Goodenough, Florence Laura, 1886-1959

Child psychologist, Minneapolis Child Guidance Clinic (1924-25) and University of Minnesota (1925-1947).

Florence Laura Goodenough, B.S. (1920), M.A. (1921) Columbia University, Ph.D. (1924) Stanford University. Chief psychologist, Minneapolis Child Guidance Clinic (1924-1925), assistant professor (1925-1928), associate professor (1928-1930), professor (1930-1947) Institute of Child Welfare at the University of Minnesota. Best known for her development of the Draw-A-Man Test, used as an index of a child's intelligence.

Florence Goodenough was born in Hoensdale, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1886. She received her B.A. in 1920, and her M.A. in 1921 from Columbia University, while simultaneously working as director of educational research in the New Jersey School system. In 1924, she received her Ph.D. from Stanford University, developing as her thesis, the Draw-A-Man Scale. While at Stanford, she served as a chief research assistant under Dr. Lewis Terman, known for his studies of gifted children.

After working with the Minneapolis Child Guidance Clinic from 1924-1925, Goodenough joined the staff of the newly formed Institute of Child Welfare at the University of Minnesota in 1925. She spent the remainder of her career at the Institute, where she advanced from assistant professor to professor, and due to a disability retired as Professor Emeritus in 1947. Goodenough is perhaps best known for her Draw-A-Man Test, used as an index of a child's intelligence. In addition, she wrote several texts, and numerous articles dealing with exceptional children and mental testing, among other things. Goodenough was president of the Society for Research in Child Development in 1946 and 1947, and held various positions in the American Psychological Association and the National Council of Women Psychologists. Upon her retirement, she moved to Lisbon, New Hampshire, becoming increasingly deaf and blind due to an earlier illness. On April 4, 1959, she died at her winter home in Lakeland, Florida.