Edwin Boring - Psychological Organizations, Conferences, and Committees

Psychological Organizations, Conferences, and Committees

In 1919-1922 Boring served as secretary of the American Psychological Association while James McKeen Cattell was president. The two men were both very passionate about their work and often clashed as a result. In 1928 Boring became president of the American Psychological Association.

Even with Boring's influence on the field of psychology, he influenced other disciplines as well. In 1945 he was elected as the chairman of the Publications Committee of the American Philosophical Society.

In 1945 Robert M. Yerkes asked Boring to join his Survey and Planning Committee, designed to bring psychologists together to discuss issues regarding the war and the role psychologists could play during wartime to help provide services to the country. Boring suggested uniting the American Psychological Association and the Association for Applied Psychology and all other societies that were willing. This was an influential move that restructured the American Psychological Association into what it is today. The Intersociety Constitutional Convention was formed and it met in 1943 for the first time. Boring was the first chairman of this Intersociety.

In 1966 Division 26, the Division for the History of Psychology, of the American Psychological Association was formed. During its formation the Division 26 members made a gesture to honor Boring for his tremendous contribution as a historian of psychology. Boring declined to run for president and was made “honorary president”(p. 308) of the Division as an acknowledgment of his work. He was then asked to introduce the first elected president, Robert I. Watson, at the first official meeting, but old age prevented Boring from making the trip. He did introduce him though, through a written statement he mailed, read by John A. Popplestone. In this speech Boring playful jokes that he is the ghost of history’s past, a comment that is echoed by his voice being present without his body.