clinical psychologist examines a child with a single definite object in view,-the next step in the child's mental and physical development. It is here that the relation between science and practice becomes worthy of discrimination. The physician may have solely in mind the cure of his patient, but if he is to be more than a mere practitioner and to contribute to the advance of medicine, he will look upon his efforts as an experiment, every feature of which must indeed have a definite purpose,-the cure of the patient,-but he will study every favorable or unfavorable reaction of the patient with reference to the patient's previous condition and the remedial agents he has employed. In the same way the purpose of the clinical psychologist, as a contributor to science, is to discover the relation between cause and effect in applying the various pedagogical remedies to a child who is suffering from general or special retardation.

      I feel like to be a psychologist there needs to be a purpose. The same with teachers, and medical profesionals. People who want to be a part of psychology and want to help children in school, or children get through their lives, will have blast being a clinical psychologist.

    11. I would not have it thought that the method of clinical psychology is limited necessarily to mentally and morally retarded children. These children are not, properly speaking, abnormal, nor is the condition of many of them to be designated as in any way pathological. They deviate from the average of children only in being at a lower stage of individual development. Clinical psychology, therefore, does not exclude from consideration other types of children that deviate from the average-for example, the precocious child and the genius. Indeed, the clinical method is applicable even to the so-called normal child. For the methods of clinical psychology are necessarily invoked wherever the status of an individual mind is determined by observation and experiment, and pedagogical treatment applied to effect a change, i.e., the development of such individual mind. Whether the subject be a child or an adult, the examination and treatment may be conducted and their results expressed in the terms of the clinical method.

      This last paragrph sums up what clinical psychology will become. It is not just for children who has a lower mental age, but for all children that might have a mental illness. This can be like depression, anxiety, or ADHD. This will go on to not only study children, but adults as well. This research not only will help the current patients, but allow researchers to gather more data to help more people in the future. Clinical psychology is born, and honestly Witmer got a lot correct right from the start. However,it will still be a long way to go before we reach where clinical psychology is today.

    12. The phraseology of "clinical psychology" and "psychological clinic" will doubtless strike many as an odd juxtaposition of terms relating to quite disparate subjects. While the term "clinical" has been borrowed from medicine, clinical psychology is not a medical psychology. I have borrowed the word "clinical" from medicine, because it is the best term I can find to indicate the character of the method which I deem necessary for this work. Words seldom retain their original significance, and clinical medicine, is not what the word implies,-the work of a practicing physician at the bedside of a patient. The term "clinical" implies a method, and not a locality. When the clinical method in medicine was established on a scientific basis, mainly through the efforts of Boerhaave at the University of Leiden, its development came in response to a revolt against the philosophical and didactic methods that more or less dominated medicine up to that time. Clinical psychology likewise is a protestant against a psychology that derives psychological and pedagogical principles from philosophical speculations and against a psychology that applies the results of laboratory experimentation directly to children in the school room.

      I like how he goes into detail about the word clinical and why he uses it. Like he stated "method and not a locality". This name will also help focus clinical psychology into the exact field it needs to be.

    13. For this reason not a small part of the work of the laboratory of psychology in the University of Pennsylvania for the past ten years has been devoted to the training of students in child psychology, and especially in the clinical method. The greater number of these students have been actively engaged in the profession of teaching. Important contributions to psychology and pedagogy, the publication of which in the form of monographs has already been begun, will serve to demonstrate that original research of value can be carried on by those who are actively engaged in educational or other professional work. There have been associated in this work of the laboratory of psychology, Superintendent Twitmyer, of Wilmington; Superintendent Bryan, of Camden; District Superintendent Cornman, of Philadelphia; Mr. J. M. McCallie, Supervising Principal of the Trenton Schools; Mr. Edward A. Huntington, Principal of a Special School in Philadelphia; Miss Clara H. Town, Resident Psychologist at the Friends' Asylum for the Insane, and a number of special teachers for the blind, the deaf, and mentally deficient children. I did not venture to begin the publication of this journal until I felt assured of the assistance of a number of fellow-workers in clinical psychology as contributors to the journal. As this work has grown up in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, it is probable that a greater number of students, equipped to carry on the work of clinical psychology, may be found in this neighborhood than elsewhere, but it is hoped that this journal will have a wider influence, and that the co-operation of those who are developing clinical psychology throughout the country will be extended the journal.

      Again recognizing the difficulties with proper staff in clinical psychology, he states that they should focus on teaching as well as psychological work. This would go a long way in what kind of people will apply for the job. These will later be known as therapist.

    14. While the field of clinical psychology is to some extent occupied by the physician, especially by the psychiatrist, and while I expect to rely in a great measure upon the educator and social worker for the more important contributions to this branch of psychology, it is nevertheless true that none of these has quite the training necessary for this kind of work. For that matter, neither has the psychologist, unless he has acquired this training from other sources than the usual course of instruction in psychology. In fact, we must look forward to the training of men to a new profession which will be exercised more particularly in connection with educational problems, but for which the training of the psychologist will be a prerequisite.

      He understood that it takes more than a strict psychological mind to be up for this job, but someone who has experience in multiple fields. Today, there are many different types of therapist for certain mental health problems, and they are considered proffesionals in those fields.

    15. Although clinical psychology is closely related to medicine, it is quite as closely related to sociology and to pedagogy. The school room, the juvenile court, and the streets are a larger laboratory of psychology. An abundance of material for scientific study fails to be utilized, because the interest of psychologists is elsewhere engaged, and those in constant touch with the actual phenomena do not possess the training necessary to make their experience and observation of scientific value.

      I love how he expands his points of psychology not just to a lab or a clinic, but to society as well. In the past researchers only thought that proper psychology can only be done in a lab, and that we develop by genes and no sociological factors at all. Witmer recognized this, and even criticizes past psychologist for not acknowledging society.

    16. he appreciation of the relation of psychology to the practice of medicine in general, and to psychiatry in particular, has been of slow growth. The first intelligent treatment of the insane was accorded by Pinel in the latter part of the eighteenth century, a century that was marked by the rapid development of the science of psychology, and which brought forth the work of Pereire in teaching oral speech to the deaf, and the "Emile" of Rousseau. A few medical men have had a natural aptitude for psychological analysis. From them has come the chief development of the medical aspects of psychology,-from Seguin and Charcot in France, Carpenter and Maudsley in England, and Weir Mitchell in this country. Psychological insight will carry the physician or teacher far on the road to professional achievement, but at the present day the necessity for a more definite acquaintance with psychological method and facts is strongly felt. It is noteworthy that perhaps the most prominent name connected with psychiatry to-day is that of Kraepelin, who was among the first to seek the training in experimental psychology afforded by the newly established laboratory at Leipzig.

      Even though psychologist are not usually historians, Witmer understood past problems of clinical psychology, and did well to name people and methods that influenced his own work. Giving credit where creidt is due.

    17. Clinical psychology is naturally very closely related to medicine. At the very beginning of my work I was much encouraged by the appreciation of the late Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. William Pepper, who at one time proposed to establish a psychological laboratory in connection with the William Pepper Clinical Laboratory of Medicine. At his suggestion, psychology was made an elective branch in what was then the newly organized fourth year of the course in medicine. At a subsequent reorganization of the medical course, however, it was found necessary to drop the subject from the curriculum.

      I made this connection earlier, mentioning how clinical psychology is related to doctors and medicine. Essently, they are helping a patient get through some difficulties by provifing the tools that will make them feel better. That is prety much the essence of modern clinical psychology.

    18. My own preparation for the work has been facilitated through my connection as consulting psychologist with the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children at Elwyn, and a similar connection with the Haddonfield Training School and Miss Marvin's Home School in West Philadelphia.

      Witmer was using this line as a source for his credibility in the field.

    19. From that time until the present I have continued the examination and treatment of children in the psychological clinic. The number of cases seen each week has been limited, because the means were not at hand for satisfactorily treating a large number of cases. I felt, also, that before offering to treat these children on a large scale I needed some years of experience and extensive study, which could only be obtained through the prolonged observation of a few cases. Above all, I appreciated the great necessity of training a group of students upon whose assistance I could rely. The time has now come for a wider development of this work. To further this object and to provide for the adequate publication of the results that are being obtained in this new field of psychological investigation, it was determined to found this journal, The Psychological Clinic.

      This was to be a start to the new field. This was different from the psychological labs, or the constant tests of behaviorism, or the ongoing battle of structualism verses functionalism. This was to focus more on using psychology on the outside world, with the end goal of helping children. Witmer was building his team quickly.

    20. n the summer of 1897 the department of psychology in the University of Pennsylvania was able to put the larger part of this plan into operation. A four weeks' course was given under the auspices of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching. In addition to lecture and laboratory courses in experimental and physiological psychology, a course in child psychology was given to demonstrate the various methods of child psychology, but especially the clinical method. The psychological clinic was conducted daily, and a training school was in operation in which a number of children were under the daily instruction of Miss Mary E. Marvin. At the clinic, cases were presented of children suffering from defects of the eye, the ear, deficiency in motor ability, or in memory and attention; and in the training school, children were taught throughout the session of the Summer School, receiving pedagogical treatment for the cure of stammering and other speech defects, for defects of written language (such as bad spelling), and for motor defects.

      There is a good chance that special education came frome these clinics. They reccommended people who had degrees in child psychology trying to do work to make children better prepared for their futures. There was much training involved, and people did seem interisted in the job, considering it was a real world application of psychology, and a good way to make some money.

    21. The offering of practical work to those engaged in the professions of teaching and medicine, and to those interested in social work, in the observation and training of normal and retarded children. The training of students for a new profession-that of the psychological expert, who should find his career in connection with the school system, through the examination and treatment of mentally and morally retarded children, or in connection with the practice of medicine.

      This was kind of an advertisment aimed at getting people to work these clinics by aiming at things they would do for the job, and the kind of experience they would need.

    22. A psychological clinic, supplemented by a training school in the nature of a hospital school, for the treatment of all classes of children suffering from retardation or physical defects interfering with school progress.

      Witmer wanted to let people know the credentials of the staff, and who these clinics are meant to help.

    23. The investigation of the phenomena of mental development in school children, as manifested more particularly in mental and moral retardation, by means of the statistical and clinical methods.

      This is the major focus of the psychology clinics, so that they can better understand mental retardation in school children.

    24. The absence of any principles to guide me made it necessary to apply myself directly to the study of these children, working out my methods as I went along. In the spring of 1896 I saw several other cases of children suffering from the retardation of some special function, like that of spelling, or from general retardation, and I undertook the training of these children for a certain number of hours each week. Since that time the psychological clinic has been regularly conducted in connection with the laboratory of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. The study of these cases has also formed a regular part of the instruction offered to students in child psychology.

      This seemed like the very beggening of psychological clinics. The focus seemed more on children with academic problems rather then true mental health issues. Though this was around a time where mental testing was getting big, so there was more of a focus on childrens academic and mental process, rather then how they were feeling.

  2. Jun 2021
    1. That means taking time to figure out who we are, what we’re good at, and a sense of what we really want to achieve.

      I am still searching, but i am heading towards that goal.

    2. That means making sure we’re eating the right foods to help keep our energy up, finding the right motivation, refocusing our attention to outcomes, and changing our mindset.

      Helpful tips

    3. difference between having a feeling of uncomfortableness and spiraling into a place that simply provides us with no satisfaction

      Do not get those mixed up.

    4. In the end, Wang realized that her passion was creativity: she went on to serve as the editor of Vogue for a number of years before moving on – at age 40, no less – to become a famed wedding dress designer. By reframing her goals around her love of creativity, something she was competent at, she was able to create a goal she was able to achieve.

      Good example.

    1. f the fear of failure is stopping you, set an immediate, painful and preferably public consequence for not starting. When you have a consequence that is more painful than your fear of failure, you’ll tap into your natural determination.

      Though people who give up, probably will not follow through with there consequence

    1. In Social Settings

      This is probably a controversial statement in my opinion. One does not always need social ques for mental health. Though it is still important.

    2. In the Workplace

      My current workplace has a mix of these feelings. Though I know I do great work and may rely too much on extrinsic motivation, I still don't feel like my voice is heard.

    3. Most actions are not purely self-determined or non-self-determined. Instead, actions often rely on a certain degree of self-determination that may also be influenced by extrinsic motivations.

      This made me think of Metallica's "Master of Puppets"

    4. On the other end of the continuum are non-self-determined behaviors, which are performed only because they must be done. On this extreme end of the scale, there is a complete lack of control.

      Being forced to something at work, which is a job you hate.

    5. Purely self-determined behaviors tend to be intrinsically driven and are done for enjoyment, interest, and inherent satisfaction for the action itself.

      Like going back to school and workout, it's something that that takes a lot of mental work, and helps mentality as well.

    6. extrinsically motivated by a desire to gain approval from others

      One should not gain approval through others just to feel good. But we are wired to do so, and should try and fix that. Only our opinions truly matter.

    7. Positive feedback and boost self-determination

      When a teacher tells you that you are doing a great job. When your boss gives you props on your performance.

    8. The concept of self-determination has been applied to a wide variety of areas including education, work, parenting, exercise, and health. Research suggests that having high self-determination can foster success in many different domains of life.

      The Thesis