David Bakan was a major influence in how the field of
psychology implemented the use of
statistics in research, particularly the
statistical test of significance. Bakan was one of the earliest psychologists to promote the use of
Bayesian statistics as an alternative to conventional statistical approaches, first publishing on the topic in 1953. He was one of the founders of the
American Psychological Association's Division 26, the
History of Psychology, and served as the president of the division in 1970–71. After attending
Brooklyn College from 1942 Bakan studied psychology at
Indiana University. He received his PhD in 1948 at the
Ohio State University, under the direction of
Floyd Carlton Dockeray, in aviation psychology, a field of application of industrial psychology. Bakan held several university positions from 1961, teaching at the
University of Chicago, Ohio State,
Harvard, and
York University in Toronto, Canada. Bakan wrote on a wide range of topics including
psychoanalysis,
religion, philosophy, and
research methodology, as well as
child abuse. In his book "Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition" (1958) he attempted to trace the roots of early
psychoanalytic concepts and methods in the
Kabbalah, the Zohar, and talmudic interpretations. His "Duality of Human Existence: An Essay on Psychology and Religion" (1966) made important contributions to the history of psychology, especially in relation to the problem of introspection, research methodology, and the psychology of religion. In this essay, he also coined the psychological use of the terms "Communion" and "Agency". Other books by Bakan include "On Method: Toward a Reconstruction of Psychological Investigation" (1967); "Disease, Pain, and Sacrifice: Toward a Psychology of Suffering" (1968); "Slaughter of the Innocents: A Study of the Battered Child Phenomenon (1971)"; "And They Took Themselves Wives: The Emergence of Patriarchy in Western Civilization" (1979); and "
Maimonides on Prophecy" (1991). Bakan retired in 1991, and served as professor emeritus in York University's Department of Psychology until his death in 2004. ==Personal life==