Augusta Fox Bronner | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 22, 1881 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | December 11, 1966 (aged 85) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Columbia University Teachers College (B.S., A.M., PhD) |
| Occupation | Psychologist |
| Spouse | William Healy (married 1932) |
Augusta Fox Bronner (July 22, 1881 – December 11, 1966)[1][2] was an American psychologist and criminologist, best known for her work in juvenile psychology. She co-directed the first child guidance clinic, and her research shaped psychological theories about the causes behind child delinquency, emphasizing the need to focus on social and environmental factors over inherited traits.
Bronner was born July 22, 1881, in Louisville, Kentucky,[1][3][4] to Gustave Bronner and Hanna Fox Bronner.[5] The family was Jewish,[2] and Augusta Fox Bronner's grandparents on both sides of the family were originally from Germany.[2] She had two siblings, an older brother, and a younger sister.[5]
After living in Cincinnati for several years, Bronner's family returned to Louisville, where Bronner graduated with her high school diploma in 1898.[5][1]
Bronner's mother and grandmother both encouraged her to study and build a career.[5] Bronner had aspired to be a teacher since youth, and after high school, she pursued an educator's certification at the Louisville Normal School.[5] She dropped out briefly, due to eye problems, and spent a year traveling in Europe with her aunt[1] before returning to the Normal School and graduating in 1901.[5]
After enrolling in the Columbia University Teachers College, Bronner completed her bachelor's degree (B.S.[5]) in 1906, soon followed by her master's degree (A.M.[5]) in 1909.[1] During her studies, she worked part-time grading papers for psychologist Edward L. Thorndike.[5] She returned to Louisville briefly, teaching at the local Louisville Girls' High School – her old school[5] – until her father died in 1911.[1] Then she began her doctoral studies at the Teachers' College, working with Thorndike.[1]
In 1914, Bronner completed her doctoral degree and published her dissertation, entitled A Comparative Study of the Intelligence of Delinquent Girls.[2][1] Bronner's research showed that there was no correlation between delinquency and mental disability, undermining the common notion of the time that criminal behavior was passed down through biological factors.[2]
In 1913, while taking a summer course at Harvard University, Bronner met Chicago neurologist and professor William Healy.[1][2] Healy was equally interested in the study of child delinquency,[5] and subsequently hired Bronner to work as a psychologist at his Chicago Juvenile Psychopathic Institute.[2] In 1914, the institute was renamed the Psychopathic Clinic of the Juvenile Court, and Bronner soon became the assistant director.[1] Bronner and Healy proceeded to shape the study and treatment of delinquent youth, contributing to the scientific understanding that most juvenile crimes stemmed from environmental factors instead of hereditary, or genetic, factors.[2] Among other research, she identified that delinquency often arose as a result of placing children with learning disabilities or special abilities in the wrong kinds of educational environments.[1]
In 1917, Bronner and Healy took up new positions at the Judge Baker Foundation of Boston (later the Judge Baker Children's Center[6]), a new publicly funded child guidance clinic attached to the Boston juvenile court.[1] Bronner handled most of the psychological examinations of youth, as well as interviews with girls and the youngest children.[5] In 1927, Bronner and Healy wrote the influential Manual of Individual Mental Tests and Testing, a comprehensive guide to assessing a patient's mental state.[6][5] Although Healy was originally given the full position of director, with Bronner acting as assistant director, Bronner eventually became co-director of the Foundation in 1930.[1][5] The Judge Baker Foundation soon became a model for other child guidance clinics across the country, with its co-directors developing important psychiatric practices such as the "team" method, in which psychologists worked together with social workers and physicians to treat a patient.[5]
On November 19, 1930, Bronner and Healy were invited by President Herbert Hoover to attend the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection.[6]
During the 1930s, Bronner also worked briefly in New Haven, Connecticut, as Director of the short-lived Research Institute of Human Relations at Yale University.[1] She was president of the American Orthopsychiatric Association in 1932.[5]
After her dissertation, Bronner published The psychology of special abilities and disabilities in 1917[1] in which she emphasized the importance of finding tasks that individuals are best suited for and adjusting educational and occupational efforts. Instead of focusing on individuals' disability, we should instead focus on what they enjoy and/or succeed at. Her book has been reprinted multiple times, and helped to augment the vocational testing movement.[5]
Her 1916 article "Attitude as It Affects Performances of Tests" was well-cited by others in subsequent research, exploring how certain factors could affect test results.[5] Specifically, the article emphasized the importance of how an individual approaches a task can contribute to them succeeding or failing. She briefly mentions E. L. Thorndike and his laws of learning, which attitude is connected/a part of one of them. In her article, she believes that there is no way to experimentally study attitude, rather it is only studied through observation, which at the time she highlights is of importance, as the eugenics movement was beginning in the United States. In 1915 Illinois passed its first feeble-minded, which allowed for any individual thought and deemed to be feeble-minded to be institutionalized, often referred to as an order of commitment. Those believed to be 'feeble-minded' were tested using an intelligence test, such as the Binet which assessed social responsibility that became associated with intelligence. Those who showed antisocial behavior were believed to be unintelligent, and feeble-minded. Whereas Bronner noted that mental testing for ability was to find an individual's potential.[7] Factors such as attitude, environment, etc., were highlighted by Bronner as during the time practical problems were based on mentality from results in a laboratory. She argued that any potential influences or problems are relevant since many factors can influence one's performance.[7] She also noted the importance as results from an examiner dictated individuals care and education.[7] Bronner and others studied attitude within the court. A psychological laboratory should meet the following factors, a quiet room, free from distraction, with proper lighting and ventilation.[7] Bronner[7] also discussed the influence onlookers can have on both the examiner and examinee, ultimately there should not be onlookers. Other factors discussed are the time and place the examination occurs. In her article, she discussed completing the examination before or immediately after appearing or being in court, or following an order of commitment as their mental condition may be unusual for the individual.[7] Another factor is motivation, in the article's case the motivation is to determine an individual's future career.[7] In the article, Bronner[7] depicts some common attitudes they have observed while administering adolescents the Binet test that had impacted them, which was seen by retesting them. Overall Bronner's article emphasized the importance of factors that can influence how well individuals do while testing, specifically, she focused on attitudes.[7] Also, in the article she discussed environmental factors that also have impacts on performance, that have received further study.[7]
As her personal and professional relationship with William Healy grew, Bronner retreated from publishing her individual work, preferring to co-write with Healy.[5] In collaboration with Healy, Bronner published multiple books on juvenile psychology, including Reconstructing behavior in youth: A study of problem children in foster families (1929), Treatment and what happened afterward (1939), and What makes a child delinquent? (1948).[1] They also wrote many articles including "How does the School Produce or Prevent Delinquency? (1933). Their article highlighted delinquent behavior in school aged human as resulting from incorrect adjustments made by the school, such as forcing children to repeat a grade or placing them in grades below their current one. They begin to not trust the education system, lack excitement, and become complacent with their education. They find ways to become excited, such as partaking in criminal behavior.
In September 1932,[5] after Healy's wife died, he and Bronner finally married.[1] According to biographer John C. Burnham, marriage changed very little about their professional relationship, its only effects being the easier facilitation of their working together on evenings and weekends and "complicating administration of the clinic" whenever the couple went on vacation together.[5]
A shortage of staff during World War II prolonged Bronner and Healy's work at the Judge Baker Foundation, despite retirement plans.[5] After the couple finally retired in 1946, Bronner destroyed most of her own personal research and unpublished papers, preferring to keep the public's focus on her husband's academic work.[2] Bronner and Healy spent their retirement in Clearwater, Florida.[4]
Bronner died in Clearwater on December 11, 1966.[5]
