Joseph Peterson

Joseph Peterson (September 8, 1878 – September 20, 1935) was an American psychologist and a past president of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Early life Joseph Peterson was born on September 8, 1878, in Huntsville, Utah. His parents, Hans Jorgen Peterson and Inger Mary Christensen, were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who had immigrated from Denmark to the United States.

Peterson attended Brigham Young University, the University of Utah and the University of California, before earning a B.S. in 1905 and Ph.D. in 1907 from the University of Chicago. He was Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah from 1911 to 1915, when he again resigned in protest against a serious institutional curtailment of academic inquiry. With his former student, Lyle H. Lanier, who by then taught at Vanderbilt University, he co-authored Studies in the comparative abilities of whites and Negroes in 1929. They concluded that "the whites were superior" due to "hereditary differences." they concluded this was due to "cultural factors." He stressed the role of environment in mental abilities, as New York City blacks tested higher than Southern blacks. A decade later, he served as the president of the American Psychological Association in 1934, becoming first APA president who worked at a Southern university. He was also the editor of Psychological Monographs.

Death Peterson died of pneumonia on September 20, 1935, in Berkeley, California.