Ebbinghaus said this because psychology’s questions go back to the ancients

As a young man, James floated directionless, rejecting chemistry, natural science, dabbling in medicine, until finally discovering psychology.

• He visited Fechner, Helmholtz,Wundt & DuBois-Reymond.
• He finally graduated in medicine. He was offered a job at Harvard teaching physiology & anatomy.
• He contemplated suicide at age 28.

In 1874, James taught his first class on physiology and psychology (making it up as he went along).

• In 1874, James taught his first class on physiology and psychology (making it up as he went along).

• In 1882, he took a leave of absence to visit European psychologists again.

• In 1890, he published Principles of Psychology which became an instant classic.

• Theodore Roosevelt was a famous student of James.

• After the success of his book, he withdrew from experimental research -- not worth the effort.

Available as an ebook that can be read on the web:

• Available as an ebook that can be read on the web:

• http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/james/william/principles/complete.html

He became increasingly interested in mind-body relationships and psychical phenomena.

• He became increasingly interested in mind-body relationships and psychical phenomena.

• Psychosomatic illness led to interest in “mind cures.”
• He studied automatic writing, telepathy, clairvoyance, fortune-tellers, religious experience (energy flow).

• He wrote “Pragmatism” expressing a practical philosophy – pragmatic criteria for judging truth.

• All beliefs are judged by their consequences in action.
• If a belief in God works, it is a pragmatic truth for that person.

He opposed the Wundt-Titchener approach.

• He opposed the Wundt-Titchener approach.

• He proposed an analytical approach that studies the functions of consciousness & its characteristics.

• Consciousness is adaptive – lets us adjust to environment
• Also, personal, ever-changing (a stream), selective.

• James-Lange theory of emotion – the perception of changes in the nervous system constitute emotion.

• Cannon criticized this view

• Habits are formed by nurture early in life.

James said the strength of a memory depends on the quality of the structure of the brain, an innate characteristic not influenced by experience.

• James said the strength of a memory depends on the quality of the structure of the brain, an innate characteristic not influenced by experience.

• Systematically linking facts together might improve memory.
• This contradicted the dominant view, formal discipline, that said a general intellectual faculty could be developed via exercise.

• Memorizing poems (Victor Hugo’s Satyr and Milton’s Paradise Lost), he demonstrated interference.

A contemporary of James, Hall grew up in a farm family of Puritan heritage.

• A contemporary of James, Hall grew up in a farm family of Puritan heritage.

• At age 16, he worked as a village school teacher.

• Later, he attended Williams college and Union Theological Seminary in NYC.

• In 1869, he went to Europe, then returned & finished seminary and taught at Antioch College.

• He ultimately did his Ph.D at Harvard, then went back to Europe to study in Wundt’s lab.

Hall lectured on the German psychologists at Harvard and Johns Hopkins which led to a job there

• Hall lectured on the German psychologists at Harvard and Johns Hopkins which led to a job there

• The president of Johns Hopkins created fellowships for grad students which attracted excellent students.
• Hall founded a great psychology dept and The American Journal of Psychology.

• Hall was the founding president of Clark University.

• Lots of problems, including being raided by Univ of Chicago (2/3 of faculty & 70% grad students left).

• Hall helped found the APA in 1892 & was president

In 1883, Hall developed questionniares for Boston kindergarten children to assess the content of their minds – how children think.

• In 1883, Hall developed questionniares for Boston kindergarten children to assess the content of their minds – how children think.

• He was the first psychologist to describe adolescence as a separate stage.

• He stressed the importance of genetics & evolution.

• He developed a recapitulation theory (embryological development recapitulates evolutionary development).

• As he grew older he became interested in aging.

Hall felt that adolescent “storm & stress” was largely biological, mediated by family & culture.

• Hall felt that adolescent “storm & stress” was largely biological, mediated by family & culture.

• Mead disagreed, using a 1928 ethnography of Samoa to depict adolescents as free of turmoil.

• Freeman (1983) criticized Mead’s book, claiming that she had diminished “the aggression, violence, and rivalry of Samoan life and exaggerated thedegree of sexual freedom.”

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