Robert Sessions Woodworth: Biography Of This American Psychologist

Robert S. Woodworth (1869-1962) was an American psychologist who laid the foundations of eclectic psychology. Throughout his career, Woordworth was interested in developing a unified theory of psychology based on scientific observations and the possibility of generalizing them..

In this article we will see a biography of Robert S. Woodworth as well as some of his main contributions to psychology.

Robert S. Woodworth: life and work of this American psychologist

Robert Sessions Woodworth was born on October 17, 1869 in Belchertown Massachusetts, United States.

In 1891 he received a degree in philosophy from Amherst College, and later trained in science and mathematics. In the year 1895 He began a specialization study in philosophy at Harvard University which concluded in 1896. His tutor had been the philosopher and scientist William James, who motivated him to obtain a doctorate in psychology.

Following this advice, Woodworth He trained at Columbia University under the direction of James McKeen Cattell , who was one of the main defenders of the scientific consolidation of psychology. Finally Robert S. Woodworth received his doctorate in psychology in 1899, with research on The precision of voluntary movement.

From this, Woodworth worked as a teacher at the same university, at which time he established a close professional relationship with another of the most representative psychologists of the time: Edward L. Thorndike, with whom he carried out different studies in learning theories Among other things, they concluded that learning cannot be transferred from one element to another, that is, learning a topic does not necessarily produce an improvement in general learning.

He later completed postdoctoral training at the University of Liverpool, completing it in 1902. After this he returned to Columbia University to work as a professor, accompanied by his wife Gabrielle Schjoth. Robert S. Woodworth died on July 4, 1962 in New York City.

Professional work

In the year 1914 Robert s. Woodworth served as president of the American Psychological Association (APA, for its acronym in English), where he maintained constant debates alongside other renowned psychologists such as Edward B. Titchener and Oswald Külpe.

On the other hand, in the context of the First World War and as occurred with other psychologists of the time, Woodworth participated in the design of psychological tests used to evaluate recruited men. Woodworth’s Personal Data Sheet (Woodworth personal data sheet) was the name given to the scale used for this.

Likewise, Woodworth served as head of the Department of Psychology at Columbia University for almost a decade (from 1918 to 1927).

Dynamic or eclectic psychology

Robert S. Woodworth’s main contribution to psychology was the defense that it is necessary incorporate different approaches to have a broad understanding of psychology At the beginning of the 20th century, Woodworth proposed a unified system of psychological thought. At the same time, he was against the dominant methodological determinism in psychology, and said that it was necessary to adopt an eclectic approach in understanding human behavior.

For example, he rejected McDougall’s proposals that were heavily focused on innate components, and at the same time he remained skeptical of John Watson’s proposals , who emphasized the role of the environment in behavior. In the same sense, he distanced himself from Edawrd Tichener, who emphasized the study of consciousness over other aspects of the human being.

Woordworth argued that behavior was a function of environmental stimuli, but so was the composition of an organism and its own consciousness.

For this psychologist it was necessary to develop a “middle-of-the-road psychology”, which could be adapted or generalized to the interests of all human needs. In this sense, Woodworth considered that Both thought and consciousness were legitimate objects of study in scientific psychology The latter represented an important suggestion for the development of psychology at the time, which was among the debates about studying observable behavior or internal mental processes.

From that he developed two important constructs for psychology: the interactionist metaphor of “dynamics”, to refer to the determining role of both nature and the environment; and an explanatory model of the latter under the “Stimulus-Organism-Response” (SOR) formula.

Outstanding works

Some of his most recognized works are Elements of Physiological Psychologyfrom 191 and Dynamic Psychology, from 1918, where analyzed behavior and its relationship with physiological processes , as well as their relationship with introspective methods. It was in this work where Wood importantly argued for the need to connect all the previous elements in psychological interventions.

The book is also representative Psychology: A study of Mental Lifefrom 1921, where he maintained that both heredity and environment are determining factors of human behavior, for which he developed the SOR formula.

This work became one of the reference texts of 20th century psychology and one of the most influential introductory writings in the professionalization of this discipline.