Dr. Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr.

Professor of Psychology and Educational Psychology
Presidential Professor of Teaching Excellence
Ph.D., Texas Christian University (1971)

Department of Psychology
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4235

Office: 286 Psychology Building
email: LBenjamin@psych.tamu.edu
Phone: (979) 845-2540
Fax: (979) 845-4727
Web: http://peopl...-benjamin/

• History of applied psychology, especially clinical and industrial/organizational psychology


• Early psychology laboratories and organizations


• Popular psychology in the 19th and 20th centuries


• Psychology�s public image

A little more than a century ago, psychology was transformed from philosophical discourse to laboratory science. Within the span of a mere ten years, the content of textbooks on psychology changed from treatises on moral and mental philosophy to coverage of the "new psychology" with its laboratory methods derived from psychophysics and physiology. Not surprisingly, this rapid metamorphosis caused problems for the new psychology and the new psychologists. My research program as a historian of psychology has focused on some of the problems of this transformation as the new psychology sought to:

1. Establish research laboratories


2. Apply its new laboratory methods outside the university, especially in business


3. Develop professional organizations


4. Create public understanding of the new psychology and its potential applications.

Invited/Keynote Addresses at Professrional Conferences
2007 - National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology
2007 - Mid-South Psychology Conference, Keynote Address
2007 - Best Practices Teaching Conference, Keynote Address
2008 - National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, Keynote Address

International Addresses
2000 - 27th International Congress of Psychology, Stockholm
2006 - University of St. Andrews, Scotland

University Colloqia
2007 - University of Memphis
2007 - University of Central Florida
2007 - Sarah Lawrence College
2007 - Columbia University
2007 - Manhattanville College
2007 - University of Minnesota
2007 - Collin College
2007 - University of Houston
2008 - University of Cincinnati

2007 - Lifetime Achievement Award, Society for the History of Psychology, American Psychological Association
2007 - Honors Teacher/Scholar Award, Texas A&M University
2005 - Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award in Teaching, TAMU
2004 - Presidential Citation, Southwestern Psychological Association
2003 - Helmut Adler Award, Psychology Section, New York Academy of Sciences
2003-present - Presidential Professor of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence, TAMU
2002 - Presidential Commendation, American Psychological Association
2001 - Distinguished Career Contributions to Education and Training Award, American Psychological Association
2000-2005 - Fasken Chair in Distinguished Teaching, TAMU
1996-2007 - Glasscock Professorship in Teaching Excellence, TAMU

Green, C. D., & Benjamin, L. T., Jr. (Eds.) (2009). Psychology gets in the game: Sport,
mind, and behavior, 1880-1960. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

Benjamin, L. T., Jr., & Simpson, J. A. (2009). The power of the situation: The impact of
Milgram’s obedience studies on personality and social psychology. American
Psychologist, 64, 12-19.

Benjamin, L. T., Jr. (2007). A brief history of modern psychology. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley. (translations in Hebrew, Polish, and Portuguese)

Benjamin, L. T., Jr., Whitaker, J. L., Ramsey, R. M., & Zeve, D. R. (2007). John B.
Watson’s alleged sex research: An appraisal of the evidence. American
Psychologist, 62, 131-139.

Benjamin, L. T., Jr. (2006). Hugo Münsterberg’s attack on the application of scientific
psychology. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 414-425.

Benjamin, L. T., Jr., & VandenBos, G. R. (2006). The window on psychology’s
literature: A history of Psychological Abstracts. American Psychologist, 61, 941-
954.

Benjamin, L. T., Jr., Henry, K. D., & McMahon, L. R. (2005). Inez Beverly Prosser and
the education of African Americans. Journal of the History of the Behavioral
Sciences, 41, 43-62.

Benjamin, L. T., Jr. (2005). A history of clinical psychology as a profession in America
(and a glimpse at its future). Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 1-30.

Benjamin, L. T., Jr., & Baker, D. B. (2004). From séance to science: A history of the
profession of psychology in America. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Undergraduate:
PSYC 107: Introduction to Psychology
PSYC 319: History and Systems of Psychology

Graduate:
PSYC 619: History and Systems of Psychology
PSYC 697: Seminar in the Teaching of Psychology

Link to Vita