Background
Münsterberg, Hugo was born on June 1, 1863 in Danzig, Germany. Son of Moritz Münsterberg.
Münsterberg, Hugo was born on June 1, 1863 in Danzig, Germany. Son of Moritz Münsterberg.
Graduate Danzig Gymnasium, 1882. Post-graduate studies in philosophy, natural sciences and medicine in Leipzig and Heidelberg, 1882-1887, Doctor of Philosophy., Leipzig, 1885, Doctor of Medicine Heidelberg, 1887. (A.M., Harvard, 1901.
Doctor of Laws, Washington University, 1904. Doctor of Letters, Lafayette College, 1907).
Instructor and assistant professor, University of Freiburg, 1887-1891. Professor psychology, since 1892, and director Pyschol. Laboratory, Harvard. Harvard exchange professor at University of Berlin, 1910-1911.
Organizer and 1st director of Amerika-Institut of the German Government, 1910-1911. Vice president. International Congress Arts and Sciences, St. Louis, 1904, International Psychological Congress, Paris, International Philosophical Congress, Heidelberg, 1908.
Author: Psychology and Life, 1899, Grundzüge der Psychologie, 1900. American Traits, 1902. The Americans, 1904
Eternal Life, 1905.Science and Idealism, 1906. Philosophie der Werte, 1908. The Eternal Values, 1909.Psychology and the Teacher, 1909. American Problems, 1910. Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, 1912.American Patriotism, 1913. Grundzüge der Psychotechnik, 1914. Psychology and Social Sanity, 1914.The War and America, 1914. The Peace and America, 1915. Editor of Harvard Psychological Studies, since 1903.
Ln his main and, some would say, his only work in experimental psychology, Münsterberg examined the problem of the ‘fluctuations of perception’. The experiment sought to determine the responses of a subject who is asked to report his responses when faced with a weak light. The subject’s responses alternated between positive and negative replies.
For Münsterberg such fluctuations to visual stimuli were caused by alterations in accommodation. Although criticized by E. Pace, J. W. Slaughter and C. E. Ferree, whose experiments contradicted his results. Münsterberg’s research was recognized as significant because it opened up avenues for others.
For the duration of his stay at Harvard, he preoccupied himself with applying psychology to numerous and diverse fields, such as criminology, psychotherapy, industry and film experience.
In the process he succeeded in bringing psychology to the attention of the American public.
When he tried to initiate a rapprochement between America and Germany, at a time when Americans were afraid of Germany, during the First World War, he failed and, for his pains, his American audience turned against him. He died in 1916, his dream of peace between his adopted country and his country of origin unrealized. With his death his final book on the psychology of film experience, in which he anticipated a number of contemporary ideas, was also forgotten.
Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences. Member Washington Academy Sciences.
Philosophy; psychology.
Ilhelm Wundt.
Married Selma Oppler, 1887.