William McDougall (psychologist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
William McDougall
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William McDougall
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| Born | 22 June 1871 Chadderton, Lancashire, England, UK
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| Died | 28 November 1938 (aged 67) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Doctoral advisor | W. H. R. Rivers |
| Influences | Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Carl Jung |
| Influenced | Thorstein Veblen, Konrad Lorenz, Cyril Burt |
William McDougall (born June 22, 1871 – died November 28, 1938) was an important psychologist in the early 1900s. He started his career in the United Kingdom. Later, he moved to the United States.
McDougall wrote many influential books. He played a big role in developing the idea of instinct and social psychology. Social psychology studies how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others.
He did not agree with behaviourism, a school of thought in psychology. Behaviourism focuses only on observable behaviors. McDougall's ideas were well-known and respected by the public.
Contents
About William McDougall
William McDougall was born on June 22, 1871, in Tonge, Middleton, England. His father was a chemical manufacturer. His family was known for developing self-raising flour.
McDougall went to several schools. He studied at Owens College, Manchester and St John's College, Cambridge. He also studied medicine and how the body works in London and Germany.
He taught at University College London and University of Oxford. In 1920, he became a psychology professor at Harvard University. From 1927 until his death, he taught at Duke University. There, he started the Parapsychology Laboratory.
McDougall was a member of the Royal Society. This is a famous group for scientists. Some of his students became important psychologists too. These included Cyril Burt and May Smith.
McDougall's Ideas on Behavior
McDougall had many different interests. He was interested in eugenics, which is about improving the human race. He believed that traits learned during life could be passed down. This idea is called Lamarckism. He even did experiments to try and prove this.
McDougall disagreed with behaviourism. He thought that behavior usually has a purpose or goal. He called this idea hormic psychology. The word "hormic" comes from a Greek word meaning "impulse."
He first explained hormic psychology in his 1908 book, An Introduction to Social Psychology. This idea helps us understand why people are motivated to do things. He listed several natural instincts and emotions. He believed these were common to all people.
- Flight (leading to Fear)
- Repulsion (leading to Disgust)
- Curiosity (leading to Wonder)
- Pugnacity (leading to Anger)
- Self-assertion (leading to Elation or joy)
- Self-abasement (leading to Subjection or feeling small)
- Parental Instinct (leading to Tender feelings)
- Reproduction
- Feeding
- Gregarious Instinct (desire to be with others)
- Acquisition (desire to get things)
- Construction (desire to build things)
- Crawling and Walking
McDougall believed that people are driven by many instincts they inherit. They might not even know why they are doing something. His ideas about instinct influenced other scientists like Konrad Lorenz. McDougall also explored parapsychology. He even had psychoanalysis sessions with C. G. Jung.
McDougall held controversial views on race and intelligence. He believed that certain racial groups were less capable than others. Most modern psychologists consider these views to be scientific racism. His ideas were criticized by the American Press. His book The Group Mind also received very negative reviews from other psychologists.
McDougall married when he was 29 years old. He had five children.
Researching Psychic Phenomena
McDougall strongly supported using the scientific method in psychical research. This field studies unexplained mental abilities or events. He helped make parapsychology a university subject in the United States in the 1930s.
In 1920, McDougall was president of the Society for Psychical Research. The next year, he led its US branch. He worked to bring together different scientific, religious, and philosophical ideas. This helped parapsychology become a recognized field.
He was also part of a committee that investigated a medium named Mina Crandon. A medium is someone who claims to communicate with spirits. McDougall attended her séances, which are meetings to contact spirits. He was doubtful about her "ectoplasmic hand." He thought it might be a fake animal part. Later, experts confirmed his suspicions.
McDougall was critical of spiritualism. He believed some supporters, like Arthur Conan Doyle, misunderstood psychical research. In 1926, McDougall said he had investigated many supposed supernormal events. He found little convincing evidence, but much evidence of fraud.
However, McDougall continued to encourage scientific study of psychic phenomena. In 1937, he helped start the Journal of Parapsychology. This journal is still published today. His work on human instinct also influenced the new field of social psychology.
Animism and the Mind
In 1911, McDougall wrote Body and Mind: A History and Defence of Animism. In this book, he disagreed with both materialism and Darwinism. Materialism says that only matter exists. Darwinism is the theory of evolution by natural selection.
McDougall supported a type of Lamarckism. He believed that the mind guides evolution. He defended a form of animism. This idea suggests that all matter has a mental side. His views were similar to panpsychism. This is the belief that consciousness or mind is a fundamental feature of all reality. He claimed there was both psychological and biological proof for this.
McDougall believed the mind and the brain are separate but interact. He thought his theory of animism could replace other philosophical views. These include dualism (mind and body are completely separate) and monism (mind and body are one). As a parapsychologist, he also claimed telepathy had been scientifically proven. He used evidence from psychic research, biology, and psychology to support his animism theory.
McDougall wrote another book against materialism called Materialism and Emergent Evolution (1929). In this book, he also criticized the idea of emergent evolution. He felt it ignored evidence of Lamarckism. He also thought it ignored the idea of mind guiding evolution.
His last work on this topic was The Riddle of Life (1938). In it, he criticized organicism. This theory sees living things as organized wholes. McDougall believed it didn't go far enough in saying that a non-physical principle plays an active role.
See also
In Spanish: William McDougall para niños
- Crowd psychology
- Group dynamics
- Social psychology
- Inheritance of acquired characteristics
