The Biometrics Research Unit of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene

Abstract

The 1955–56 Annual Report of the Department of Research Psychology at the New York State Psychiatric Institute begins by noting that –Dr. Joseph Zubin, who had been Associate Research Scientist in this department since September, 1938, resigned January 15th, 1956 to become Principal Research Biometrician, heading a new Department [now Unit] of Biometrics Research…” While this move soon proved to be a stimulus for the development of significant new avenues of research, it by no means marked a sharp break with previous work. As Zubin has often noted, the late Carney Landis, when he was head of the Department of Research Psychology, actively fostered a variety of biometric studies, and indeed the annual reports of that department had eventually come to contain a separate section devoted to biometrics, in which the work of Zubin and his colleagues figured prominently. Much of this work would serve as the foundation of the new unit's research programme. In particular, an extensive study of prognosis in early and chronic schizophrenia had already been in progress for several years. In addition to interviews, a battery of tests was employed to sample a range of levels in the patients' functioning: psychophysical, psychophysiological, psychomotor, perceptual, behavioural, and conceptual.