Hugo Munsterberg

Hugo Munsterberg is a pioneer in the fields of Industrial (I/O), Experimental, and Clinical Psychology. Also, he championed behaviorism, investigated the value of prayer, and challenged the effectiveness of eye witness testimonies. He was a famous Harvard professor who helped redefine Wundtian psychology into its modern form. However, the last years of his life were spent in stress and sorrow, and today, he is barely ackowledged.

Dr. Munsterberg was born in Danzig Germany on June 1, 1863. His father, Moritz Munsterberg was a lumber merchant who bought lumber in Russia and sold it in England. His mother, Anna Munsterberg was an artist and although she took devoted care of her four sons, she had plenty time to continue her paintings and drawings. It was in this atmosphere of broad and intelligent thinking and reverence for the arts that Munsterberg spent a happy, care free childhood.

Munsterberg's education began with kindergarten. After a few years at a private school, he entered the Gymnasium of Danzig at the age of nine. His mother died when he was twelve and this first and great sorrow changed him from a child into a serious youth. In 1882, he passed his final examination of the Gymnasium with credit, and as he had desired to see more of the world, he enrolled for a semester at the University of Geneva, where he improved his French Language and literature. In September of this same year, he began his serious studies at the University of Leipzig. He started in the field of social psychology but soon changed to the field of medicine. In 1883, he had the honor of attended lectures by Wilhelm Wundt and was so deeply moved that he decided to devote his life to the subject, and entered the psychological laboratory at Leipzig, which has been the training grounds of many American psychologists.

In 1885, he received his Ph.D. degree in psychology with his dissertation on the doctrine of natural adaptation. Then, he went to Heidelberg to continue his medical studies and in the summer of 1887, he received his medical degree and passed an examination which would allow him to lecture as "privatdocent" at Freiburg. During this time, he lectured mainly on philosophy. There was no psychological laboratory at the University so Munsterberg equipped rooms in his own house with certain apparatus and attracted many students from Germany and other foreign countries.

In 1891, he was promoted to assistant professorship and also attended the First International Congress of Psychology at Paris. It was here that he first met William James. They corresponded frequently over the next few years and James was so impressed by Munsterberg's genius that in 1892, he invited him to come to Harvard for three years to take charge of the psychological laboratory which was then located in old Dane Hall at Harvard. He was extremely successful as a teacher and administrator that he was offered a permanent professorship. He declined the offer due to uncertainty of settling in America, and returned to Freiburg. Two years later he returned to Harvard in response to urgent invitations from James and Harvard's president.

Munsterberg's abilities were recognized far beyond the Harvard commmunity. In 1898, he was elected president of the APA. In 1910, he was be appointed exchange professor from Harvard to the University of Berlin. Inspired by the belief that harmony among nations could be brought about only by fostering the cultural ties between them, he devoted much of his time to the creation of the American Institute. On his return to Harvard, he and his students devised a number of ingenious tests to administer to the personnel of a variety of industrial plants.

In psychology, Munsterberg had two principles. He believed that the casual law held for mental phenomena in so far as they were correlated with physiological processes. Here, he was a determinist. When, however, he considered the mental from the viewpoint of values, he believed in freedom. Munsterberg's chief contribution to the theoretical psychology was his "action theory" which defined attention in terms of the openness of the nerve paths to the muscles of adjustment. This makes him a forerunner in the field of behaviorism. He was devoted to America, but always remained loyal to his own country, and so from the first days of the war, he continued to write in defense of Germany's motives and ideals. This resulted in violent criticism and attack, and the loss of numerous friendships. And, it overshadowed his remarkable contributions.