Nicholas Hobbs

Nicholas Hobbs (March 13, 1915 – January 23, 1983) was an American psychologist and a past president of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Biography

Hobbs graduated from The Citadel in 1936 and earned master's and Ph.D. degrees in educational psychology from Ohio State University. He was director of the clinical psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University from 1946-1950, was chair of the psychology department at Louisiana State University from 1950-1951, then moved to chair the Division of Human Development at Peabody College (then a separate school, now part of Vanderbilt University). He served as provost of Vanderbilt University from 1967-1975, after which he helped to found the Vanderbilt Institute for Policy Studies, establishing and serving as the first director of that Institute's Center for the Study of Families and Children until retiring in 1980.^[1]

Hobbs was the 1966 American Psychological Association president .^[2] He chaired the APA committee that created the organization's first code of ethics.^[3] He received the APA Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Institutional Practice in 1980.^[4]

During his academic career, he also served on many regional and national organizations, particularly ones concerned with children, education, and public service.

Based in part on his experience during World War II of helping to establish the selection process for the United States Air Force, he was appointed the first Director of Selection for the Peace Corps in 1961.^[5]

Also in 1961 Hobbs initiated an 8-year pilot project to address the need for effective and affordable mental health programs for children. Project Re-ED, for the re-education of emotionally disturbed children, was funded by a National Institutes of Health grant involving residential programs at the Cumberland House in Nashville, TN and the Wright School in Durham, NC. The innovative program emphasized teaching rather than therapy and addressing the child’s full environment (family, school, neighborhood) rather than treating the child separately, with the goal of teaching children and their caregivers more effective and constructive ways of addressing and overcoming problem situations.^[6] His report of the results was published in his book The Troubled and Troubling Child in 1982, by which time the project included or influenced many more schools across the United States.^[7]

In 1972, Edward Zigler, director of the Office of Child Development, and Elliot Richardson, the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, organized a major effort to standardize and disseminate appropriate diagnostic procedures for classifying and categorizing children with special needs. This resulted in the Project on Classification of Exceptional Children, which Hobbs directed. The task force sought to balance the concerns of accurately classifying special needs of children in order to better facilitate providing help, with the concerns of such a label stigmatizing a child and limiting subsequent expectations and opportunities. The results of this task force were presented in two publications: Issues in the Classification of Children, a two-volume collection of papers by members of the task force which Hobbs edited, and The Futures of Children authored by Hobbs.^[8]

The Nicholas Hobbs Society at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center raises money for research into developmental disabilities.^[9] APA Division 37 awards the Nicholas Hobbs Award for child policy and advocacy.^[10]

Publications

Selected list of books and articles by Nicholas Hobbs:

• Hobbs, N (1948). "The Development of a Code of Ethical Standards for Psychology". American Psychologist. 3 (3): 80–84. doi:10.1037/h0060281. 
• Hobbs, N. (1951). Group-Centered Psychotherapy. In C. R. Rogers (Ed.), Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications, and Theory. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Hobbs, N. (1955). Client-Centered Psychotherapy. In J. L. McCary (Ed.), Six Approaches to Psychotherapy. New York, NY: Dryden Press.
• Hobbs, N (1959). "Science and Ethical Behavior". American Psychologist. 14 (5): 217–225. doi:10.1037/h0046389. 
• Hobbs, N. (1960). Motivation to High Achievement. In B. Schertzer (Ed.), Working with Superior Students: Theories and Practices (pp. 247–264). Chicago, IL: Science Research Associates.
• Hobbs, N (1963). "A Psychologist in the Peace Corps". American Psychologist. 18 (1): 47–55. doi:10.1037/h0048304. 
• Hobbs, N (1964). "Mental Health's Third Revolution". American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 34 (5): 822–833. doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.1964.tb02237.x. 
• Hobbs, N. (1965). How the Re-ED Plan Developed. In N. Long, J., W. C. Morse & R. G. Newman (Eds.), Conflict in the Classroom: The Education of Emotionally Disturbed Children (pp. 286–294). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.
• Hobbs, N (1966). "Helping Disturbed Children: Psychological and Ecological Strategies". American Psychologist. 21 (12): 1105–1115. doi:10.1037/h0021115. 
• Hobbs, N (1973). "The Project on Classification of Exceptional Children". Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 1 (1): 121–124. doi:10.1007/BF00917893. 
• Hobbs, N. (1975). The Futures of Children. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
• Hobbs, N. (1982). The Troubled and Troubling Child. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
• Hobbs, N.; Robinson, S. (1982). "Adolescent Development and Public Policy". American Psychologist. 37 (2): 212–223. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.37.2.212. 
• Hobbs, N. (1984). Strengthening Families. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Hobbs, N., & Perrin, J. M. (1985). Issues in the Care of Children with Chronic Illness. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

References