Documentation, Report on Study of Conscientious Objectors
date: label: date made
content: ca 1918
label: date used
content: 1918
notes: label: Description
content: Mark Arthur May was a professor of educational psychology and Director of the Institute of Human Relations at Yale from 1935–1960. This collection includes his work for the U.S. Army from 1917–1919, when he served under Robert Yerkes.
label: Description
content: According to a biography written by his nephew, during his work for the army, May “was called upon to devise a set of screening procedures to use in determining the validity of requests for deferment by the conscientious objectors. With his seminary training and several weeks of research on some 250 denominations, Mark was able to produce a relatively reliable and objective set of criteria upon which he screened the objectors.” The collection contains examples of tests taken by contentious objectors along with the psychologists’ analysis and reports of the results. It provides insight into both the early history of mental testing in the United States and religious and political beliefs in the early 20th century.
label: Description
content: Examinations of contentious objectors in 1918 and the subsequent reports on the results of the examinations are included in this file. May compiled data on their age, mental age, previous occupations, religious beliefs, education, specific objections to national service, degree of objection to national service, the degree of sincerity, and “miscellaneous considerations.” Between September and December of that year, multiple reports on contentious objectors were collected from different Camps (Sherman, David, Custer, etc.)
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: John Carson, The Measures of Merit: Talents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the French and American Republics, 1750 – 1940 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007).
label: Description
content: Ellen Herman, Romance of American Psychology: Political Culture in the Age of Experts (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
label: Description
content: Mark May, “The Psychological Examination of Conscientious Objectors,” American Journal of Psychology 31 (January 1920): 152-165.
label: Description
content: William W. May, “A PSYCHOLOGIST OF MANY HATS: A TRIBUTE TO MARK A. MAY,” Appalachian State University, May 4, 1977, Accession File.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: World War I
label: Subject
content: Psychology
label: Subject
content: Psychological Tests
label: related event
content: World War I
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of William W. May
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1992.3081.01
label: nonaccession number
content: 1992.3081
label: catalog number
content: 1992.3081.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Sheets, Set Of
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 cm x 22 cm x 28.7 cm; 25/32 in x 8 21/32 in x 11 5/16 in