PSYC 4370 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Transcendentalism, Ian Hacking, John Dewey
14 Nov 2013
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William james and the origins of american psychology. Eldest son of a rich new england family. Father led him and siblings a wandering life, crisscrossing europe and the atlantic numerous times. Father feared him and his siblings ever committing to one career: as soon as real interest was established, his father would begin discouraging them from pursuing it too deeply and shunted them onto something else. Dropped out of harvard, tried painting, gave this up and then travelled to the amazon with a zoologist when he fell ill, and concluded zoology was not his forte either. He then decided to become a philosopher and returned worse than ever. Remained a virtual invalid until about 30 when he qualified as a doctor at harvard and became an instructor in anatomy and physiology at harvard. 1875, began teaching physiological psychology: americans sometimes invoke as the first psychological laboratory, although it was not experimental and extremely small.
