York University

Graduate Student, Psychology

Thesis Title: Micromotion Study: The Role of Visual Culture in Developing a Psychology of Management

About

I am interested in psychologists' adaptive use of film technology during the early 20th century and its consequences for the discipline. I love pre-war black and white silent cinema, and study (and collect) non-theatrical educational films produced and used by psychologists.

Lately this interest has led me to the films of Lehigh Univeristy industrial psychology professor and early psychology filmmaker Adelbert Ford.

I study the history of psychology and love behaviourism and the experimentalists. I often wonder how visual culture impacted the perceived authority of their psychological arguments. Audiences and affect are key concepts with which I grapple.

In recent years these interests manifested in a study of the earliest micromotion films produced by scientific manager and industrial psychologist Frank and Dr. Lillian Gilbreth.

In June of 2010 I presented a series of their newly digitized films at the Cheiron International Conference in Syracuse, NY.

In November of 2010 I presented a paper at the History of Science Society conference in Montreal. I argued that the films acted to translate ideas between workers, scientific managers, and academics - and, that this translation resulted in 3 separate lives for Micromotion films: first as evidential products aimed at "proving" the validity of scientific management measurements to labour unions, next as promotional materials to gain business and the support of workers, and finally as expressions of the new psychologically-based (and arguably more human-centered) industrial management.

I defend that thesis in January of 2011 (with no revisions!), and now I am pursuing a question that arose through the course of that project: do visual representations of psychological arguments (such as the Gilbreth films, statistical data visualization, photographs, charts, etc...) bolster the perceived authority of those arguments? What are the consequences for psychology's educational films?

In the summer of 2011 I undertook an internship at the Archives for the History of American Psychology in Akron, Ohio. I was able to help preserve and digitize a sample of their film collection, and my blog of the process is available here: http://centerhistorypsychology.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/adventures-in-the-chp-film-archives/

I am so excited to have been able to work with their amazing film collection, and to make these materials newly available to researchers. It feels good to be able to contribute to the preservation of psychology's history!

I also prepared a short and fun film on the history of SPSSI that was shown at their 75th anniversary Gala in Washington DC in August of 2011: http://www.spssitimeline.org/timeline/2010s/spssi-75

As always, I welcome suggestions, film requests, and collaborations!

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