DIRECTORY 335
CHARLES SAMUEL MYERS
1873– 1946
At Cambridge University, Myers
studied experimental psychology
under W.H.R. Rivers, and in 1912 he
set up the Cambridge Laboratory of
Experimental Psychology. During
World War I, he treated soldiers for
“shell shock” (a term he invented).
After the war, he was a key figure
in the development of occupational
psychology. His books include
Mind and Work (1920), Industrial
Psychology in Great Britain (1926),
and In the Realm of Mind (1937).
See also: Kurt Lewin 218–23 ■
Solomon Asch 224–27 ■ Raymond
Cattell 314–15 ■ W.R.H. Rivers 334
MAX WERTHEIMER
1880– 1943
Together with Kurt Koffka and
Wolfgang Köhler, Czech psychologist
Max Wertheimer founded Gestalt
psychology in the US in the 1930s.
Gestalt built on existing theories of
perceptual organization. Moving
away from Wundt’s molecularism,
Wertheimer advocated the study of
the whole, famously saying “the
whole is more than the sum of its
parts.” He also devised Pragnanz,
the idea that the mind processes
visual information into the simplest
forms of symmetry and shape.
See also: Abraham Maslow 138–39
■ Solomon Asch 224–27
ELTON MAYO
1880–1949
In the 1930s, while Professor of
Industrial Management at Harvard,
Australian Elton Mayo carried out
his groundbreaking Hawthorne
Experiments. Using disciplines
drawn from psychology, physiology,
and anthropology, he examined over
a five-year period the productivity
and morale of six female workers as
he made changes to their working
conditions. The most surprising
outcome was the way the workers
responded to the research itself.
The Hawthorne Effect, as it is now
known, is an alteration in human
behavior that occurs when people
know they are being studied. This
discovery had a lasting impact on
industrial ethics and relations, and
research methods in social science.
See also: Sigmund Freud 92–99
■ Carl Jung 102–07HERMANN RORSCHACH
1884–1922As a Swiss schoolboy, Rorschach
was called Klek (Inkblot), because
he was always drawing. He later
devised the inkblot test, whereby
responses to specific blots may
reveal emotional, character, and
thought disorders. He died, aged 37,
a year after his “form interpretation
test” Psychodiagnostics (1921) was
published. Others later developed
the test, but this gave rise to four
different methods, each flawed. In
1993, American John Exner united
them all in the Comprehensive
System—one of the most enduring
psychoanalytical experiments.
See also: Alfred Binet 50–53 ■
Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ Carl Jung
102– 07CLARK L. HULL
1884–1952American Clark Leonard Hull’s early
studies included psychometrics and
hypnosis. He published AptitudeTesting (1929) and Hypnosis and
Suggestibility (1933). Informed by
his objective behaviorist approach,
Hull’s Mathematico-Deductive
Theory of Rote Learning (1940)
measured all behavior (including
animal) by a single mathematical
equation. He developed the theory
in Principles of Behavior (1943),
which examined the effects of
reinforcement on the stimulus-
response connection. His Global
Theory of Behavior was
one of the standard systems of
psychological research at the time.
See also: Jean-Martin Charcot 30
■ Alfred Binet 50-53 ■ Ivan Pavlov
60–61 ■ Edward Thorndike 62–65EDWIN BORING
1886–1968One of the most important figures
in experimental psychology, Boring
specialized in human sensory and
perceptual systems. His
interpretation of W.E. Hill’s reversible
old woman/young maid drawing led
to it becoming known as the Boring
Figure. At Harvard in the 1920s,
Boring moved the psychology
department away from psychiatry,
turning it into a rigorously scientific
school that unified structuralism and
behaviorism. His first book, A
History of Experimental Psychology
(1929), was followed by Sensation
and Perception in the History of
Experimental Psychology (1942).
See also: Wilhelm Wundt 32–37 ■
Edward B. Titchener 334FREDERIC BARTLETT
1886–1969Frederic Bartlett was Cambridge
University’s first Professor of
Experimental Psychology (1931–51).