Industrial Psychologist Puts Troubled Companies ‘On the Couch’

Solving a company problem is no different than curing a human problem, contends John C. Bruckman, 39, an Irvine industrial psychologist. “In effect,” he said, “we put the company on the couch, so to speak, to see what’s wrong with it.”

Bruckman, a professor of management at Cal State Polytechnic in Pomona who also heads up an Irvine consulting firm, said tough international competition is spurring large corporations to take a better look at themselves and the way they’re acting.

“Our work is very much the same as a doctor who gives a patient a diagnostic checkup because he has a pain,” said Bruckman, who recently received a $2,500 Meritorious Performance and Professional Promise Award from Cal Poly. “Then the doctor comes back with a diagnosis and a way to cure the problem with therapy. We do the same thing.”

Industrial psychologists are not all that rare, noted Bruckman, a Fulbright Scholar and a Coro Foundation fellow who said there may be as many as 50 other industrial psychologists in Southern California.

“Most psychologists go into clinical work,” he said, “but we both have the same treatment. Our work is just harder to explain.”

Mention motherhood and apple pie and you must be talking about Janet Johnson of Orange, who is a winner on both counts.

First, she has four children, and second, her apple pie won the grand prize among the 42 entries at the City of Orange homemade apple pie contest.

“The family wasn’t surprised that I won,” she said, “but I was. I’ve never, never ever won anything before.”

Although she doesn’t have the recipe written down, she said the key to good taste is the three different types of apples she used--Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith.

And husband Eynon, a toolmaker, helped. “He peeled and cut the apples,” she said.

A whole bunch of folks threw a surprise party for Bess De Witt of Anaheim, who was celebrating her 100th birthday, and she let everyone know right off that “I feel like I did 60 years ago.” She also told a reporter she does her own cooking and cleaning “and I don’t think people are worth their salt if they can’t take care of their own affairs and their children.” Although outspoken, “Aunt Bess” or “Grandma Bess,” as many call her, spends much of her time writing lullabies.

Researchers who study fish, reptiles and amphibians were quite taken by Cal State Fullerton graduate student Pamela L. Limberger, 29, of Yorba Linda, who gave them a 12-minute rundown on her study of lizard scales. Limberger has been studying the scales to determine whether they can provide clues to the genetic heritage of lizards. Her presentation recently at the University of Tennessee earned her a science award of $350 cash and $100 worth of books from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.