History of Division 10

A Bit of History

In the APA Monitor, Dr. Raymond Fowler, a past APA Executive Director, noted that

Throughout APA’s history, psychologists have been interested and involved in the arts…. APA’s Division 10 (Psychology and the Arts) was one of the 19 charter Divisions established by APA in 1945. It now has more than 500 members who are interested in promoting research in psychology and the arts on topics including cognition, creativity, motivation, personality, and the relationship between pathology and the arts.

Gerald C. Cupchik, Rudolf Arnheim, and Colin Martindale published “A History of Division 10 Through the Eyes of Past Presidents,” which appeared in D. Dewsbury (1996) (Ed.), Unification Through Division: Histories of the Divisions of the American Psychological Association, Volume 4, pp. 9-34. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Their chapter chronicles the division’s early years, developing newsletters, as well as successful and failed attempts to change the division’s name. Even the origin of our division’s first name, Division on Esthetics, had a surprising twist. And so if you read this chapter it will provide a sense for how far we have come and just how much we have preserved.

Past Presidents

The presidents of the division represent the rich and diverse history of Division 10. They include: