Clairette Papin Armstrong

Clairette Papin Armstrong
Armstrong, from the 1908 yearbook of Barnard College
Born(1886-04-15)April 15, 1886
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedFebruary 5, 1973(1973-02-05) (aged 86)
New York, New York, U.S.
RelativesDonald Armstrong (brother)
David H. Armstrong (grandfather)

Clairette Papin Armstrong (April 15, 1886 – February 5, 1973) was an American psychologist and writer who studied juvenile delinquency and promoted eugenics through the 1930s and 1940s.

Early life and education

Armstrong was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Samuel Treat Armstrong and Alice Cobin Armstrong. Her father was an army surgeon and head of the Hillborn Farm Sanitarium in Katonah, New York.[1] Her paternal grandfather David H. Armstrong was a United States senator from Missouri. Her younger brother Donald Armstrong was a brigadier general during World War II.[2][3]

She played tennis in college[4] and graduated from Barnard College in 1908. She earned a master's degree from Columbia University in 1909, and a Ph.D. in psychology from New York University in 1931.[2]

Career

Armstrong went to Europe as a Red Cross nurse during World War I.[5] From 1924 to 1926, she was chief psychologist at Bellevue Hospital. She worked with the Children's Court from 1926 to 1933, and with the Domestic Relations Court from 1933 to 1946.[2] In 1934 she spoke at the Eugenic Research Association meeting in favor of eugenic immigration policies, specifically to prevent juvenile delinquency.[6][7]

Publications

Armstrong's research was published in academic journals including The Journal of Educational Sociology,[8] Journal of Applied Psychology,[9] Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,[10][11][12] American Psychologist,[13] The Psychological Clinic,[14][15] Journal of Genetic Psychology,[16] Journal of Heredity,[17][18] and The Journal of General Psychology.[19] In her later years she had at least one paper published in a white supremacist journal, Mankind Quarterly.[20]

  • "A Study of the Intelligence of Rural and Urban Children" (1931)[8]
  • "Some Performance Test Norms for Children" (1932)[21]
  • "Sex differences in the mental functioning of school children" (1932)[9]
  • 660 runaway boys; Why boys desert their homes (1932)[22]
  • "The Gestalt of the Delinquent Child" (1933)[10]
  • "Delinquency and Primogeniture" (1933)[14]
  • "Some immigration methods and results in deviates" (1933)[15]
  • "Some mental and social inadequates" (1935)[12]
  • "A psychoneurotic reaction of delinquent boys and girls" (1937)[11]
  • "'Apperception Mass' or Psychology Right and Left? Suggested Planks for a Eugenics Platform" (1937)[18]
  • "Liberty and Mental Defect" (1940)[17]
  • "Some Comparisons of Negro and White Delinquent Boys" (1945, with Florence Heisler)[16]
  • "On defining psychology as a profession" (1947)[13]
  • "Psychosomatics of Everyday Life" (1949)[23]
  • "Some Notes on Imagery in Psychophysical Therapy" (1953)[19]
  • "Integrated Schools and Negro Character Development: Some Considerations of the Possible Effects" (1964, with A. James Gregor)
  • "Psychodiagnosis, Prognosis, School Desegregation, and Delinquency" (1964)[20]

Death

Armstrong died in 1973, at her home in New York City, at the age of 86.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "S. T. Armstrong, 83, Katonah Physician; Sanitarium Head, a Surgeon in War With Spain, Dies; Was Father of General". The New York Times. September 1, 1944. p. 13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-03.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Dr. Clairette P. Armstrong, Research Psychologist, 86". The New York Times. February 8, 1973. p. 46. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-03.
  3. ↑ "Chicago Area Ordnance Chief is Ex-resident, NRHS Graduate". The Standard-Star. 1942-06-04. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-06-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "Finals of the Spring Tournament". Barnard Bulletin. 1905-10-02. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-06-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "World War Nurses Plan Reunion Here; Hospital and Canteen Workers of Overseas Service League to Dine Next Tuesday". The New York Times. January 20, 1933. p. 14. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-03.
  6. ↑ "Law Urged to Bar 'Inferior' Aliens; Psychologist Tells Eugenics Group Bulk of Delinquents Are Kin of Foreign-Born". The New York Times. June 3, 1934. p. 23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-03.
  7. ↑ Armstrong, Clairette P. (April 22, 1934). "Immigrants Blamed for Our Delinquents; Low-Grade Newcomers Held Common Denominator of Some of Our Crime and Social Misfits". The New York Times. p. 68. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-03.
  8. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (1931). "A Study of the Intelligence of Rural and Urban Children". The Journal of Educational Sociology. 4 (5): 301–315. doi:10.2307/2961008. ISSN 0885-3525.
  9. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (1932). "Sex differences in the mental functioning of school children". Journal of Applied Psychology. 16 (5): 559–571. doi:10.1037/h0073734. ISSN 1939-1854.
  10. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (April 1933). "The Gestalt of the delinquent child". The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 28 (1): 87–90. doi:10.1037/h0072121. ISSN 0096-851X.
  11. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (October 1937). "A psychoneurotic reaction of delinquent boys and girls". The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 32 (3–4): 329–342. doi:10.1037/h0059539. ISSN 0096-851X.
  12. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (October 1935). "Some mental and social inadequates". The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 30 (3): 371–383. doi:10.1037/h0057416. ISSN 0096-851X.
  13. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (October 1947). "On defining psychology as a profession". American Psychologist. 2 (10): 446–448. doi:10.1037/h0058831. ISSN 1935-990X.
  14. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (1933). "Delinquency and Primogeniture". The Psychological Clinic. 22 (1): 48–52. PMC 5142693. PMID 28909602.
  15. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (1933). "Some Immigration Methods and Results in Deviates". The Psychological Clinic. 22 (3): 208–211. PMC 5142648. PMID 28909575.
  16. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P.; Heisler, Florence (September 1945). "Some Comparisons of Negro and White Delinquent Boys". The Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology. 67 (1): 81–84. doi:10.1080/08856559.1945.10533339. ISSN 0885-6559.
  17. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (February 1940). "Liberty and Mental Defect". Journal of Heredity. 31 (2): 63–64. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a104841. ISSN 1465-7333.
  18. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (January 1937). ""'Apperception Mass' or Psychology Right and Left? Suggested Planks for a Eugenics Platform". Journal of Heredity. 28 (1): 27–30. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a104259. ISSN 1465-7333.
  19. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. (April 1953). "Some Notes on Imagery in Psychophysical Therapy". The Journal of General Psychology. 48 (2): 231–240. doi:10.1080/00221309.1953.9920193. ISSN 0022-1309.
  20. 1 2 Armstrong, Clairette P. "Psychodiagnosis, prognosis, school desegregation and delinquency." Mankind Quarterly 5, no. 2 (1964): 63.
  21. ↑ Armstrong, Clairette P. (1932). "Some Performance Test Norms for Children". The Psychological Clinic. 21 (1): 39–48. PMC 5142643. PMID 28909570.
  22. ↑ Armstrong, Clairette Papin. (1932). 660 runaway boys; Why boys desert their homes. Boston: R. G. Badger.
  23. ↑ Armstrong, Clairette P. (July 1949). "Psychosomatics of Everyday Life". The Journal of General Psychology. 41 (1): 101–109. doi:10.1080/00221309.1949.9710059. ISSN 0022-1309.
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