Hope Psychology from 1960 to 1970

By the late 1950s the stage was set for the emergence of scientific psychology at Hope College. A convergence of events in 1959 led the department to establish the first laboratories dedicated to psychological research at Hope--at a time when only major research universities had such facilities. Dr. Robert DeHaan received the department's first external research grant (from the U.S. Office of Education, to study educational development in children), and Phil Van Eyl returned to Hope as an instructor. Van Eyl was a 1955 Hope graduate who had just completed all his course work for a Ph.D. in experimental psychology at Claremont Graduate School. Although he had not yet finished his dissertation, he was eager to bring the science of psychology to Hope undergraduates. Van Eyl and DeHaan teamed up to set up laboratory space in the top floor of Van Raalte Hall, the administration building (left photo above). These laboratory rooms were used heavily for the next few years, both for DeHaan's grant-funded research, and for Van Eyl's new course in Experimental Psychology (now called Research Methods).

In 1960 Lars Granberg returned to Hope, now with a University of Chicago Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a sense of the expanding role that psychology would play in the next decades. Within a few years the department had grown to five faculty members, with the addition of Dr. Robert Brown in 1960 and Dr. Les Beach in 1964. The department clearly needed more space, and Van Eyl and DeHaan lobbied hard to obtain a new, larger location. In 1964 the department moved into Shields Cottage, across College Avenue from Dimnent Chapel, in the space now occupied by the Schaap Science Center. Shields Cottage (middle photo above) provided office space, expanded laboratory space, and even a small classroom.

During the next years the research capabilities of the department were strengthened by the addition of social psychologist Dr. David Myers in 1967 and animal researchers Dr. James Motiff and Dr. James Reynierse in 1969. For the first time, Hope psychology students had the opportunity to study the behavior of rats, monkeys, and fish, as well as participate in externally-funded research on social influence.