Douglas Henry Fryer

Background

He was born in Willimantic, Connecticut, the son of Henry Fryer and Nellie E. Finley.

Education

After graduating from Springfield College in Massachusetts in 1914, he attended Brown University for a year and then Clark University, from which he received his M. A. in 1917 and his Ph. D. in psychology in 1923.

Career

During World War I, Fryer was a psychological examiner and morale officer.

In 1924 he was an assistant professor at the University of Utah. The remainder of his academic career was spent at New York University, where he started as an assistant professor in 1924 and became an associate in 1928.

During the years 1925-1940 he was administrative chairman of the University Heights Department of Psychology, where he organized an experimental laboratory and became its first director of industrial training in 1949.

Fryer wrote his major book, Measurement of Interests in Relation to Human Adjustment, in 1931. Its aim was "to include between the covers of one book all that is of quantitative value" concerning subjective and objective measurement of educational and vocational interests. One of his conclusions was that objective measures were superior to subjective measures.

The book was used as a text and remains an interesting historical record of the early development of what is today an important area of applied psychology.

During World War II, he was first a research investigator for a committee on the selection and training of aircraft pilots (1940 - 1942).

Fryer became an adjunct professor at New York University in 1952.

Fryer died in Rye, New York.

Achievements

• He became the first president of the Association of Consulting Psychologists in 1930. In 1937 he was elected president of the American Association for Applied Psychology. During the years 1936-1946 Fryer was a collaborator of the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. From 1943 to 1945 he was chief of personnel research in the War Department. In 1945 he became one of the founding directors of Richardson, Bellows, Henry and Company, a firm of consulting psychologists. From 1945 to 1947 he worked on personnel research in the Adjutant General's Office. In 1949-1950 he served as vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and as chairman of its psychology section. In 1950 he helped the Arabian Oil Company set up industrial training programs in the Middle E.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Handbook of Applied Psychology

    ("This 'Handbook' is intended to serve three purposes: (1)...)

  • An outline of general psychology (College outline series)
  • General Psychology
  • A GUIDE FOR DETERMINING TRAINING AID AND DEVICE REQUIREMENTS

  • book

Views

Interest and morale were the focus of Fryer's research.

A zest for social living was reflected in Fryer's own career.

He was not only a trainer and teacher but also a university administrator, consultant, collaborator, army officer, and editor. Several years before his death, former graduate students set up a fund in his name providing an annual stipend for leading doctoral candidates in the field of industrial psychology.

Quotations: He said that "a social organization exists only because of the morale of its members. A nation, a labor union, a social group, a social class, an army, a gang, a university exists because of its morale.

Buildings, orders, authority, rules, laws, ownership, materials, books, etc. , are but tools for the expression of well-being and a zest for social living. "

Membership

He became a member of the Association of Consulting Psychologists in 1930.

Connections

Fryer married Katharine Homer on August 25, 1934; they had five daughters.

Wife:

Katharine Homer

father Henry Fryer mother Nellie E. Finley