Marion A. Wenger

Marion Augustus "Gus" Wenger (March 12, 1907 – July 26, 1982) was an American psychologist who specialized in psychophysiology. He was born in Wheeling, West Virginia. At an early age he was nicknamed Gus. Wenger died at the age of 75 due to heart failure.

Academic career Wenger graduated from the University of Michigan by the late 1920’s with a BA degree.

Employment

Wenger worked as a research assistant at the University of Chicago where he examined children with abnormal mental health problems, working with his colleague F. N. Freeman on a test battery After spending a significant amount of time at the Santa Ana Army Air Base working on a test battery with colleague J.P. Guilford, he was able to conduct his own personal research (which led to the creation of Studies of Autonomic Balance in Army Air Forces Personnel). The monograph was a part of the Aviation Psychology Program of the Army Air Forces. and Mechanical emotion. The second work is considered a response to the psychologist Boring which deals with Wenger’s perspective on viscero-affective behavior. Both works paved the way for how modern researchers see the connection between emotions and the autonomic nervous system and helped create a foundation for psychophysiology and progressed further understanding of emotional behavior in humans.

During his time as a professor at UCLA, he helped mentor 30+ doctoral students, 15 post-doctorate mentees ”. Autonomic Activity During Sexual Arousal. Psychophysiology, 4(4), 468–478. (1968) Wenger, M. A. (1948). Studies of Autonomic Balance in Army Air Forces Personnel (Vol. 19). Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press Wenger, M.A. Emotion as visceral action: An extension of Lange’s theory. In M.L. Reymert (Ed.), Feeling and emotion; The Moosehart-Chicago Symposium. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1950. pp. 3–10 Wenger, M.A. Mechanical emotion. Journal of Psychology. 1950. 29, 101-108