If
Psychology had been lucky to survive before it had achieved independent
Departmental status the next 16 years were to try its luck even further.
Looking back, its circumstances were analogous to those of Western
civilisation during the Dark Ages; it got through by the skin of its
teeth. When Dr Fowler took over his new Department the great depression
had just begun and the University was very soon, looking for ways to cut
costs. At a Senate meeting on 27th February 1931, when the situation of
psychology was under consideration, “It was decided that Dr Fowler
should carry on... without the appointment of a part-time Lecturer in
place of Miss Stoneman, but that the Vice-Chancellor be authorised to
appoint a student demonstrator in Psychology if he considers it
necessary.” Fowler got his student demonstrator (at a cost of 24 pounds
per annum) but that was all. Nevertheless, in those first years of his
Headship, his achievements were considerable. He established a three year
pass course, which could be taken by students from either the Faculty of
Arts or the Faculty of Science, and weekly two hour laboratory classes
to be taken by all students at each of these year levels. In 1931 a total
of 81 students were enrolled in psychology courses.
Alex
J. (Tim) Marshall was a student at this time and later in life12 described
some of the work in these laboratory classes. Much of it was of a
psychophysical type and though the apparatus for varying stimulus intensities was often
primitive, the accurate recording of response times was made possible, to
within a thousandth of a second, by means of the, still functioning, Hipp
chronoscope. Muscle fatigue was investigated by means of a finger
ergograph, and mental fatigue by requiring the continuous addition of
number pairs. A subsequent check on how many pairs had been added in each
15 second period could then be made for different total time periods.
Whenever possible descriptive and simple inferential statistics were
applied to the class data. Perception of briefly exposed pictures or
objects was studied by means of a fall type tachistoscope, while one of
the memory experiments employed the serial reproduction procedure used by
F.C. Bartlett3. Mirror drawing was used for the investigation
of motor learning and the transfer of this skill from the preferred to the
non-preferred hand.
Individual
differences in cognitive abilities, manual dexterity, imagery and
personality characteristics were investigated and correlation techniques
applied to the results. In addition, senior students were trained in the
administration of the Binet test and observations of children were
undertaken at school and in the playroom. Extra-mural projects were also
required and provided senior students with some direct experience of
conducting ‘original’ research.
Something
more than a student demonstrator became available in 1936. Tim Marshall
and D.K. Wheeler returned from a brief period of school teaching to take
up positions as part-time temporary Assistant Lecturers. In the following
year Marshall became Acting-Head of Department during Fowler’s Carnegie
funded study leave, and then, in 1938, a full time temporary Assistant
Lecturer was appointed. Unfortunately, the appointee, Helmut Kaulla, D.
Phil (Munich) was not a success14 but it was not until 1944
that he left to take up a post in Canberra as an examiner in patents. The
next appointment15 was in 1939 when a New Zealand graduate,
Donald W. McElwain, took up a full-time permanent Assistant Lectureship.
He had recently completed a PhD at University College, London (UCL) under
the supervision of Cyril Burt.
In
the inter-war years it was UWA’s policy to concentrate almost
exclusively on teaching. Not only did staff have little time for research
but, more importantly there was little money available. Some small
grants were provided by ACER, mainly for educational research, and three
or four of these came to the Department.16 In 1938, for
example, 300 pounds was made available for a study of delinquency in
Perth. However, it was not until the late 1950’s and early
1960’s that post graduate and staff research began to take off.
In
the late 1930’s and early 1940’s Fowler had other things on his mind.
At the age of 49, in 1940 he volunteered for part-time military service.
This became full-time in 1941 when McElwain took over as Acting Head of
Department with a staff consisting of Kaulla and a recent honours
graduate, Ivy V.P. Bennett. Her special interest was in child psychology
and, in addition to carrying out a study (unpublished) on rubella
children, in collaboration with Fowler, she was responsible for starting
the UWA kindergarten. In 1945 she moved to London to take her PhD and
later obtain training as a psychoanalyst.
Hugh
Fowler’s time in the army was short but productive. Though he suffered
from chronic asthma, and in March 1942 had been declared unfit for active
service, he was recalled in May to establish the newly created Army
Psychology Service.17 His position was that of Deputy Assistant
Adjutant General (Psychology) with the rank of Major and in June he was
joined by his Departmental 2/IC, Donald McElwain. What was happening to
the Department of Psychology back in Perth?
The
previous few months must have been worrying ones for Fowler. On 3rd March,
Mr Justice Albert A. Wolf had released his Royal Commission’s report on
the Administration of the University of Western Australia. Based largely
on ‘evidence’ submitted by the Chancellor, Dr. J.S. Battye it
recommended18 that Psychology should revert to being part of
the Department of Philosophy.
Fortunately,
there was little support for this proposal at UWA and at a meeting of the
Faculty of Arts, on 13th May it was resolved “to endorse the past
actions of the University in maintaining the independence of Psychology
and Philosophy.” This resolution was further endorsed by the
Professorial Board. In the absence of both Fowler and McElwain the
Department was administered, on a part-time basis, by the UWA Registrar,
Dr Colsell Sanders. This arrangement was short lived as Fowler came back
in November to take over the reins once more; his chronic asthma had
proved too incapacitating for the massive task he had undertaken and he
was placed, permanently, on the retired list.
Hugh
Fowler had only four more years to live. However, in that time he managed
to rebuild the Department on what appeared to be a firm foundation.19
First, both student and staff members had been increased. By the
time of his death on 27 May 1946, 305 students were enrolled in psychology
courses and Fowler had made seven staff appointments: (Lecturers) Samuel
B. Hammond, BA (WA), Cecily de Monchaux, BA., Dip Ed (Sydney), Patrick
Pentony, MA (WA); (Graduate Assistant) Ruth Carroll BA (WA), (Research
Scholars) Maureen Brown, BA (WA), Frederick E. Emery, BSc (WA) and Margery
Hillman, BA (WA).
Second,
he had obtained a new building for the exclusive use of his Department. It
contained rooms for staff, for tutorials, for lectures and for laboratory
work. It also contained a well-equipped playroom with a glass one-way
vision screen. This new building was connected with an old wooden one that
had been transported from Irwin Street. Until now, this old building,
which had been modified to include a playroom with a wire mesh one-way
vision screen, was the main teaching area for psychology. Some rooms in
Winthrop tower were also used as staff studies and for tutorials.
Third,
he had established, with a medical practitioner, a Saturday morning clinic
to which anyone could come for psychological advice and assistance. With
all this achieved he had one regret. He did not obtain full
Professorial
status. In 1938 be had been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor
and on 17th September 1945 the Vice-Chancellor, Professor (later Sir)
George A. Currie, recommended to the Senate “that a Professor of
Psychology be appointed for 1946” This was endorsed by the Senate but,
with priority having been given to Chairs in Engineering and History, and
again a shortage of money, Psychology was to wait another six years before
such an appointment was made.
Within
months of Fowler’s death the Department was, once more, in difficulties.
Oscar Oeser, MSc (Rhodes), Dr Phil (Marburg), PhD (Cantab) had been
appointed to the foundation Chair in Psychology at Melbourne University.
On his way there he stopped in Perth where his stay was prolonged, due to
illness, and where he met the UWA psychologist. He must have been
impressed because he offered them positions in his new Department and by
the end of 1946, S.B. Hammond and Cecily de Monchaux made the move to
Melbourne. By the end of the next year F.E. Emery had joined them.
The
Acting Head of Department was Pat Pentony, who had chosen to stay on in
Perth, but the question remained as to who would become Permanent Head?
The Vice-Chancellor recommended to the Senate that a Senior Lecturer in
Charge should be appointed and after applications had been sought Alex J.
Marshall BA Dip Ed (WA) PhD (London) obtained the position. When Fowler
had returned from study leave at the end of 1937, Marshall had taken off
for England where he completed his PhD at UCL in 1939. He was then
employed by the Ministry of Supply but spent most of the war working on
selection and training problems for the Air Ministry, ending up as Head
of Training Research.
On
arrival in June 1947 his immediate task was to attract qualified and, if
possible, experienced staff to replace those recruited by Oeser. A second
task was to establish his own research on perceptual problems and to
encourage an interest in research among his senior students. Student
numbers were on the increase20 largely due to the returned
servicemen and women who had taken up the opportunity for a University
education offered by the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme
(CRTS). But who was to teach them? The peak year for psychology students
was 1948 when a total of 424 were enrolled compared with 175 in 1945 and
280 in 1950.
The
first of his appointments was Elwyn A. Morey, BA (Melbourne) PhD
(California) who, in cooperation with Pat Pentony, was responsible for
setting up IIIc, a clinical training program21 that was the
first of its kind in Australia. When Pentony departed for Canberra
University College (now part of ANU) this course was carried on with the
help of others on the staff (e.g. Edward (Ted) R. O’Keefe) and
occasional part-timers. Dr Morey’s other special competence was in child
Psychology, to which she contributed both as a teacher and, as a
consultant to a variety of community groups. She made great use of the
University kindergarten and helped it metamorphose into the Department’s Child Study Centre, in 1954.
The
second appointment was Ronald Taft, originally from Melbourne, but most
recently from California where he had received his PhD from Berkeley
University. He arrived in February 1951 with a special interest in Social
and Personality psychology in which areas he taught and conducted
research.
The
late 1940’s and early 1950’s constituted a lively period for the
students as well as for the staff. With relatively large first and second
year classes some third and fourth year students were privileged to act as
tutors to their younger colleagues. One of many reincarnations of the
Student Psychological Society flourished at this time and, in addition to
publishing a journal – Rapport – it organised weekend camps
and provided displays and demonstrations for the annual ‘Science
Exhibition’. Many of its members also acted as ‘parents’ in the
University camps for children run by Dr Morey.
Among
the many students who contributed to these activities and who, later, went
on to make careers in psychology were: F.S. Arndt, L. Blank, A.F. (Jock)
Bownes, J.M. Briers, N. Briers, E.S. Brown, K.H. Catterall, Faith M.
Clayton (later Richardson), R.H. Day, June Eggleston (later Jones), Jean
R. Evans (later Rushton), R. Flecker, Barbara Hudson (later Bubna-Litic),
P. Judy McCubbing (later Crooke), M. MacMillan, J.A. (George) Paquin, A. Richardson, Nan Rossiter (later Flecker), B. W.
Sandars, Margaret Troup (later White) and J.R.E. White.
In
1948 Tim Marshall was promoted to Reader In Charge and during his Headship
the foundations of the Department were, once again, made secure.
When
a Chair in Psychology was eventually established, to be taken up in the
1952 session the advertisement stated that “Preference may be given to
candidates whose special experience has been in the field of Social
Psychology”. The selection committee acted upon this suggestion and the
successful applicant was Kenneth Frederick Walker, MA, Dip. Anthrop.
(Sydney), PhD (Harvard), who had been an Assistant Lecturer in Economics
(1938—1939) and a Lecturer in Social Psychology (1940—1941) at Sydney
University. From 1942, until taking up the Chair at
UWA, he had continued with research and part-time lecturing,
largely in the fields of social and industrial psychology, while occupying
administrative positions within the Department of Labour and National
Service. On
arrival in March 1952 his staff consisted of: (Reader) A.J. Marshall,
(Senior Lecturers) Elwyn A. Morey and Ronald Taft (Graduate Assistants)
Faith M. Clayton and A. Richardson, (Secretary) Marion Cume,
(Technician) W. (Bill) Wisdom. Fourteen years later, when Ken Walker moved
on to take up a senior appointment with the International Institute of
Labour Studies, in Geneva, the number of full-time academic staff of
Lecturer rank or above had risen to 12 excluding his vacant Chair. Ten of
them were to remain with the Department until their retirement.
The
probability that an increasing number of psychologists would be needed in
the coming years was becoming clear and in his inaugural lecture ‘Human
Relationships in our Time’ given
on 7th August 1952, Walker stressed that he would encourage courses
requiring collaboration with other Departments. These included
collaboration with both the biological sciences and the social sciences,
but because most psychologists would be working in social settings the
latter came to have greater emphasis.
In
this same year professors Clyde and Florence Kluckhohn came to Australia
on behalf of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Part of their brief was
to conduct a survey22 of the social sciences which would,
subsequently,
be useful when funding applications were under consideration. As a
result of their visit, and of Ken Walker’s support the Department of
Psychology became host to an embryonic Department of Anthropology. It was
funded, from 1956 to 1958 by the Carnegie Corporation and Ronald M.
Berndt, MA, Dip. Anthrop. (Sydney) PhD (London) was appointed Senior
Lecturer (Reader from 1959) to establish it. In 1963, with the further
support of Ken Walker, who had made the recommendation as early as 1958,
an independent Department of anthropology was created and Ron Berndt was
selected to occupy its foundation Chair.
Another
initiative within the Department of Psychology was to replace the
earlier IIIc qualification by a two year full time Diploma in Clinical
Psychology (DCP). This new course was started in 1956 and taught mainly
by part-time staff with practical work supervised by psychologists and
psychiatrists working in community agencies. Two of the lecturers were
Ross Smith and Nancy Stewart both of whom were past graduates of the UWA
Department. Ross Smith later became Principal Clinical Psychologist with
the WA Mental Health Services while Nancy Stewart became Assistant
Principal Clinical Psychologist.
In
1966 the DCP was given Masters status and became the MPsych. Those
desiring to enter this course were expected to take the BPsych degree,
which had been introduced in 1964, rather than the BA or BSc (Hons)
degree. This requirement was dropped later, for those with good honours
degrees, though the advantage of the more applied work undertaken in the
fourth year of the BPsych remained, especially for those seeking immediate
employment in psychology.
A
companion post-graduate course to the DCP had, also, been introduced in
1956. This was the Diploma in Child and Educational Psychology (DCEP) but
it was later cancelled due to lack of enrolments. Nevertheless Child
Psychology retained its popularity and the Child Study Centre under its
Director Audrey Little, BA, DCEP, PhD (WA) continued to serve the teaching
and research needs of the Department. Indeed, it provided some of the
subjects for the Department’s first PhD degree awarded, in 1960, to
Margaret Middleton.
Social
Work, also, had its origins within the Department when a Diploma course
was offered for the first time in 1965 It was taught by Walter (Wally)
Tauss and Margaret E. Stockbridge both of whom moved out of Psychology
when a fully independent Department of Social Work was established in
1971.
The
period of Ken Walker’s headship was one of growth and change. Formality
was declining in the early 1960’s when, for example, lecturers ceased to
wear gowns when addressing large classes. Individual research interests
became more clearly established and publications increased. The membership
Committee of the Australian Branch of the BPS, which was located in the
Department for part of this period, began to process more applications
and some of the impetus for an independent APS came from members of the
UWA Department. Ken Walker had been Chairman of the Australian Branch in
1955 and Ron Taft in 1963. A fully independent Australian Psychological
Society was achieved in 1966. The roots of a flourishing scientific and
professional community of psychologists were now firmly established in
Western Australia.
Psychology staff photograph: taken in May-June 1966.
back: Dick Feakes - Don Lauer - Dan Adler - Jim
Lumsden - Ron Davidson - Bob Fitzgerald - John Price - Rick Kirkham
3rd: Harry Worthington - Wally Tauss - Teddy Stockbridge - Audrey
Little - Tim Marshall - Grace Drummond - Jock Bownes -
Vince De Lollo - John Ross
2nd: Sue Aronson - Lillian Deason - Beth Thompson - Margaret Brown -
Maureen McGarry - Ruth Anderson - Pat Peters
front: Bill Wisdom - Alex Harding - Judith Laszlo - Ali Landauer - John Rossiter
The
next occupant of the UWA Chair in Psychology was well qualified to promote
the process of growth. When Aubrey James Yates, BA (Liverpool), Dip.Psych.
PhD (London) became Professor and Head of Department in 1967, he was in
his 42nd year and an experienced teacher, researcher and administrator.
From 1957 to 1960 he had held his first appointment in Australia, as a
lecturer in Duncan Howie’s Department at the University of New England.
From there he came to UWA as a Senior Lecturer (later Reader) until
returning to the Chair at
New
England after Howie’s retirement in 1965.
His
main research interest was in Experimental (Abnormal) Psychology and,
after the departure of Taft in 1965 and of Walker in 1966, the
balance of Departmental research began to shift, to some extent, from
Social Psychology, where the emphasis continued to be sociological, to
laboratory based Experimental Psychology, where the emphasis was more
biological. However, a person based perspective still had a place,
especially in the social and developmental service courses provided for
Agricultural Extension, Education and Medicine in the 1960’s and early
1970’s.
By
the end of Yates’ headship the range of individual research interests
begun in Walker’s time, had been extended. Those of Lecturer status and
above were engaged in studying: animal learning (P.J. Livesey),
bio-feedback and behaviour therapy (A.J. Yates), child and developmental
(R. Grieve and Audrey Little), clinical (A.F. Bownes and R.C. Winkler),
cognition (P.K. Kirsner), kinaesthetic feedback and motor control (Judith
I. Laszlo) mathematical (D. Milech), mental imagery (A. Richardson),
perception (J.H. Hogben and A.A.A. Landauer), psychophysiology (R.G.
Dawson and G.R. Hammond), road accidents (R. (Rick) Kirkham), social (A.R.
Nesdale and T.R. Reed), test theory (J. Lumsden), human vision (J. Ross).
During the 10 year (1976 - 1986) period of Robin Winkler’s directorship
of the Department’s Clinic, a research program on adoption was
established and, in 1983, funds were obtained for an Adoption Research and
Counselling Service.
|
Rick
Kirkham
|
Robin Winkler
|
Ali Landauer
|
It
was during Yates’ time that staff and student numbers rose to their
peak. For those of Lecturer rank or higher numbers grew from 12 in 1967 to
20 in 1975 (the year in which the main Department moved to its present
building) and remained, essentially at this level until 1988. For those
below the rank of Lecturer numbers rose from eight in 1967 to 13 in 1975;
in 1988 they were 12.
Student
enrolments during the same period showed a corresponding pattern. For
example, in 1967 there were 453 first year students and 15 PhD students.
By 1988 these numbers were, respectively, 634 and 21.
In
1976 the Department undertook its most recent hosting operation when Lyn
D. Beazley MA (Oxford) PhD (Edinburgh) joined it as a Research Fellow
(later Professor of Zoology at UWA) and began attracting grants, students
and other staff to her neurobiological investigations into the development
and regeneration of visual pathways in frogs and marsupials. After
15 years of dedicated and efficient administration Yates stepped down
from his position as Head of Department and made way for a succession of
shorter term appointments. Other Departments at UWA, and elsewhere, had
already adopted the procedure of rotating Headships and the time was felt
to be appropriate for a new approach to Departmental leadership.
|
|
The
first to
take on
the role of Departmental Head was John Ross BA Dip.Ed (Sydney) MA (Cantab)
PhD (Princeton)
who had joined the staff as a Lecturer in 1961 and been promoted to Senior
Lecturer in 1964 and
Reader
in 1968. In 1970 he was selected for the Department’s second Chair.
His task, like that of his successors, was to guide the Department through
an increasingly complex and changing set of bureaucratic requirements.
Survival had long since ceased to be a concern, but to achieve a balanced
pattern of progress in teaching and
research,
careful
monitoring
was needed.
|
|
After
Ross had completed his three year
term
(1982—1984) Robert Grieve, MA, PhD
(Edinburgh)
took over for the
next
two years. He had come to the Department as a Senior Lecturer in 1977 and
been
promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 1984. Prior to taking on
the Headship he had been Director of the
Child
Study Centre after Audrey Little’s retirement in 1981. When he left UWA
in
1987, it was
to
take
up
a Chair in Psychology at Edinburgh University.
|
|
|
|
By
this time the possibility of an amalgamation of the UWA and Murdoch
Departments of Psychology was under consideration but, to the relief of
both, the proposal was
finally
laid to rest during the
Headship
of A.R. (Drew) Nesdale, BA (New England) MA. PhD (Alta). He had come to
the Department as a Lecturer and was subsequently promoted to Senior
Lecturer in 1983 (and Associate Professor in 1989).
|
Other
lines of research that had been developing over the years included:
alcohol abuse (N. McLean), chronic headaches (P.R. Martin), cross-cultural
studies (Judith M. Kearins and D.L. Sang), exceptional children (Jan F.
Fletcher), individual differences (R.C. Davidson). psycho-linguistics (D.K.
Durkin and C.J. Pratt) and sociobiology (J.S. Watson).
The
Department was now the largest in the Faculty of Arts, offered an
increasingly wide range of units at third and fourth year levels and was
moderately well funded. In 1985, for example, it received $334,000 in
external grants23. Its support staff was commensurate with the
number of its academic staff and with the magnitude of its research
activities. In 1988 it employed 18 non academics, seven of them
technicians.
The
year 1988 was chosen as the terminus for this brief history, mainly,
because it was the year in which the University held its 75th anniversary
celebrations. If the conventions are followed the date for a more complete
history will be in 2013. What will the discipline of psychology be like,
and the Department that professes it, after the first 100 years of its
existence at the University of Western Australia?
NOTES AND REFERENCES
-
Alexander, F. (1963) Campus at Crawley. Melbourne:
Cheshire. p.55.
-
Richardson. A. (1992) The Psychology Museum at the University of
Western Australia.
The Bulletin of the Australian Psychological Society. August
13.
-
Who’s Who in Australia. 1933 - 34, Melbourne 1933,
p192.
-
According to W.M. O’Neil (1987) A century of psychology in
Australia. Sydney: Sydney University Press., John Smith should receive
credit for introducing "psychological laboratory work" (p15) into a
course in psychology while he was Principal of Melbourne Teachers’
College. O’Neil goes on to say that "H. Tasman Lovell was hard on the
heels of Le Couteur, if not in step with him providing observational
psychology. Evidence of priority is uncertain." (p17)
-
The UWA Library edition of Kulpe’s book is the third and
dated 1909.
-
O’Neil (1987). ibid. p27, states that her doctorate
was in clinical psychology but A.J. Marshall, who knew her personally, wrote (in a paper in the
writers possession) that ‘She completed the Scottish minimum qualification for practicing medicine.’
-
See her, State Psychological Clinic (Department of Public Health) Annual Reports for,
l926 - 27, 1927 - 28, 1929,1930 (June), 1930 (December). Held in the State Archives at the Alexander
Library Building, Perth. WA.
-
O’Nei1 1987 ibid.
p.43.
-
Richardson, A. (1981) Hugh Lionel Fowler (1891 - 1946). In D. Pike. B. Nairn and C. Serle (Eds.)
Australian dictionary of Biography (1981 - 1939). Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
-
He obtained First Class Certificates in General and Experimental Psychology from
University college, London. His experience in applied psychology was in
both clinical and industrial.
-
Only one other Department of Psychology existed at this time. The Sydney University Department of Psychology had been created in 1929 under
its foundation Professor, Henry Tasman Lovell.
-
Marshall. A.J.
(1979) Fifty years of the Psychology Department. Pelican (The UWA student newspaper) June edition.
Bartlett. F.C. (1932) Remembering. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Alexander
(1963), ibid. p.440.
O’Neil (1987), ibid.
"In 1958 he was appointed Professor of Psychology in the University of Queensland." (p.38)
O’Neil (1987), ibid. p.61.
Owens, AG. (1977) Psychology in the Armed Services. M. Nixon & R. Taft (Eds.)
Psychology in Australia: Achievements and prospects. Sydney: Pergamon Press (Australia);
and O’Neil (19878), ibid. p.69; and Alexander (1963) ibid. p.211.
Alexander, (1963), ibid. p.209; and O’Neil (1987), ibid. p.24.
O’Neil. W.M. & Walker, K.F. (1958) Psychology in the Universities. Australian
Journal of Psychology. 10, 7 - 18. These authors commented favourably on Fowler’s Department when they wrote that it
"possessed facilities and equipment for practical work far in advance of most other psychology Departments
in the British Commonwealth."
Alexander (1963), ibid, p.795.
Pentony, P. & Morey. E.A. (1949) An exploratory course in therapeutic techniques. Australian
Journal of Psychology. 1, 98 - 107.
Alexander (1963), ibid. p.722.
de Garis, B.K. (Ed.) (1988) Campus in the Community, 1963 - 1987. Nedlands, WA: University of Western Australian Press,
p.245.
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Emeritus Professor Alan Richardson
This
text was originally published in The
BULLETIN
of The Australian Psychological Society,
in
June
1995.
This
web version has been generated with permission of the publisher.
HTML by HTJ
All photographs used are the property of The University of Western Australia
2000
But
from small beginnings it has grown as the City of Perth and the
University itself has grown. In 1913 the population of Perth was 121,000,
in 1988 it was 1,118,772. From a staff of eight Professors and four
Lecturers In