11 Florence Goodenough

General Biography

Florence Laura Goodenough was a developmental psychology pioneer, mentor to many, and innovator in the 20th century. Born August 6, 1886 in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, Goodenough was the daughter of farmers Linus North Goodenough and Alice Gertrude Day (Lawrence, 2000). Being the youngest of eight children, Goodenough’s parents motivated all their children to pursue education or other valuable endeavors (Drewsbury et al., 2012). Goodenough was considered to be intellectually gifted from a young age and attended school in Rileyville, Pennsylvania after being homeschooled, where she earned her equivalent to a high school diploma (Lawrence, 2000). She was seemingly unaffected by the claims of limited professional mobility for early women professionals and went on to earn her Bachelors of Pedagogy from Millersville Normal School in 1908 (Drewsbury et al., 2012).

With her degree, Goodenough went on to teach special classes at rural schools in Pennsylvania from 1912 to 1919; and after leaving her teaching career, she started to conduct research in New Jersey public schools and at Vineland Training School, a well known non-profit organization from 1919 to 1921. Goodenough became the director of research in Rutherford and Perth Amboy, both New Jersey public schools, which is a position that would now be called a school psychologist (Drewsbury et al., 2012). During her time as director of research, Goodenough completed advanced training at Columbia University in 1920-21, earning her Bachelors of Science (Jolly, 2010).

After earning her second bachelor’s degree, Goodenough moved directly into graduate work at the Columbia Teachers College with Leta S. Hollingworth as her advisor (Jolly, 2010). Goodenough had always been drawn to developmental psychology, which was, at the time, reaching into educational areas to engage teachers into the work of research (Drewsbury et al., 2012). An interesting note is that while Hollingworth was Goodenough’s advisor, she could only remember one instance in which Goodenough came in for a meeting which lasted only 20 minutes, other than that Goodenough remained a very independent student (Jolly, 2010). In 1921, Hollingworth recommended that Goodenough work as a research assistant in Lewis M. Terman’s Gifted Children Survey, only recommending Goodenough because she believed in her confidence of knowledge and abilities (Jolly, 2010).

Florence Goodenough finished her Master’s Degree under the advising of Hollingworth at Columbia, and in the same year Goodenough moved to the West Coast to begin her doctoral studies under Lewis M. Terman at Stanford University (Jolly, 2010). Goodenough’s desire to study gifted children motivated her to pursue this path towards her Ph.D, getting to work in Terman’s lab on his gifted children study where she served a chief field psychologist for one year and chief research psychologist for two years (Drewsbury et al., 2012). She completed her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1924, with her dissertation on the development of a nonverbal test of intelligence for children (Drewsbury et al., 2012).

After graduating, Goodenough relocated to Minnesota in 1925, where she became the chief psychologist of the Minneapolis Child Guidance Clinic and joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Welfare as an assistant professor (Lawrence, 2000). Later being promoted to full professor in 1931, Goodenough’s career had always been centered around developmental research as well as advising and teaching graduate students (Lawrence 2000). She was invited to speak nationally on mental measurement and was highly regarded as an authority figure in the field, writing multiple evaluative conference reports for the National Research Council and White House Conferences of Children and Youth from 1929-1946 (Lawrence, 2000). Goodenough also was awarded multiple honors, being declared a noted scientist in the American Men of Science in 1936, which was highly esteemed since few women were bestowed with this honor (Lawrence, 2000). She additionally served as president of the National Council of Women Psychologists in 1942 and was elected president of the Society of Research in Child Development, serving from 1945 to 1947. Finally, Goodenough also held the position of secretary and president of the Division of Childhood and Adolescence of the American Psychological Association from 1947-1948 (Lawrence, 2000).

In her late life, Florence Goodenough contracted chronic diabetes, deafness, and near blindness but continued teaching as a full professor at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Welfare until 1947 (Jolly, 2010). Throughout her retirement she spent her summers in Lisbon, New Hampshire and in the colder months in Lakeland, Florida where she died on April 4, 1959 at the age of 72 (Lawrence, 2000). Other than being known for her advances in psychology, she was also a lover of music, birds, and flowers; as well as a bibliophile, and a sought-after friend (Harris, 1959). Florence Goodenough never married, dedicating her life to her work and obligation to the return of results of her research to the parents of the children who served as subjects in her studies, always emphasizing that children were not objects just to study, but persons of instinct (Drewsbury et al., 2012).

Important Achievements

Florence Goodenough has contributed largely to developmental psychology among her many other accomplishments. In 1926, her doctoral dissertation, “Measurement of Intelligence by Drawings,” developed into her biggest contribution to developmental psychology, the Draw-a-Man Test (Lawrence, 2000). Simple to administer, and given to children ages 2 to 13, this test asked children to produce a drawing of a man (Drewsbury et al., 2012). Through multiple trials, Goodenough was able to demonstrate strong test reliability, in that the drawing scores were correlated with the standard IQ test scores of the period in which the test was created (Drewsbury et al., 2012). Goodenough noted in reference to this test that “he draws what he knows, rather than what he sees” (Goodenough, 1956). Goodenough further worked on the test’s validity and reliability with the help of Dale B. Harris in 1950. Together, they created a revision of the test that included instructions on scoring and a drawing of a man, woman, and the self  (Drewsbury et al., 2012). The test’s foundations rested on Goodenough’s beliefs in individual differences in intelligence and that the complexity of figure drawings could increase development and correlate with intellectual ability (Lawrence, 2000). The Draw-a-Man Test is still used today worldwide, with a revision published after her death in 1959 by Harris, and now titled The Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test (Harris & Roberts, 1974).

Goodenough also created revisions to the Kuhlman Scale, which was an adaptation of the Binet-Símon Scale, this being a more traditional verbal measure of IQ for young children (Drewsbury et al., 2012). She revised this scale to be applicable to children of preschool age, developing her own version of the scale and adapting some of Binet’s items, making one of the most valuable contributions to intelligence testing of the 1930’s and 1940’s (Drewsbury et al., 2012).

Another major contribution Florence Goodenough made to psychology was The Mental Growth of Children from Two to Fourteen Years, written with Katherine Mauer. In it, Goodenough and Mauer suggested that measuring intelligence in early childhood may not be applicable to later assessments of mental ability (Lawrence, 2000). This notion was imperative as earlier studies found that intelligence remains stable across a lifetime, showing Goodenough and Mauer to be the first people to challenge this belief (Lawrence, 2000).

Apart from actual research Goodenough had done, she was also known for her commentary on potential methodological innovations in empirical research, having been known to be very critical of methodological designs of studies in the developmental psychology field at the time (Harris, 1959). Another one of her contributions was another book, Experimental Child Study, with John E. Anderson, in which they sought to bring attention to methodological problems and to suggest possible advancements within child psychology studies (Harris, 1959). Suggestions included, but were not limited to, sampling to better understand children’s behavioral characteristics (Lawrence, 2000). This led to her study of emotional development recounted in Anger in Young Children, in which she evaluated records created by mothers of preschoolers and thus created a coding scheme to evaluate young children’s behavior in order to categorize them (Lawrence, 2000).

Within developmental psychology, Goodenough was known as one of the most influential and distinguished scholars of her time. Amongst her many articles and books, Developmental Psychology is the most widely known and has been translated into multiple different languages. This book emphasized methods of studying children, exceptional children, and mental testing. Goodenough also was noted for her commitment to parental education, and she published frequently in Parents Magazine. This magazine was imperative to the parent education movement and emphasized strategies on the topic of child-rearing (Harris, 1959). Goodenough never lost sight of the importance of her scientific studies and how they could be applied in real life experiences (Drewsbury et al., 2012).

Historical Context

Florence Goodenough’s time as a scientist and professor cross two very important eras within developmental psychology. The first is a period of “Institutional Organization and Clashing Conceptualization,” which lasted from 1915-1940 (Freedheim & Weiner, 2013). This period is pertinent because it established child development as a distinctive subfield within the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), which established child development research institutes, as well as numerous theories of polarizing views on development. At this time, the field of psychology in general was being dominated by the popularity of finding and establishing differences between humans by test, making Goodenough’s Draw-a-Man test fit right into the mix (Freedheim & Weiner, 2013).

The second era of developmental psychology was the “Era of Expansion” from 1940-1960. This era emphasized the return to “mainstream psychological thinking,” which is in reference to what we now know as contemporary psychology today. During this era, Goodenough took on a more serious role in her mentoring of graduate students and contributed many articles and novels on child-rearing, parent education, and emotional development. Goodenough’s work changed as the field progressed, exemplifying her intelligence, versatility, and dedication to the field. Throughout both of these eras, women were not encouraged nor pushed to join the field of psychology, being outnumbered by men in this field was a regular occurrence (Freedheim & Weiner, 2013). Because of this, Goodenough’s presence and research at the time was a monumental progression within the field.

Many people influenced Florence Goodenough throughout her career in developmental psychology. The first is Lewis M. Terman, her advisor during her graduate studies. She assisted Terman, who was known as an authority on mental measurement testing, and for his studies of giftedness in children. Their work together was so productive that throughout both of their careers they collaborated multiple times, sharing their views on intelligence, education, and psychology. Goodenough stayed in touch with Terman and remained confident colleagues and friends until his death in 1956 (Lawrence, 2000).

Another notable influence on Goodenough’s career was Alfred Binet. For her, Binet was a role model that demonstrated the importance of methodological rigor, as Goodenough used both quantitative and qualitative methods in personality assessments to make her findings valid and reliable. She admired his work so much that eventually she went on to revise and create her own version of the Binet-Símon Scale, using similar methods to keep the scale up to date and effective  (Johnson, 2015).

Most importantly, throughout her career, Goodenough praised Edward Thorndike as a “great teacher” (Drewsbury et al., 2012). She thought highly of his focus on the evidence presented in studies, adding that his courses were demanding but never boring (Drewsbury et al., 2012). It is believed that because of her great admiration for Thorndike’s teachings and research, that Goodenough modeled those same ideals throughout her own research and teaching.

Florence Goodenough was known to be an exceptional teacher who was respected and admired by her students. She was recalled as enthusiastic in her lectures, and would even hold seminars in her Minneapolis apartment where she would play music for her students. She most notably influenced Dale B. Harris in his research, as Lewis Terman urged him to do his graduate studies at the Minnesota Institute of Child Welfare under Goodenough, with Terman saying, “If I was interested in child psychology, she was the best mentor in the country” (Drewsbury et al., 2012). Goodenough also influenced many other students, such as Dorothea McCarthy, Marian Radke, and Theta Wolf, who recollected that Goodenough made her revise her dissertation multiple times. She was a tough critic, but only because she saw the best in what each student had to offer towards the field. In general, Goodenough’s influence stretched quite far, as child psychology was an emerging field at the time and attracted many other women who wanted to pursue psychology. She was a figure in the field in which young women felt like there was a science that was available to them, and with enough hard work, could be attainable. The majority of Goodenough’s advisees were women, who almost all went on to have exceptional success in their respective fields and produce contributions to the field of developmental psychology (Drewsbury et al., 2012). Her support for women to join a field in which, at the time, was not encouraged, only shows her support for women in science and had an impact on the number of women who entered the field of psychology.

Historical Impact

Florence Goodenough had a tremendous impact on the field of developmental psychology. Not only did she influence numerous women to join the field, but she gave them hope that their experiences and intelligence were needed in the progression of research (Drewsbury et al., 2012). She also created a nonverbal test that evaluated the IQ of children (The Draw-a-Man Test) that is used globally, and wrote articles and books that are still referenced today (Lawrence, 2000). Goodenough also demonstrated throughout her work and criticism the importance of using well-thought-out methodological research strategies to ensure research was reliable and valid (Johnson, 2015). Goodenough also marked an era of being critical of one’s own findings and ensuring bias was not swaying data, especially from those who had their own children (Harris, 1959). Goodenough was able to have such a strong influence on developmental psychology because she was a poised, intelligent woman who let her optimism, dedication, and enthusiasm shine through in her work (Johnson, 2015).

Unlike most women psychologists in her field at the time, Goodenough’s authority influenced many of her graduate students to take up her teaching in their own personal child-rearing, marriages, and research. She was never docile in attitude and was always open to new scientific trends, never being afraid to go against the grain and had a reputation to defend unpopular methods of research. She and other researchers kept descriptive methods of research in the science of child development alive in an era of seemingly unreceptive and occasionally hostile professional environments (Johnson, 2015).

Goodenough’s work within the field of developmental psychology had a positive impact. She was a pioneer of child development, methodological approaches to studying children, and helped provide researchers with evidence of multiple accounts of child emotional development, mental testing assessments, and much more (Johnson, 2015). Psychology has progressed as a field because of Goodenough’s dedication to children as not only a means of study, but as real people who are vital to the understanding of child development. Her findings and established assessments were meant to help psychologists add on to her work or refute it in ways to help the field progress even further (Johnson, 2015).

References

Dewsbury, Pickren, W. E., & Wertheimer, M. (2012). Portraits of pioneers in developmental psychology. Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203806135

Freedheim, & Weiner, I. B. (2013). History of psychology (2nd ed.). Wiley.

Goodenough. (1956). Exceptional children. Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Goodenough. (1931). Experimental child study, by Florence L. Goodenough and John E. Anderson. Century.

Harris. (1959). Florence L. Goodenough, 1886-1959. Child Development, 30(3), 305–306. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1959.tb04939.x

Johnson. (2015). FLORENCE GOODENOUGH AND CHILD STUDY: The Question of Mothers as Researchers. History of Psychology, 18(2), 183–195. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038865

Jolly. (2010). Florence L. Goodenough: Portrait of a Psychologist. Roeper Review, 32(2), 98–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783191003587884

Lawrence. (2000). Goodenough, Florence Laura (1886 – 1959), Psychologists. In American National Biography Online. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1400232