Frederick Payne Watts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frederick Payne Watts, (1904, Staunton, Virginia – 2007) was an American psychologist. Watts published many professional studies and died in 2007.
Frederick Payne Watts, noted psychologist was born in 1904 in Staunton to Charles H. and Harriett Watts. Watts was one of five mulatto children, three of whom went on to be a physician, a dentist and of course a psychologist. Despite limited income, high educational aspirations were encouraged from an early age. As a child, Watts was influenced by his father who was an avid reader and supported the family through farming or maintenance work, and his mother, who stayed home to raise their five children. Watts was educated in the Washington, D.C. public school system. Upon graduating from Dunbar High School in 1922, Watts attended Howard University. Initially, he planned on pursuing a career in ophthalmology. Soon after enrolling, Watts changed his focus to psychology, as he was interested in “why people misbehave.” During this time, he studied under Albert Beckham who furthered his interest in the field. Watts graduated in 1926 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and French, and with a teaching fellowship, which allowed him to complete his master's degree. After teaching for a year at Kittrell College in North Carolina, he returned to Washington, D.C. to accept a faculty position at Howard. Before he returned, Beckham left, leaving Watts and Francis Sumner to form the two-person department until Max Meenes joined them in 1930.[1]
Professional life
While at Howard with Sumner, Watts produced two important texts for the emerging literature on Black psychology. Together, they published “Rivalry Between Uniocular Negative After Images and the Vision of the Other Eye” and he independently researched and wrote A Comparative and clinical Study of Delinquent and Non-Delinquent Negro Boys.[1] Watts remained at Howard until 1942, one year after he earned a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941. According to the school's officials, he was the first African American to earn a PhD from the university and fourth in the nation to earn a PhD in psychology.[1] A year later, Watts was drafted by the Army. His appointment did not limit his educational or professional interests but rather gave him room for growth. During the time he served, he was a pre-induction classification officer and personnel consultant, setting up psychological testing facilities and supervising counseling of enlisted personnel. Discharged as a captain in the adjutant general's office, Dr. Watts was appointed assistant chief clinical psychologist for the Veterans Administration regional office in Philadelphia”.[2]
Legacy
Watts returned to Howard in 1948 where he worked until he retired in 1970. Upon his return, he started the Liberal Arts Counseling Service which was renamed University Counseling Service, when they expanded it to serve the entire student body. The University Counseling Service not only gave Watts the opportunity to practice his long term passion full-time, but also gave him a permanent location and transient population which allowed him conduct a number of significant institutional studies. Some of the studies he conducted out of the University Counseling Center include Initial Group Counseling of Freshmen, A Study of the College Environment, The Development of a Behavior Judgment Scale, and Developmental Counseling.[1]
In addition to teaching psychology and directing the University Counseling Service, he was a Diplomat in Clinical Psychology (ABEPP) and was affiliated with many of the top professional organizations.
Following his retirement from Howard in 1970, Watts maintained an active interest in counseling and clinical psychology. His wife, Louise Armstead Watts, died in 1974. Dr. Watts lived to be 103 years old. He died of congestive heart failure on April 7, 2007 at the Howard University Hospital. He left four daughters, nine grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren.[3]