Likes To Delve Into The Why And Wherefore Of Individual Differences


CHARLES H. GRIFFITTS, 
Ph.D.'19, Professor of Psychol
ogy in the University, is hard at 
work these days helping to get the 
new Psychological Service Unit of
 the Institute of Human Adjustment 
in running order and "they say" he 
is likely to continue to be associated
 with it.

He is a member of the Ex
ecutive Committee of the Michigan 
Child Guidance Institute, which is 
under the jurisdiction of the mem
bers of the Board of Regents. One of the reasons he wants to see the 
new Unit in operation is because it
 can assist with the examination of 
the children who are brought to the 
Institute. Professor Griffitts' special 
field is the study of individual dif
ferences. He has been mainly inter
ested in determining the causes of 
individual differences, in developing 
better ways of measuring them, and 
in the clinical applications of this 
field of psychology.

He teaches "In
dividual and Race Differences,"
 "Measurement of Individual Differ
ences," "Vocational Psychology,"
 and another course called "Instinct, 
 Emotion, Affection and Tempera
ment." The clinical psychologist, he 
believes, needs all the help zoology, 
 physiology, neurology, psychiatry
 and sociology can give him in order
 to see all the aspects of an individ
ual, the reasons for his being what 
he is and the course of his develop
ment.

One of his hobbies is closely
 related to his field. He likes to raise 
young animals of various kinds 
under conditions controlled by him
self so that he may study the development of their behavior and 
relate these observations to the de
velopment of the human individual. 
 One of his most interesting studies has been made of fighting fish raised 
in isolation. He also is something
 of a fisherman and has developed
 some specialties in fishing flies and
 other equipment, which his friends
 declare have special magic. Profes
sor Griffitts received his A.B. at
 Campbell College and his A.M. at 
the University of Kansas. He taught 
at the latter institution and at Park 
College before coming to Michigan 
as Instructor in 1917. During the
 World War he was in the Air Service in Medical Research.