[5][3] From 1920-1921, she also served as the director of research for the Rutherford & Perth Amboy public schools in the state of New Jersey.

[5][3] She was listed as a contributor to Terman's book Genetic Studies of Genius, which was a rare deal for females during the time.

[5][3] Goodenough then went to the University of Minnesota a Child Welfare Institute where she worked as a research professor under John E. Anderson from 1925 to 1930.

Two main areas of focus when discussing nature vs nurture effects were on a child's IQ and their emotional development.

[10][4][11][12] She published the test in Measurement of Intelligence (1926) by drawing, which included detailed accounts of procedures, scoring, and examples.

It was critiqued primarily because many questioned the use of mothers as research participants, with many doubting that nonscientists would successfully record observations for a study.

[13][14] Goodenough's objective was to analyze John B. Watson's[15] assertion that newborns were primarily only capable of three different emotions; these included rage, fear, and love.

[13][2] She gathered forty-one participants ranging from infancy through seven years old and trained the parents to use event sampling and track the outbursts of anger they saw in their children.

[14][7][2] However, Goodenough's research findings indicated that by the time the child reached the age of four, social interactions became the most significant basis of anger.

[7][4][2] Goodenough's findings led her to theorize that it was not the environment that was most influential in emotional development, but actually maturation in young children.

[9][8][2] Overall, Goodenough's publication led to a crucial descriptive awareness for parents and professionals to help acknowledge diverse emotional inclinations in child development.

She earned major respect by her male colleagues, especially Dr. Terman, who was impressed by her own IQ score and said she has a "brilliant mind".

[9] She also was known as a great educator, as one of her students who she instructed was Ruth Winifred Howard, the first African-American female, to receive a Ph.D. in psychology.

[9][2] However, due to a degenerative disease, she was forced to retire early and moved to New-Hampshire, where she eventually went blind.

[9] Despite the illness which induced a loss in sight and hearing, Goodenough published three more books after learning braille; Mental Testing: Its History, Principles, and Applications in 1949, Exceptional Children in 1954, and the third edition of Developmental Psychology in 1959.

Studying exceptional children, child psychology in general, and anger and fear specifically were all points of experimentation for Goodenough's career.