Harold Ellis Jones

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Harold Ellis Jones (born December 3, 1894 in New Brunswick , New Jersey , † June 7, 1960 in Paris , France ) was an American developmental psychologist and head of the Institute of Human Development at the University of California at Berkeley . He received recognition in 1950 for his research on the physical abilities of young people.

Life

1894–1914 - childhood and youth

Harold Ellis Jones was born in 1894, the second child of Elisha Adams Jones and Lessie E. Brown Jones. Both parents were educated, his father, Elisha Adams Jones, had a bachelor's degree and his mother attended private school in Philadelphia . At the time of Harold Jones' birth, his father was running the Agricultural Experimental Farm at Rutgers University . A short time later the family moved to Amherst , where Jones' father took over the management of the experimental farm at the Massachusetts Agricultural College . Years later, the Joneses moved again to New Canaan, Connecticut , where Jones' father ran a large estate. Harold Jones spent his childhood there.

As a child, Jones had diphtheria, which resulted in heart failure. He was therefore homeschooled and prepared for high school . In high school he was an excellent student, editor of the school newspaper, president of his senior class, and graduated with honors. Then he wanted to study biology .

1914–1926 - College and University

Jones first attended the Massachusetts Agricultural College , which his father had attended , but then moved to Amherst College two years later . The president there, Alexander Meiklejohn , as well as his professors Robert Frost and Stark Young influenced his further development. He majored in biology and graduated magna cum laude in 1918 . He spent the following summer at the Institute of Marine Biology in Wood's Hole , Massachusetts , after which he returned to college in Amherst for a year, where he worked as a biology assistant.

Why he eventually switched to psychology is not known. In 1919 Harold Jones went to Columbia University in New York City , where he met his future wife Mary Cover Jones in the first year , who was studying psychology there like him. They spent most of their time together in college because they had taken almost the same courses and studied together. A year later they did their Masters . That summer, Jones and his wife worked together for the first time, at a facility where, under Harold Jones' direction, they performed intelligence tests on people with intellectual disabilities. This was the beginning of a long-term partnership. In September, on Mary Cover Jones' birthday, they were married by the American socialist Norman Thomas . Then they continued their doctoral studies .

Jones was an outstanding student. He was interested in experimental psychology . He became an assistant to Professor Robert S. Woodworth , with whom he was also a friend, and began teaching in the field before graduating. But influenced by his wife, he switched to developmental psychology over time . He wrote his dissertation on teaching at college (Experimental studies of college teaching; the effect of examination on permanence of learning) and completed his studies in 1923 with a doctorate . He then continued to teach at Columbia while his wife wrote her dissertation and completed her study of little Peter .

During this time their two daughters were born, Barbara in 1922 and Lesley three years later. In 1926 his wife also graduated.

1927–1960 - Professor at Berkeley

Institute of Child Welfare, Berkeley

In 1927, Harold Jones was offered the position of director of research at the recently founded Institute of Child Welfare (now the Institute of Human Development ) at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). His wife was also offered a job there, so the family moved to the west coast of California. At the same time he worked as an assistant professor ( Assistant Professor ) before he was appointed Professor ( Full Professor ) in 1931 .

As early as 1928, the Jones' began, together with the director of the institute, Herbert Stolz, with their work on the three long-term studies, the Oakland Growth and Berkeley Guidance Studies . The development of babies was observed in the Guidance Study and the Berkeley Growth Study , which Jones hired psychologists Jean Walker Macfarlane and Nancy Bayley to lead. The Oakland Growth Study looked at that of fifth and sixth graders during puberty and was supervised by the Jones and Herbert Stolz couple themselves. At the end of the allotted time, further related studies followed, which accompanied the participants into advanced adulthood and which were later combined into the Intergenerational Studies of Development and Aging . As head of the institute from 1935 onwards, it was thanks to Jones that it became an interdisciplinary institution as he hired professionals from different fields, not only psychologists like Erik H. Erikson , Else Frenkel-Brunswik and Nevitt Sanford , but also doctors and social workers. He benefited from the so-called brain drain , during which many refugees, including scientists, emigrated to the USA before the impending war in Europe.

In 1952, Harold Jones and his wife produced the first television teaching course in child psychology. It was very successful and included interviews with professionals as well as parents and children.

During his time at Columbia and Berkeley, Jones wrote more than 160 scientific papers. But in addition to his interest in psychology and his skills as a writer, he remained true to his love for nature, which had shaped him since childhood.

At the beginning of their retirement in 1960, Harold Jones and his wife flew to Europe to take their first foreign vacation there. But in Paris, just a few days after their arrival, Jones suffered a fatal heart attack.

recognition

Harold Jones was President of the following organizations:

In 1950 he received an award from the American Academy of Physical Education for his research into physical abilities in adolescence . In 1960 the nursery school of what is now the Institute of Human Development was renamed the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center .

Works (selection)

  • 1923: Experimental studies of college teaching; the effect of examination on permanence of learning , New York.
  • 1943: Development in adolescence: approaches to the study of the individual , Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York.
  • 1949: Motor Performance and Growth: A Developmental Study of Static Dynamometric Strength , University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 1st edition.
  • 1957 (with Mary C. Jones): Growth and behavior in adolescence. Pacific Rotaprinting Company, Oakland, California.

literature

  • Herbert Conrad: Studies in Human Development: Selections from the Publications and Addresses of Harold Ellis Jones , Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc, 1st edition, 1966
  • Mary Cover Jones: Harold E. Jones and Mary C. Jones, Partners in Longitudinal Studies. , an oral history conducted 1981–1982 by Suzanne B. Riess, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 1983, ISBN 1-152-53938-8 .
  • Bettyjane Koenig Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Dissertation. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 210-427.
  • R. Nevitt Sanford, Dorothy H. Eichorn, Marjorie P. Honzik: Harold Ellis Jones, 1894-1960. In: Child Development. 31, 1960, pp. 593-608.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mary Cover Jones: Harold E. Jones and Mary C. Jones, Partners in Longitudinal Studies. , an oral history conducted 1981–1982 by Suzanne B. Riess, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 1983, p. 32.
  2. ^ R. Nevitt Sanford, Dorothy H. Eichorn, Marjorie P. Honzik: Harold Ellis Jones, 1894-1960. In: Child Development. , P. 593.
  3. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 214-215.
  4. ^ R. Nevitt Sanford, Dorothy H. Eichorn, Marjorie P. Honzik: Harold Ellis Jones, 1894-1960. In: Child Development. , P. 593.
  5. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 215-216.
  6. ^ R. Nevitt Sanford, Dorothy H. Eichorn, Marjorie P. Honzik: Harold Ellis Jones, 1894-1960. In: Child Development. , Pp. 593-594.
  7. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 216-217.
  8. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 217, 219-221, 223.
  9. ^ R. Nevitt Sanford, Dorothy H. Eichorn, Marjorie P. Honzik: Harold Ellis Jones, 1894-1960. In: Child Development. , P. 594.
  10. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 228-229.
  11. ^ Deana Dorman Logan, Mary Cover Jones: Feminine as Asset. P. 105.
  12. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, p. 229.
  13. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 241-242.
  14. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 227-229, 249.
  15. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 259-268.
  16. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 268-273, 279-280.
  17. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 289-290, 313-314.
  18. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, pp. 317-318.
  19. ^ Obituary for Harold Jones on the University of California website , accessed January 17, 2013
  20. ^ BK Reiss: A Biography of Mary Cover Jones. Wright Institute, Los Angeles 1990, p. 324.
  21. ↑ Harold E. Jones Child Study Center website , accessed January 17, 2013


personal data
SURNAME Jones, Harold Ellis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jones, Harold E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH New Brunswick
DATE OF DEATH June 7, 1960
Place of death Paris