Biographical Information of the Author of “Discovering Interests in Living and Working”
Autobiography
It was not for a number of years after completing the assigned thesis topic on feelings and emotions at Northwestern University, that I realized gratefully that it was to become my chief life's work. This discipline, together with that of the course work in the same area, particularly under Dr D. T. Howard, Dr. S. N. Stevens, Dr. Esther Gatewood (Uhrbrock), Dr. A.R.Gilliland and Dr. John J. B. Morgan provided conceptions of ideational and functional psychology to which the chief notions of evaluative-attitudes in the present volume are owed.
I am indebted to Mr. Earl Bedell, Director of Vocational Education, Detroit Board of Education, for the opportunity to conduct experimental classes for six years with adults, to direct the Adult Adjustment and Vocational Guidance Clinic at Northwestern High School Evening School and to teach 36 terms of psychology classes for Detroit Public Schools.
Indebtedness is also owed to Mr. W. H. MacDuff of Chrysler Engineering Division, for the opportunity to work with engineers and Chrysler Institute students in some twenty experimental classes. I am also grateful to Mr. John Amiss, Director of Industrial Education, Chrysler Corporation, for the opportunity to administer tests and guidance information to over 120,000
persons, 16,000 skilled and trade applicants, 4,000 supervisors, 4,500 clerical and office workers, 3,000 engineers, 2,500 sales persons, 1,500 machine adjusters and 65,000 production people. In addition, over 20,000 high school and college students were given various interest and temperament tests, problem and personality inventories and adjustment information.
I am also grateful for help and encouragement of Dr. Walton E. Cole who helped to point the work into some of the areas of moral conceptions and attitudes. To Dr. William Reitz, I am especially grateful for opportunities to work with teachers and for many hours of helpful counsel and constructive suggestions.
With regard to the seven principle factors: The categories of attitude function and origin are owed to the following authors: Body and Mind area, Dr. P. T. Young and Dr. L.T. Troland (biological functions and empathy); Comparison function, Dr. H. Hoffding, Dr. William James, Dr. J. E. Wallin; Definition function, (association, linkage and semantic awareness) Dr. S. I. Hayakawa, Dr. H. Hepner, Dr. W. Johnson; Expectation function, Dr. J.J. B. Morgan and Dr. A. R. Gilliland, (intentional states), Dr. E. L. Thorndike (confirming reactions); Frequency functions and habit formation, William James and many others. Authors have been mentioned in the text wherever general or specific reference has been made to their work.
Additional biographical information – excerpts from his eulogy
I remember Walter when I first met him. It seemed that I had never known a person so completely absorbed in the challenges of living as he was. Everything stimulated him, nothing escaped his interested attention. He seemed to see in every event and in every problem a connection with something else; life was a tapestry in which every thread crossed every other. Walter's versatility is known to all who knew him, he was a psychologist, a musician, a business man, an artisan with tools, a designer of machines, a counselor in industry, a teacher and guide and an author. His mind was not on himself, he was constantly alert to the outer world and to the problems of others. Conflicts among men, conflicts of men with themselves, -- these challenged him as a man of peace and healing to draw from his rich storehouse of knowledge and experience in designing ways to substitute the calm of intelligence for the heat of passion,
If Walter had one overwhelming devotion, a truly religious commitment to a way of life, it was to the use of intelligence, defined as William James defined philosophy, "the habit of always seeing an alternative." For when men, suffering frustrations, irritations and hates of others and thus of themselves, -- when these men would act on emotional impulse to destroy others and thus themselves, Walter would calmly remind them of alternative responses, His motto, if I may offer one for his life was, "Hold it! There surely are other answers" To quote from one of his numerous writings, "Awareness of alternatives not only provides a basis for choice, but also enables the individual to sense the extent to which he can control or direct his life, instead of being enslaved by it."
In life we tend to take one another for granted, but death draws our minds and hearts completely to the person. For a vivid moment we forget his earthly accomplishments, many though they be, and really face him, himself. For a personality is the rarest of all achievements, unique in the world. Never in all eternity has there been nor will there be his duplicate. Walter's achievements were astoundingly many. But it is he, himself, who will live in our hearts. In the next chapter of Walter's life, -- for it is hard to believe that in a life whose first chapter is so vital and fruitful, other chapters will not follow, -- in what is ahead it is easy to picture Walter continuing his truly Socratic role, goading others to know themselves and to use their intelligence to see a world of new possibilities. If we would allow imagination to have its way, we would see Walter continuing his creativeness in a new basement filled as the old with shelves, books, machines, gadgets, -- grinding out the literature of his saving gospel. This would not be fantasy, for we would only be seeing the truth about Walter himself.
Dr. Harold O. Soderquist
Wayne State University
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