BIRREN 177Relations with Extramural Activities
Research publications on aging were increasing as interest was shifting
from the earlier period of dominance of interest in infectious diseases
because of the impact on children to an emphasis on chronic diseases
common to middle aged and older adults. The NIMH extramural pro
gram sponsored a conference on the “Psychological Aspects of Aging”
that was organized by the American Psychological Association. It was
held in 1955 at the Stone House on the NIH grounds. Both intramural
and extramural personnel were involved. In a sense, the conference
marked the emergence of a new generation of researchers on aging
whose entire careers were devoted to the study of aging, in contrast to
the few earlier investigators who began in other fields of study.
It is of interest that several of the pioneers in the area of research on
child development attended and were influential in determining the
agenda: for example, John Anderson, University of Minnesota; Raymond
Kuhlen, Syracuse University; Harold Jones, University of California,
Berkeley; and Sydney Pressey, Ohio State University. They were expanding
their concepts of change during the adult years in relation to the processes
of development in childhood they had studied. John Anderson, one of
the leaders in research on child development, chaired the conference
and was editor of the report.^14
A further step in the expansion of interest in research on aging was
the 1957 conference on aging supported by the National Institute of
Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB). It was also held on the
grounds of the NIH with attendance of both intramural and extra
mural personnel. The editors of the conference report were from both
the NINDB and the NIMH.^15
Political Climate of the 1950s
With the rise of Joseph McCarthy’s influence in the U.S. Senate there
were reverberations at the local level. As an example, I received a telephone
call from the NIMH personnel office asking me if one of the staff scientists
of the Section on Aging had belonged to the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) when he was an undergraduate