William McDougall
One of the most rational and interesting of the early psychologists
Anti-mechanistic, but extremely tough minded
One of the most important Englishmen (other than statisticians & industrial
psychologists) in 20th century psychology
Difficult career in England: e.g., lectured at Oxford, but had to
exclude experimental psychology. Lecturer in mental psychology
Came to US in 1920, died in 1938.
Succeeded Munsterberg as chair at Harvard.. Then to Duke
Task of Human Psychology: to account for the complexity of higher behavior,
higher processes, personality, etc., in terms of tissue needs which we share with
animals
McDougall was an M.D.
Thorough physiological training
Worked in Sherrington’s lab (Sherrington: concept of homeostasis) as a
physiologist
Also worked in Goettingen with Mueller; did work in vision (pioneering
work in brilliance)
Also had contact with non-experimentalists in England – testers, interest in
individual differences.
McDougall was probably first “field psychologist” --i.e., first psychologist to be
taken on a field trip by anthropologists (Myers & Rivers in 1901)
Expedition to Tierra del Fuego – southernmost tip of Chile and Argentina.
McDougall went along as a tester
Wrote many books. Most successful: Introduction to Social Psychology (1908)
Went through 20 editions in 17 years
In substance, the first book in Social Psychology
Major currents in 1920’s:
Functionalism
Watsonianism
Gestalt
Hormic psychology (Horme= instinct, urge…. Greek origin)
Tremendous emphasis on MOTIVATION. This doesn’t mean that McDougall
ignores learning, perception, etc; he was as aware of these as Watson.
Emphasis in psychology shifting away from perception to motivation
McDougall was sympathetic to Freud (in fact, his book on the Group Mind (1920)
was even quoted by Freud, who was not known as a great quoter)