Hugo Münsterberg ( 1863 – 1916 ) was
a German-American psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in applied
psychology, extending his research and theories to Industrial/Organizational
(I/O), legal, medical, clinical, educational and business settings.
Münsterberg encountered immense turmoil with the
outbreak of the First World War. Torn between his loyalty to America and his
homeland, he often defended Germany's actions, attracting highly contrasting
reactions.
In 1891, he was promoted to assistant
professorship and attended the First International Congress of psychology where
he met William James. They kept up a
frequent correspondence and in 1892 James invited
him to Harvard for a three year term as a chair of the psychology lab even
though Münsterberg did
not speak English at the time. He learned to speak English rather quickly and
as a result his classes became very popular with students, in fact he was
attracting students from James's classes.
Over time Münsterberg's interests turned to the many practical
applications of psychological principles, he felt very strongly that
psychologists had the responsibility to uncover information that could then be
used in real world applications. In fact he was the first to apply psychological
principles to the legal field, creating forensic psychology.
In 1908,
Münsterberg published
his controversial book, On the Witness Stand (1908) which is a collection of
magazine articles previously published by him where he discuses the many different
psychological factors that can change a trial's outcome and pointed the way for
rational and scientific means for probing the facts claimed by human witnesses
by the application of experimental psychology to the administration of law. He
is also credited with being among the first to consider jury research.
In Psychology
and Industrial Efficiency (1913) Münsterberg addressed many different topics that are very
important to the current field of industrial psychology.
Münsterberg and
his brothers converted to Lutheranism soon after their father's death in 1880.
He believed in God and life after death but was an opponent to spiritualism and
had a "great
record of exposing mediums and other psychic charlatans".
On 18 December
1909, in New York, Münsterberg exposed the fraud mediumship of Eusapia
Palladino.
With the help of a hidden man lying under a table, Münsterberg caught Palladino levitating a table with her foot. Some investigators
were originally baffled how Palladino could move curtains from a distance when
all the doors and windows in the séance room were closed, but it was discovered
by Münsterberg that she moved the curtains by releasing
a jet of air from a rubber bulb that she had in her hand.
“You can make the hypnotized subject
do almost anything, but you cannot make him will to do it.” This is the sine
qua non of hypnotism.
[
Sine qua non ]
See also:
No comments:
Post a Comment