Was Industrial Psychology Based on a Typo?

William Lowe BryanOn Dr. Patrick McCarthy’s Brief Outline of the History of I/O Psychology, it says:

The term ‘industrial psychology’ first appeared in a 1904 article of [William Lowe] Bryan’s APA [presidential] address. Ironically, it appeared in print only as a typographical error. Bryan was quoting a sentence he had written five years earlier in which he spoke of the need for more research in individual psychology. Instead, Bryan wrote industrial psychology and did not catch his mistake.

McCarthy attributes this finding to “Muchinsky, 1997, p. 10.” Although I have found several books and articles by Paul M. Muchinsky on industrial psychology, I have not been able to find one from 1997 containing a p. 10. I have tried to contact Dr. McCarthy without luck. Can anyone point me to the relevant Muchinsky publication?

About Christopher Green

Professor of Psychology at York University (Toronto). Former editor of the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. Creator of the "Classics in the History of Psychology" website and of the "This Week in the History of Psychology" podcast series.

2 thoughts on “Was Industrial Psychology Based on a Typo?

  1. WorldCat says the 5th edition of Psychology applied to work: an introduction to industrial and organizational psychology was published in 1997. (As far as I can tell, the 1st edition was published in 1983.)

    Judging from the edition available for preview at Amazon.com (7th), this is the book you want: the “history” section starts on page 8.

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