The Eastern Psychological Association (abbreviated EPA) is a professional organization for

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

s in the

Eastern United States The Eastern United States, often abbreviated as simply the East, is a macroregion of the United States located to the east of the Mississippi River. It includes 17–26 states and Washington, D.C., the national capital. As of 2011, the Eastern ...

. It holds annual meetings where members present their research findings to colleagues. Established in 1896, it is the oldest regional psychological organization in the United States.

History

The Eastern Psychological Association was founded on April 27, 1896 as the Section of Anthropology, Psychology, and Philosophy of the

New York Academy of Science The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...

. In 1903, it was renamed as the "New York Branch" of the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

(APA), with this name reaffirmed in 1930. It was renamed again to the "Eastern Branch" of the American Psychological Association in 1936, and obtained its current name in 1938. The group that would eventually become the Eastern Psychological Association was formed when some New York psychologists asked the New York Academy of Sciences to broaden their coverage to include the human sciences. The resulting Section of Anthropology, Psychology, and Philosophy met on the fourth Monday of every other month, starting in 1896. At first the anthropology and psychology papers were mixed, but in 1902 they settled on holding three meetings a year on psychology and three on anthropology. Before 1930, the organization was loosely organized, with no bylaws or constitution. Its only official officer was the Secretary who organized the meeting programming. Its change in identity to the New York Branch of the APA was the result of a 1901 APA bylaw change which allowed the establishment of local branches in response to the complaints Midwesterners had in attending APA meetings. On February 23, 1903

Edward Thorndike Edward Lee Thorndike ( – ) was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on comparative psychology and the learning process led to his " theory of connectionism" and helped ...

chaired the first official meeting of the New York Branch of the APA. At that first meeting

James McKeen Cattell James McKeen Cattell (May 25, 1860 – January 20, 1944) was the first professor of psychology in the United States, teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He was a long-time editor and publisher of scientific journals and pub ...

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Livingston Farrand Livingston Farrand (June 14, 1867 – November 8, 1939) was an American physician, anthropologist, psychologist, public health advocate and academic administrator. He was president of Cornell University and the University of Colorado. Earl ...

, and

Franz Boaz Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the mov ...

all read papers. Notable papers from other meetings in this period include

John B. Watson John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a List of psychological schools, psychological school.Cohn, Aaron S. 2014.Watson, J ...

’s “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It,” given on the February 24, 1913 meeting—just before the same paper was published in the

Psychological Review ''Psychological Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers psychological theory. It was established by James Mark Baldwin (Princeton University) and James McKeen Cattell (Columbia University) in 1894 as a publication vehic ...

(no reaction to the paper was recorded). The first woman to present was Naomi Norsworthy, in March 1904. Her presentation, based on her PhD thesis, reported on the mental testing of 150 children in state institutions for the “

feeble-minded The term feeble-minded was used from the late 19th century in Europe, the United States, and Australasia for disorders later referred to as illnesses, deficiencies of the mind, and disabilities. At the time, ''mental deficiency'' encompassed a ...

” and in special classes in New York City schools. Generally the meetings were not organized around a theme, with a few exceptions, such as a 1911 memorial session on

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...

, who had died the previous year. Presenters were often faculty from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

and meetings were often held there. Compared to other conferences, the group was friendly to graduate students. For example, a student of James McKeen Cattell presented at the first meeting as the New York Branch and space was made for graduate work to be presented. The group continued to meet three times a year until 1925, holding regular meetings even though

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In the 1920s members of the group grew concerned about the number of non-scientists in their midst. Because the New York Section had not required APA membership or any other membership requirements other than paying dues, a number of non-psychologists and applied psychologists had joined. Out of 150 members only 40 were APA members, the rest were “psychiatrists, educators, ministers, sociologists, graduate students” and likely lay members of the public who practiced psychology using their membership in the group as accreditation. The papers presented had also turned towards more applied, consulting directions, which concerned the more academic members of the group. For example a meeting in 1925 featured presentations by

Lillian Moller Gilbreth Lillian Evelyn Gilbreth (; May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) was an American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator who was an early pioneer in applying psychology to time and motion study, time-and-motion studies. She was d ...

on “Motion Study and Psychology”, Bess Cunningham on “A Report of Studies of Pre-School Children”, Henry Link on “An Experiment in the Selection of Salesmen”, and

Anathon Aall Anathon August Fredrik Aall (15 August 1867 – 9 January 1943) was a Norwegian academic, philosopher and psychologist. Originally educated as a theology, theologian, he became a professor of philosophy at University of Oslo. Background He was bo ...

on “The Problem of Animal Mind” (the last with lantern illustrations). Out of these four talks, probably only Aall's would have been considered non-applied and thus "scientific." In 1930 two of the group’s leaders decided to address this issue and invited 360 psychologists who lived within 100 miles of New York City to a one-day meeting. On April 12, 1930, the invited psychologists, 240 in number met on the Heights campus of New York University and voted to form a scientific organization. They would re-form themselves as the New York Branch of the APA and to ask the APA Council of Directors to affirm its existence. They also appointed an executive committee to draft bylaws and decided henceforth hold a day-long meeting in the spring. This first meeting in 1930, presided over by Honorary President Robert S. Woodworth, is what the EPA counts as its first meeting and uses to number its meetings. The bylaws (published 1931) restricted membership to those who were either members or associates of APA who lived within a 100 mile radius of New York City, and who paid dues, set at $1. While non-members were allowed to attend meetings, they had to be sponsored by a member in order to present a paper. Graduate students were still encouraged to participate—they could join the APA as associates. The bylaws established that future programs wouldn’t rule out applied research, but that members needed to present experimental results. These changes resulted in the consulting psychologists withdrawing to their own organization, The New York State Association of Consulting Psychologists. Under pressure from psychologists who did not live in New York City, future meetings alternated between New York City locations and locations like Princeton and Yale. Eventually the group expanded its geographic catchment to include the eastern part of the US and Canada and renamed itself the Eastern Branch of the APA. Eventually the APA discontinued its branches and instead allowed regional groups to affiliate with the APA. In response, in 1938, the Eastern Branch voted to rename themselves The Eastern Psychological Association.

Presidents

The current president of the Eastern Psychological Association is Jef Lamoureux. Past chairs (NewYork Branch of the American Psychological Association) and presidents of the EPA include: *

(1903-1904) * F. J. E. Woodbridge (1905) *Robert MacDougall (1906-1907) * Adolf Meyer (1908-1910) * Robert S. Woodworth (1911-1912) *Wendell T. Bush (1913-1914) *

Albert Poffenberger Albert "Poff" Theodore Poffenberger (October 23, 1885 – December 24, 1977) was an American psychologist who served as president of the American Psychological Association. Early life and education Poffenberger was born on October 23, 1885, in ...

(1915-1918) *F. Edith Carothers (1919-1920) * Edith M. Achilles (1921-1922) *Howard K. Nixon (1923-1925) * Henry Garrett (1926-1929) * Robert S. Woodworth (1930) *

Howard C. Warren Howard Crosby Warren (1867 – 1934) was an American psychologist and the first chairman of the Princeton University Psychology department. He was also president of the American Psychological Association in 1913. The Society of Experimental P ...

(1930-1931) * Margaret Floy Washburn (1931-1932) * Raymond Dodge (1932-1933) *

(1933-1934) *

Joseph Jastrow Joseph Jastrow (January 30, 1863 – January 8, 1944) was a Polish-born American psychologist renowned for his contributions to experimental psychology, design of experiments, and psychophysics. He also worked on the phenomena of optical illu ...

(1934-1935) * Herbert Langfeld (1935-1936) *

Karl Lashley Karl Spencer Lashley (June 7, 1890 – August 7, 1958) was an American psychologist and behaviorist remembered for his contributions to the study of learning and memory. A ''Review of General Psychology'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Lashley ...

(1937-1938) *

Karl M. Dallenbach Karl M. Dallenbach (October 20, 1887 in Champaign, Illinois – December 23, 1971 in Austin, Texas) was an American experimental psychologist whose interests in psychology were heavily influenced by John Wallace Baird. He was a loyal student of ...

(1938-1939) * Walter Samuel Hunter (1940-1941) *

Gardner Murphy Gardner Murphy (July 8, 1895 – March 18, 1979) was an American psychologist who specialized in social and personality psychology and parapsychology.Martin Seymour-Smith, Andrew C. Kimmens. (1996). ''World Authors, 1900-1950, Volume 3''. H.W. W ...

(1941-1942) *

Gordon Allport Gordon William Allport (November 11, 1897 – October 9, 1967) was an American psychologist. Allport was one of the first psychologists to focus on the study of the personality, and is often referred to as one of the founding figures of personali ...

(1942-1943) * Edna Frances Heidbreder (1943-1944) * Henry Garrett (1944-1945) *

Edwin Boring Edwin Garrigues (Garry) Boring (October 23, 1886 – July 1, 1968) was an American experimental psychologist, Professor of Psychology at Clark University and at Harvard University, who later became one of the first historians of psychology. A ' ...

(1945-1946) * Anne Anastasi (1946-1947) * J. McVicker Hunt (1947-1948) * Otto Klineberg (1948-1949) *

Hadley Cantril Albert Hadley Cantril, Jr. (16 June 1906 – 28 May 1969) was an American psychologist from Princeton University, who expanded the scope of the field. Cantril made "major contributions in psychology of propaganda; public opinion research; applica ...

(1949-1950) *

Carl Hovland Carl Iver Hovland (June 12, 1912 – April 16, 1961) was a psychologist working primarily at Yale University and for the United States Army, US Army during World War II who studied attitude (psychology), attitude change and persuasion. He first r ...

(1950-1951) * Frank A. Beach (1951-1952) *

Neal E. Miller Neal Elgar Miller (August 3, 1909 – March 23, 2002) was an American experimental psychologist. Described as an energetic man with a variety of interests, including physics, biology and writing, Miller entered the field of psychology to pursue ...

(1952-1953) * Harold H. Schlosberg (1953-1954) *

B. F. Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1948 until his retirement in ...

(1954-1955) * Fred S. Keller (1956-1957) * Stuart W. Cook (1957-1958) * Carl Pfaffmann (1958-1959) * James J. Gibson (1959-1960) *

Stanley Smith Stevens Stanley Smith Stevens (November 4, 1906 – January 18, 1973) was an American psychologist who founded Harvard's Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory, studying psychoacoustics, and he is credited with the introduction of Stevens's power law. Stevens aut ...

(1960-1961) * George A. Miller (1961-1962) * Richard L. Solomon (1962-1963) *

David McClelland David Clarence McClelland (May 20, 1917 – March 27, 1998) was an American psychologist, noted for his work on motivation need theory. He published a number of works between the 1950s and the 1990s and developed new scoring systems for the ...

(1964-1965) *

Eliot Stellar Eliot Stellar (November 1, 1919 – October 12, 1993) was an American physiological psychologist who did research of the physiological processes of the brain and how they affect motivation and behavior. The National Academy of Sciences called him "o ...

(1965-1966) *

James Deese James Earle Deese (1921–1999) was an American psychologist. He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1970 after having taught for many years (since 1950) at Johns Hopkins University. During his tenure at Johns Hopkins, Deese became ...

(1966-1967) *

Eleanor J. Gibson Eleanor Jack Gibson (7 December 1910 – 30 December 2002) was an American psychologist who focused on reading development and perceptual learning in infants. Gibson began her career at Smith College as an instructor in 1932, publishing her firs ...

(1967-1968) *

Morton Deutsch Morton Deutsch (February 4, 1920 – March 13, 2017) was an American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, and researcher in conflict resolution. Deutsch was one of the founding fathers of the field of conflict resolution. A ''Review of General Ps ...

(1968-1969) * Joseph V. Brady (1970-1971) * Roger Brown (1971-1972) *

William N. Schoenfeld William N. Schoenfeld (December 6, 1915 – August 3, 1996) was an American psychologist and author. Born in New York City, he conducted original research in experimental psychology, and advocated behaviorism, which seeks to understand behavior ...

(1972-1973) * Jerome L. Singer (1973-1974) *

Jerome Kagan Jerome Kagan (February 25, 1929 – May 10, 2021) was an American psychologist, who was the Daniel and Amy Starch Research Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, as well as, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He was ...

(1974-1975) *Lorrin A. Riggs (1975-1976) *

Julian Rotter Julian B. Rotter (October 22, 1916 – January 6, 2014) was an American psychologist known for developing social learning theory and research into locus of control. He was a faculty member at Ohio State University and then the University of Conne ...

(1976-1977) * Julian Hochberg (1977-1978) *

Leon Kamin Leon J. Kamin (December 29, 1927 – December 22, 2017) was an American psychologist known for his contributions to learning theory and his critique of estimates of the heritability of IQ. He studied under Richard Solomon (psychologist), Richard S ...

(1978-1979) * Robert Perloff (1980-1981) * Mary Henle (1981-1982) *

Judith Rodin Judith Rodin (born Judith Seitz, September 9, 1944) is an American research psychologist, executive, university president, and global thought-leader. She served as the 12th president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 2005 to 2017. From 1994 to 2 ...

(1982-1983) * Virginia S. Sexton (1983-1984) *Nancy S. Anderson (1984-1985) *

Florence Denmark Florence Harriet Levin Denmark (born January 28, 1932) is an American psychologist and a past president of the American Psychological Association (APA) (1980-1981). She is a pioneering female psychologist who has influenced the psychological scie ...

(1985-1986) * Robert A. Rescorla (1986-1987) * Ethel Tobach (1987-1988) *Edwin P. Hollander (1988-1989) *Doris R. Aaronson (1989-1990) *

Linda Bartoshuk Linda May Bartoshuk (born 1938) is an American psychologist. She was born in rural South Dakota in 1938. She is a Presidential Endowed Professor of Community Dentistry and Behavioral Science at the University of Florida. She is an internationall ...

(1990-1991) *

Russell Church Russell M. Church (December 24, 1930 – May 24, 2021) was an American psychologist, who was the Edgar L. Marston professor of psychology at Brown University, having formerly served as the Charles Pitts Robinson and John Palmer Barstow Professor ...

(1991-1992) *Lewis P. Lipsitt (1992-1993) *Norman E. Spear (1993-1994) * Kay Deaux (1994-1995) *George H. Collier (1995-1996) * Ludy T. Benjamin (1996-1997) *Bartley G. Hoebel (1997-1998) *

John Gibbon John Gibbon (April 20, 1827 – February 6, 1896) was a career United States Army officer who fought in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Early life Gibbon was born in the Holmesburg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Holmesburg section ...

(1998-1999) *Ralph R. Miller (1999-2000) *Barbara F. Nodine (2000-2001) *Jeremy M. Wolfe (2001-2002) * Carolyn Rovee-Collier (2002-2003) *Peter Balsam (2003-2004) *Mark Bouton (2004-2005) *Stanley Weiss (2005-2006) *Phillip Hineline (2006-2007) * Robert J. Sternberg (2007-2008) *

Nora Newcombe Nora S. Newcombe (born 1951 in Toronto) is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Psychology and the James H. Glackin Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Temple University. She is a Canadian-American researcher in cognitive development, cognitive psycholog ...

(2008-2009) *Kurt Salzinger (2009-2010) *Ruth Colwill (2010-2011) *Andrew Delamater (2011-2012) *Debra A. Zellner (2012-2013) *Thomas Zentall (2013-2014) * Susan A. Nolan (2014-2015) *Terry Davidson (2015-2016) *Fred Bonato (2016-2017) *

Susan Krauss Whitbourne Susan Krauss Whitbourne (born 1948) is a developmental clinical psychologist known for her work on personality and identity over the lifespan. She holds the position of professor emerita of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. ...

(2017-2018) *Dana S. Dunn (2018–2019) *Amy Learmonth (2019-2020) *Bernard Beins (2020-2021) *Bonnie Green (2021-2022) *Roseanne Flores (2022-2023) *Amy Silvestri Hunter (2023-2024) * Patricia J. Brooks (2024-2025) *Jef Lamoureux (2025-2026)

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://www.easternpsychological.org Psychology organizations based in the United States Organizations established in 1896 Organizations based in Maryland 1896 establishments in the United States