author
James Burt Miner
1873–1943
A psychologist and educator of the early 20th century, he wrote about mental testing, learning, and delinquency at a moment when those ideas were reshaping schools and social policy. His best-known work, Deficiency and Delinquency, shows how closely scientific research and public debate could overlap in his era.
1 Audiobook
Deficiency and Delinquency: An Interpretation of Mental Testing
by James Burt Miner
About the author
Born in 1873, James Burt Miner was an American psychologist whose work is linked with the University of Minnesota and later with Carnegie Institute of Technology. He also published early research on rhythm and perception, including Motor, Visual and Applied Rhythms in 1903.
Miner is best remembered for Deficiency and Delinquency (1918), a study that brought together psychology, education, and the treatment of young offenders. The book reflects the concerns of its time, using mental testing to interpret behavior and social adjustment, and it became one of the works associated with early applied and educational psychology.
He died in 1943. Today, his writing is often of interest both for its place in the history of psychology and for what it reveals about changing ideas of intelligence, disability, and social reform in the United States.