Maud Merrill James

Maud Amanda Merrill (April 30, 1888 – January 15, 1978) was an American psychologist. Both an alumna and faculty member of Stanford University, Merrill worked with Lewis Terman to develop the second and third editions of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales.

Early life Merrill was born in 1888 in Owatonna, Minnesota. As a child she lived at the Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children, an orphanage of which her father was the director. She earned a psychology degree from Oberlin College in 1911.

Career Employed by the Minnesota Bureau of Research, Merrill was a research assistant assigned to the Faribault Minnesota State Home for the Feeble Minded and she worked as an assistant to bureau head Fred Kuhlmann. After several years with the bureau, she decided to apply to the psychology program at Stanford University and pursue a Ph.D. in psychology.

In the early 1920's, Merrill also worked as a consultant for the juvenile courts in San Jose, California and also established a small psychological clinic for children.

The work for the juvenile courts also inspired her 1947 book, Problems of Child Delinquency. In a review of the book, Ohio State University professor Walter Reckless said that her work "gives ample reason to reconsider the factor of the broken-home family, which many sociologists have discounted in recent years, as well as the IQ level in determining delinquency..."

Death Merrill died at her home in 1978. She lived on the Stanford University campus for nearly 60 years as a graduate student, faculty member and retiree. She was predeceased by her husband in 1966.