William James Research Paper

In the world of psychology many people connect modern psychology to psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, Ivan Pavlov, and B.F. Skinner. These theorist all contributed to the development of modern psychology. Though William James was known to be the main important founder of psychology through his works and studies he performed through his lifetime, he is not taken that much in account. William James was a brilliant learning theorist who made vast contributions to the studies of psychology. He was an American philosopher as well as a psychologist. William James led to the belief of the philosophical movement of Pragmatism and contributed a psychological movement known as functionalism. Even though William James lacks instant recognition he has become a powerful contributor to the history of psychology. Through William James philosophy and many of his writings in psychology, his contributions impacted how we look at the mind, body, world and the psychological approach to it.

Context

He was born in New York City to a very intellectual family to which he followed his father’s footsteps since he was as well a philosopher. James early interest included art, in which he wanted to pursue his career as a painter. Though later he teamed up with William Morris hunt and studied science which captivated his attention and continued his studies. James became both a professor of psychology and philosophy at Harvard. He contributed psychology through one of his books Principles of Psychology which had a great amount of influence towards the field of psychology. His interest in psychology led him to become the father of American psychology during the late 19th century. He was very influential of the way our minds work through observations and reasoning. His establishments included science, which was considered an important element of social and philosophical