Monitor on Psychology - April 2012 - (Page 24)

Capsule TIME In 1970, two University of Massachusetts professors rediscovered Griffith’s work and declared him “America’s First Sport Psychologist.” Today, the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology has an annual award named in his honor. special [baseball] skills …. He should make [the will to win] a necessary feature of every practice period and of every game he plays. He must reduce it to a habit.” Still, none of his recommendations were implemented. By July 26, the Cubs were languishing in fourth place. Wrigley fired Grimm and replaced him with the catcher, Hartnett, for the rest of the season. At first, Griffith had reason to hope that Hartnett would be more amenable to his ideas and they met to discuss each player from a psychological standpoint. But soon Griffith came into conflict with Hartnett as well. Disparaging Hartnett’s traditional baseball mindset, Griffith wrote that “to appeal to instinct or to heredity is … a lazy, unimaginative and ignorant man’s way of evading the demands of his job.” Despite Griffith’s skepticism, Hartnett’s leadership seemed to work: The Cubs began to climb in the standings during September, taking over first place on a game-ending home run by Hartnett himself. The Cubs won the National League, but were quickly downed by the New York Yankees in the World Series. After the season was over, Griffith submitted to Wrigley a 183-page report 24 on the team’s campaign. Griffith wrote that Hartnett “was not at all a smart man. ... He [doesn’t] have the ability to adapt himself to any other style of training and coaching but that with which he had been familiar throughout his playing career.” Even if Wrigley had been inclined to fire Hartnett, the catcher’s late-season heroics had made him a fan favorite, and so he stayed on for the 1939 season. Griffith, too, worked for the Cubs in 1939, though only part time. He submitted just four short reports, but noted in one that, “as far as the team and its management is concerned, we have met not only with failure but with a large amount of suspicion and distrust.” The Cubs finished fourth that year. Griffith filed one last report in 1940, marking the end of psychology’s initial venture into the world of professional sports. Most baseball managers saw the project as a failure, and the idea was not picked up by other teams for a long while to come. Griffith returned to the University of Illinois, where he rose to the level of provost. He retired in 1962 and died in 1966, just a year before the founding of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity. In 1970, University of Massachusetts professors Walter Kroll and Guy Lewis rediscovered Griffith’s work and declared him “America’s First Sport Psychologist.” Today, the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology has an annual award named in his honor. n Christopher D. Green, PhD, is a professor of psychology at York University in Toronto. Katharine S. Milar, PhD, of Earlham College is historical editor of “Time Capsule.” Further reading • Green, C.D. (2003) Psychology strikes out: Coleman R. Grifﬁth and the Chicago Cubs. History of Psychology, 6, 267–283. DOI: 10.1037/1093-4510.6.3.267 • Green, C.D. (2006). Coleman Grifﬁth: “Adopted” father of sport psychology. In L. Benjamin, D. Dewsbury, & M. Wertheimer (Eds.). Portraits of pioneers in psychology (vol. 6). Washington D.C.: APA & Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. • Grifﬁth, C.R. (1928). Psychology and athletics: A general survey for athletes and coaches. New York: Scribner’s. • Kroll, W., & Lewis, G. (1978). America’s ﬁrst sport psychologist. In W. F. Straub (Ed.), Sport psychology: An analysis of athlete behavior (pp. 16–19). Ithaca, NY: Mouvement (Original work published 1970). MONITOR ON PSYCHOLOGY • APRIL 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - April 2012

Monitor on Psychology - April 2010
Letters
President’s Column
Contents
From the CEO
Internship Shortage Continues
Mental Health Services Remain Scarce at Community Colleges
Apa Weighs in on the Constitutionality of Life Without Parole for Juvenile Offenders
Apa Praises Court’s Support for Equality
New Mobile App Answers Psychologists’ Clinical Questions
Nih Offers Free Web Resources for Psychologist Researchers
New and Improved Psyclink
In Brief
Government Relations Update
Time Capsule
Questionnaire
Random Sample
Judicial Notebook
Early Career Psychology
Psychologist Profile
Coal Miners’ Dilemma
The Science of Political Advertising
Science Watch
Science Directions
More Support Needed for Trauma Interventions
The Case Against Spanking
Innovative Psychology at the High School Level
Speaking of Education
Apa Divisions Reach Out to New Psychologists
New Journal Editors
A Home Base for Multiple Fields
Division Spotlight
American Psychological Foundation
Awards and Funding Opportunities
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - April 2012