360 Counseling Psychology
Shortly after the United States entered World War I in 1917,
American Psychological Association (APA) president Robert
Yerkes organized psychologists to assist with the war effort.
Offering the services of psychology to the nation, Yerkes es-
tablished a number of committees, including an examining
committee that he headed and a committee on the classifica-
tion of personnel under the direction of Walter Dill Scott. Scott
was not new to the venture; as a member of the Division of
Applied Psychology at the Carnegie Institute of Technology,
he was a leader in the development and evaluation of selection
methods. The program he introduced into the armed services
proved to be highly successful in classifying recruits and bol-
stered the place of psychology, especially applied psychology,
in America (Benjamin & Baker, in press; Napoli, 1981).
More than anything else, American psychologists demon-
strated the efficacy of group testing. Measures of aptitude,
adjustment, interest, and ability, while less publicized than
the development of group measures of intelligence, soon
found applications in guidance and counseling. Indeed, the
1920s and 1930s were witness to a testing craze in public ed-
ucation that provided work for secondary school counselors,
educational psychologists, and test publishers. The scientific
management of the student extended into higher education,
and soon student personnel work would flourish on college
campuses alongside the faculty who were developing the in-
struments of the new science (Baker, in press).
For all the possibilities, there were also limitations. Group
testing, still in its infancy, had problems, none more apparent
than the question of the reliability and validity of intelligence
tests that failed to recognized cultural bias. The questionable
use of questionable tests led to numerous claims of racial
differences in intelligence and education that contributed
to continued perpetuation of racial stereotyping and bias
(Guthrie, 1998).
Like the First World War, the Great Depression of the
1930s provided hardships for American citizens and opportu-
nities for applied psychology. With high rates of unemploy-
ment and the success of the classification work of Walter Dill
Scott and colleague Walter Bingham at Carnegie Tech, fed-
eral assistance was available for large-scale studies of selec-
tion procedures in industry and education. The 1930s were a
time of incredible development in the psychometrics of se-
lection. Test of interest, aptitude, and ability were developed
and studied by such well-known figures as E. K. Strong Jr.,
L. L. Thurstone, and E. L. Thorndike. The vocational guid-
ance of the early century was transforming and branching out
into areas such as student personnel work and industrial psy-
chology (Super, 1955; Paterson, 1938).
The prototype of what eventually became counseling psy-
chology can be found in these early activities and programs.
Of particular relevance was the Minnesota Employment Sta-
bilization Research Institute at the University of Minnesota. A
depression-era project, it was an early model of integration of
science and practice, designed to scientifically study occupa-
tions and employment while simultaneously finding jobs for
its unemployed subjects. The director of the program, Donald
G. Paterson, would soon merge all the branches of vocational
guidance, applied and scientific, into a program of counseling
and guidance that would serve as a model for the later formal-
ization of counseling psychology (Blocher, 2000).
The 1930s also saw a rise in the number of psychologists
interested in applying testing and counseling to those with
more severe forms of maladjustment. Most often these
psychologists were found in hospitals and clinical settings,
where they worked under the direction of a psychiatrist.
Many were linked to clinical work with children like those
associated with Lightner Witmer and his psychological clinic
at the University of Pennsylvania (Baker, 1988; McReynolds,
1997). With the aid of psychometrics (largely measures of in-
telligence, individually administered) and the clinical labora-
tory, these psychologists sought to establish an identity for
themselves, often defined in terms of clinical psychology.
Indeed, they bore a resemblance to what we would now call
school psychologists or clinical psychologists (Routh, 1994).
However, in the 1930s and 1940s such labels were not in
popular use, nor were there organized and systematic training
programs for mental health professionals. All was about to
change.WAR AND THE TRAINING OF PSYCHOLOGISTSThe role of psychologists during the Second World War
would greatly expand. Classification and other assessment
activities remained an integral part of the work, but unlike
during the First World War, when intellectual function was
stressed, the concern shifted to the mental health of the fight-
ing force. Mental health screening of new recruits indicated
alarming rates of psychopathology, about 17% of draft-age
men (Deutsch, 1949). When anticipated casualties from the
war were added and when counts of occupied Veterans Ad-
ministration (VA) beds were made, it was clear that psychi-
atric problems were the leading cause of casualty among
soldiers. The United States Public Health Service (USPHS)
and the Veterans Administration quickly realized that there
were not enough trained mental health professionals to meet
the burgeoning need. Through joint action, the USPHS and
the VA developed a national plan of mental health. First and
foremost was the establishment of a recognized mental health
profession. The Mental Health Act of 1946 provided federal