Florence Laura Goodenough (1886-1959)

Reading time: 1 minute 36 sec

On 6 August 1886, in the Pennsylvanian In the little village of Honesdale (where the film Blue Valentine was also shot) Florence Laura first saw the light of day, GOODENOUGH.

Florence's birth was followed by 8 siblings. Her parents were farmers; little Florence at first studied at home instead of at school.

As it later turned out, she could easily do this, because she grew into a very clever girl...

From the little village he went straight to the city college.

She easily obtained the teaching qualification, studied psychology, took a school-psychologist post and immediately embarked on PhD studies too.

This was almost impossible for a woman in the America of the 1920s.

Goodenough's career, however, arced ever higher: in 1921 she took part in the development of the famous Stanford-Binet I.Q. test, obtained her doctorate and began to teach at the University of Minnesota, where she became a professor of psychology.

He was famous for his strict examinations: he demanded an absolute maximum from his students (from the women especially) and forgave no one laziness.

(For example, a thesis review written by him from 1941 has survived, in which in a merciless style he fails a student named Mrs Van Hale.)

It also caught the attention of his teacher, the famous intelligence researcher Lewis Terman.

In one of his letters Terman called Miss Goodenough a "brilliant mind”. No wonder, since at that time very few obtained a PhD at Stanford, especially if it was a woman...

She never married, devoted his life to science and teaching.

He wrote seven books, he taught the first woman of colour who obtained a PhD in psychology.

(Incidentally, he adored birds and flowers, and photographed them passionately; colour photography was invented around this time.)

Goodenough, at the age of 61, lost her sight and partly her hearing too, including the creator's own, earlier and later pictures, in some cases even the childhood works (juvenilia), as well as those pictures created by others that demonstrably influenced the artist;

• The famous Draw-A-Man test published it in 1926 and he achieved immediate success with it.

Within three years the test became the 3rd most frequently used clinical psychological test, indeed...

• ... is still one of the most widespread tests today.

What was Goodenough's HIS BRILLIANT MISTAKE?

If you have an idea, write it below among the Comments, or else continue reading with Part II:

On to Part II »