Edwin G. Boring
Encyclopedia
Edwin Garrigues Boring was an experimental psychologist
who later became one of the first historians of psychology
. He was born on October 23, 1886 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in a Quaker family dominated by women; he was the youngest and only son in a family of four. From an early age his attitude was shaped by his father’s emphasis on academic success and he suffered from feelings of inadequacy throughout his life. In 1914 he married fellow psychologist Lucy M. Day, who privately agreed never to “be jealous of his love for psychology” (p. 34). They had four children; the first, a son, was born on January 11, 1916, the birthday of Edward B. Titchener
, a colleague whom Boring held in high regard. Boring and his wife considered this to be a "happy omen" (p. 45). On July 1, 1968 Boring died at the age of 81, losing his life to myeloma, a condition he was plagued with throughout his life. This condition left his body weak and created more vulnerability in an already insecure man.
, where he studied electrical engineering. In 1908 he earned a M.E. degree in electrical engineering and took a job at Bethlehem Steel Company in Pennsylvania, but when a promotion loomed after only a year of working there he realized that he was not satisfied with the life of an engineer.
He turned to teaching science at a Moravian Church school for a year, but once again was unsatisfied with this career. Some of the students had little respect for him and once glued him to his own chair. Boring made the excuse to return to Cornell for an A.M. in physics but was instead drawn to the world of psychology by I. Madison Bentley
’s animal psychology course. However, Boring notes that his interest in psychology had already begun in 1905 when he took an elementary psychology class as an elective while pursuing his engineering degree. The course was under the professorship of Edward B. Titchener
and captured Boring’s attention. On one test Boring received back Titchener had even written “You have the psychological point of view!” (p.31). It was this remark that stuck wit—h him and guided him toward psychology when he arrived at Cornell for the second time.
Cornell required two minor subjects for a Ph.D.; Boring surpassed this requirement and published 4 minor research projects. He began his first under the direction of Madison Bentley, researching the behavior of flatworms. His second was a 4-year study, conducted with Sutherland Simpson, on nerve regeneration. He conducted this research by cutting a nerve in his own arm and tracing its precise path to re-sensibility. The third study was done through G. M. Whipple regarding moving-pictures; this subject is reflective of Boring’s later interest in figure-ground phenomena. The fourth and final project was on schizophrenia; for this research he went into hospitals and observed patients with the disorder. In this study he worked with S. I. Franz and gained experience and relationships with important figures in the field. His minor research strayed too far from Titchener’s definition of psychology. It was at Titchener’s suggestion that he decided to do his thesis on visceral sensibility. He conducted this study by placing a stomach tube in his own stomach, in order to learn more about the sensations of the alimentary tract. The results indicated that the stomach and esophagus were more sensitive to temperature and pressure than was realized at the time. All of these studies indicate Boring’s interest from an early age in the physical and experimental components of psychology. In 1914 Boring's efforts were rewarded when he received his Ph. D.
While he was completing his studies, Boring and his wife, Lucy M. Day, joined Titchener’s lab group, becoming a part of Titchener's selective in-group. Most of their time at Cornell was spent working on Titchener’s research projects. During Boring’s time at Cornell he developed a close relationship with Titchener, one that continued until Titchener’s death in 1927. Boring felt deep respect for Titchener and admired his dedication to his work. Boring’s attachment to Titchener comes through in many of his written works. Although Boring did not agree with the Titchenerian perspective, he longed for Titcherner's approval in most aspects. In his autobiography he even remarked that he believed Titchener to be the closest to genius of anyone he knew.
Titchener presented Boring with his first opportunity not only to teach but also to practice writing about the history of experimental psychology. Titchener wanted to redesign a systematic psychology course and enlisted his graduate students to do the job. This was a large task; the course covered the entire history of psychology in 3 lectures a week for 2 years. Boring and the rest of the team read through German literature on experimental psychology
and many other primary sources of information to complete this project. The finished product was a 200-lecture course. This task sparked Boring's interest in the history that shaped the field; it would also serve as great training for Boring's later publication of his own text, The History of Experimental Psychology, in 1929. This work also gave Boring experience in teaching psychology. He continued to teach psychology at Cornell for 4 years, but was glad when the war forced him to leave this position; Boring felt that Cornell was not in need of him.
, had “vulgarized”(p. 46) the field by placing it in the philosophical realm; it was Boring's goal to bring the program to a more objective perspective. However, the summer before he was to start at Harvard, G. Stanley Hall
, then president of Clark University
, offered him a job as professor of experimental psychology for three years, with the promise that if his work was satisfactory his position would be made permanent. The appeal of stability led Boring to accept the position at Clark. Here he enjoyed his work, but there were concerns regarding the status of psychology when the new president and geographer Wallace Walter Atwood was appointed; he wanted to replace newly-popular psychology with geography. Controversy was also stirred during the Red Scare, when Atwood accused Boring of being a Bolshevik
encouraging underground radicalism at Clark. Such allegations had no evidence of support and while Boring waited for his reappointment to Clark he received another offer from Harvard as an associate professor and an offer from Stanford University
for a full professorship with a higher salary. Boring was torn between the financial incentive and prestige of the position at Stanford as a full-time professor, or the challenge of transforming psychology at Harvard but beginning as only an associate professor. The decision was made for Boring when Stanford withdrew their offer because of Boring’s hesitation to accept it, leaving him to start a new career at Harvard.
. This experience caused Boring to question what it means to be conscious. If a person could not recall what they had said moments after they had said it could they really be considered conscious? Such questions become a lifelong endeavor for Boring to try to answer.
When Boring began work at Harvard he discovered that Herbert S. Langfeld, who was the laboratory director, had been asked to forfeit the title and become an associate professor instead. The title was left unfilled, leaving both Langfeld and Boring associate professors with less power than their philosophical opponents.
Through the years Boring received many offers from other schools such as Princeton University
and Stanford University
, and even an offer to succeed Titchener at Cornell, but he remained at Harvard, intent on his mission to improve their psychology program. After Boring refused Princeton they offered Langfeld the position, and he accepted; this gave Boring more independence in running psychology at Harvard. He was rewarded for his dedication to Harvard by being promoted to laboratory director in 1924; he held that position until 1949, when he resigned. In 1928 he received a full-time professorship; during that same year he was president of the American Psychological Association
.
Boring was very interested in building a close relationship between the staff and students. At his suggestion, in 1924 the Harvard philosophy and psychology department began the first Colloquium to build a sense of community. Boring believed his most successful effort in facilitating unity in the department to be the laboratory luncheons that began with him bringing his lunch to the lab and offering to buy coffee for anyone who would join him. Through these small gestures Boring was able to create a place where the graduate students could interact with faculty — exchanging ideas, gaining insight, and discussing their work in an encouraging environment.
In 1933 James B. Conant became president of Harvard. Conant's interest in psychology was considerably greater than the former president's, and in 1934 he accepted Boring’s motion to separate the psychology and philosophy departments. By removing the philosophy go-between, the official break between the disciplines freed the psychological science faculty to focus on the research and experimental psychology questions they wanted to answer. Boring emphasized the use of the experimental method, rather than the tools of philosophy, to investigate psychological questions. Boring’s mission was finally complete. Boring was made the first chair of the Department of Psychology, but 2 years later he resigned the position to Gordon W. Allport.
. Boring remained in psychoanalysis
for a year, doing 5 sessions a week, but he found it to be ineffective in alleviating his concerns. Boring had hoped to achieve a change in personality by the end of this experience and was disappointed to find that he still had his old mindset. Four years later, both Sachs and Boring wrote about the experience in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. The two men agreed that the psychoanalysis was not successful.
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Later in his career Boring became interested in the perceptual ambiguity of figure-ground phenomena. He discussed cartoonist W. E. Hill's "My Wife and My Mother-in-law
" in a 1930 journal article, explaining that this illustration was an accurate representation of the phenomena because the two different images are interpenetrating one another with no formal dividing line. He contrasted this image to Edgar Rubin
's Rubin vase
figure, where he felt that there is an obvious dividing line between the human profiles and goblets. This description made Hill's young-woman/old-woman puzzle famous and earned it the title of the “Boring figure.”
. Stevens and Boring did a considerable amount of work together; but because Boring was strongly opposed to the practice of professors putting their names on published work to which they had contributed very little, Boring included his name only when he considered his part to be a large enough contribution. Only once did Boring consider his role in Stevens' work to be equal enough to merit the term collaboration, and even in this case he was not fully in agreement that it was; it was only after Stevens refused to publish it unless Boring's name was included that Boring agreed. Boring stated that the only reason he consented was because he hated to see work go unpublished. And so it was just this one collaboration that was ever officially documented between Boring and Stevens, although Stevens disagreed and believed that there had been many more than just one. In 1936 the two published their research on tonal brightness. At the time it was known that tonal brightness varied with pitch; and, based on previous research, it was believed that high tones are bright and low tones are dull. The question that Stevens and Boring researched was concerning the bright and dull tones that could be produced with a siren when the holes were appropriately spaced, hypothesizing that brightness varies with both the intensity and the frequency of the pitch. Boring suggested that they embrace the new technology and conduct the experiment with a cathode-ray oscilloscope and a wave-analyzer. They concluded through this study that tonal brightness is essentially the same as tonal density.
. Boring and fellow researcher A. H. Holway hypothesized that the moon appears larger on the horizon because the eyes view it directly at a leveled position, while the moon overhead appears smaller because the eyes must look up. They tested this experimentally, and found that for an observer whose eyes were kept in a fixed position while a circle representing the moon moved up (through the use of a pulley system), the moon appeared to increase in size. This illusion did not occur when participants were lying down while viewing the moon, and they also found some evidence of it not occurring when viewing the moon with only one eye. These results led the researchers to conclude that the illusion of moon shrinkage depends on the movement of the eyes in the head, not the movement of the actual head, and that it depends on binocular vision, that is, the use of both eyes together. This study exemplifies Boring’s interest in misperceptions of sensory experience.
and later bought by K. M. Dallenbach for Cornell University
and put under Titchener’s control. When Titchener withdrew from the journal Dallenbach asked I. Madison Bentley
, Margaret Floy Washburn, and Boring to pick up editorship of the journal. Boring accepted and remained an editor for 23 years.
, for his focus on volitional consciousness and denial of psychology being a fully experimental science. It is also condemned for downplaying Völkerpsychologie. This portrayal of Wundt is often remarked to be given through the "Titchenerian lens" (p.444). Some of the confusion over Wundt’s psychology can be attributed to Boring’s book. However, most people still consider this to be Boring’s most important work; the publication made him one of the first historians of psychology.
by viewing sensations through their physical mechanisms. In this Boring expresses his monist physicalism perspective, similar to operationalism’s emphasis on measurement in order to understand the meaning of concepts. Boring himself was surprised by his view being in direct opposition to his deeply respected mentor Titchener. However Titchener was dead by this time and Boring was now free to express his views. The mentalist and dualist perspective of Titchener seemed insecure to Boring, he focused on a physical brain rather than the abstract mind. One of the purposes of this book was try to clarify such complex terms as consciousness and sensation, questions that had been plaguing him since his automobile accident. Boring wanted to define what these phenomena actually meant physically.
His positivist view became much more liberal over time; he adapted pieces of opposing theories that fit his experimentalist side. He came to accept different areas of psychology as long as they were scientific. Toward the areas that relied on rationalism
he advised it is best to ignore these ideas if empirical evidence exists against these theories.. For other theories that are supported by facts he believes that psychologists should rejoice in these efforts even if they do not support their own school of thought because ultimately this progresses the field as a whole by adding more information about human nature.
Boring considered Dimensions to be his “immature-book”(p.44). He believed the book was before it’s time, a few years later research he was directing would appear that could have better supported this book. For instance some of his graduate students were investigating the relationship between auditory sensation and pitch, loudness, volume, and density. Additionally 2 years after his publication of Dimensions Percy Bridgman’s The Logic of Modern Physics surfaced which formally introduced operationalism. Later Boring’s student Stanley Smith Stevens
would play a key role in integrating operationalism into the field of psychology, but Stevens admitted and provided in several examples how his mentor Boring helped to shape his own views on operationalism.
because this was the last day “pure scholarship could be undertaken with a clear conscious”(p.47). As a historian of psychology Boring was well aware of the importance of place and time during which theories were proposed. He introduced psychology to Goethe and Johann Herder’s idea of Zeitgeist
in the last chapter of this book. Both G. Stanley Hall
and William James
had occasionally used the term but it was Boring who popularized it.
In several of his works and articles he refers to the Zeitgeist, recognizing how it affected the acceptance of his own ideas. For instance Boring describes forces of the time working to separate the disciplines of philosophy and psychology at Harvard, commenting that the change would have been made even without him there to propose it. Boring never realized the true impact he made and gave himself little credit for any of his successes. Psychology was a huge force during the time and it was only a matter of time until this was recognized and the split between the two disciplines was made. But this does show that Boring understands that it takes more than a brilliant individual to make history, the setting must also be accepting of this change. The lack of the book’s success can be attributed at least partially to the timing it was released. Sales were not high with the general public because the country was wrapped up in the wartime concerns and people had little interest in reading a book detailing the sensory and perceptual histories in psychology. The book was held in positive regard by the specialist in the field though.
but the war ended before the idea could be further developed. With the second war underway the idea resurfaced, and Boring felt confident that with his experience from his BLW textbooks he could write the textbook on military psychology. Boring made his proposal to The National Research Council's Emergency Committee on Psychology in 1942 and was appointed as the chairman on a subcommittee in charge of the writing and publication of the text. Boring followed the format of his previous books; the chapters were to be written by the experts and then edited to unify the book as a whole.
The committee decided to instead create a book that would focus on the psychology of the majority of soldiers in the army, the ordinary GI, instead of focusing on the higher level officers. In 1943 Psychology for the Fighting Man was published. It consisted of sections by 59 authors, which Boring and Marjorie Van de Water edited and unified. In order for the larger public to understand this text Boring greatly altered his writing style. He spoke directly to the reader, used short sentences, and concrete examples and the book was shorter than his previous texts taking up just 450 pages. This manner stands in stark contrast to his earlier work, especially his BLW textbooks which consisted almost entirely of data and facts. This flexibility in writing exemplifies his versatility and ability to adapt his writing to the job at hand. In this book the focus was on practical information such as boosting the morale of soldiers, personal-adjustment in the army, and obtainment of necessities such as food. The book sold 380,000 copies and brought The National Research Council about $10,000.
. He was beginning to accept that psychology could be a science and be used by society.
in 1949 and a year later published the second edition of A History of Experimental Psychology where he brought the text up to date on advancements in the field of psychology. In this edition he incorporated information about advancements in the field since the first edition of History. He emphasizes the role of the Zeitgeist
providing a context for the great thinkers in psychology to advance their ideas. Both volumes of the textbook were used by numerous graduate students in the 1960s and have played a large role in shaping psychologists’ attitudes towards their field. It was considered to be "a classic, replacing a classic" (p.60) in the world of psychology.
In his seventies he continued to make contributions to the field through his writing. He founded and edited a journal that was dedicated exclusively to psychology book reviews, Contemporary Psychology. In this journal Boring was able to shape the psychological works that were published. He demanded a high degree of quality which challenged psychologists to rise to his standard. As editor Boring also had a regular column titled “CP Speaks.” This provided Boring with a platform to express his opinions regarding the works featured in each issue.
.
He published an article on his own in 1951 in the American Psychologists that focused on women in the field and emphasized his beliefs. He wrote about the disadvantages women in psychology face as the result of society which affects their professional advancement. This he called this the “women problem.” Boring describes the standard procedure men undergo to achieve prestige in their career: a man must receive a Ph.D., conduct meaningful research that gets published, and undertake administrative work. If work is done well enough to impress their boss men are likely to be promoted to higher positions and work in broader tasks such as publishing books, or becoming a dean or college president, allowing them to influence a wider range of people. It was the pursuit of prestige at higher positions that women lacked, largely because they were blocked from the higher level jobs in the first place.
Another factor he believed was necessary for high success was commitment to the job, and once again this put women at a disadvantage. He did not believe that it was the American Psychological Association that kept women in lower positions; rather this discrepancy was the result of societal customs. An obvious obstacle he discussed was the traditional role women have towards their family which prevents them from dedicating their time completely to their work. He believed that to move up in the field to high level positions one must commit themselves to their research. Women have obligations to their families and this does not allow them to work 168 hours a week, the amount of work he quantified at necessary to achieve prestige. For those women who chose work over a family, they would be harshly judged by society for not fulfilling their traditional role as women. Boring also mentions that that an unmarried woman up against a married man for a high level position will usually lose out to him. Men who are married make their marriage work to their advantage by receiving emotional support from their wives, a factor that women who work do not always receive from their husbands.
Boring repeatedly makes the point that from his perspective the best way around the problem is for women to publish books on the works of others, this places their advancement in the field out of the control of others and as their own responsibility. Most notably it is evident that Boring has no objection to women following the same route to success as he did. Although he made other contributions to psychology through his research, he is most recognized in modern society as a historian of the field.
highlighted. The program was very informative. Among other topics Boring lectured on the physics of sensations such as light and sound, the structures of sense organs. But he also included material about more psychological concepts such as perceptual constancy and illusions based on his previous research, learning, the nature of reflexes, and the physiological processes behind emotions.
Boring taught psychology at Harvard University
for 27 years. He had a profound impact, training many students who would go on to become influential in the field of psychology such as Stanley Smith Stevens
. Boring spent a great deal of his career editing papers of his students. Stevens once mentioned that Boring could be very compulsive in his editing. Stevens provides a famous example when he asked Boring to look over a 4,000 word paper and receive back an 8,000 word edit. Boring would insist the writers increase their clarity of work by challenging his students to put the words they actually meant rather than using abstract phrases. He pushed psychologists to adapt better writing habits which ultimately benefited the audiences that would later read these works. Most notably, Boring made the time to assist his students and shaped them into better writers and researchers. Instead of focusing on gaining success through his student’s work Boring led a professional life full of integrity, and was willing to sacrifice his own needs for those of his students.
His textbooks also provided his interpretations of the field and were read by thousands of people. This shaped the way students came to think about psychology. For instance, Boring played an influential role in introducing Titchener to the psychological world after his death. It was through his work that Boring recited vivid anecdotes and interpretations of the man he held in high esteem. Modern society still associates many of these stories with Titchener, such as his all-male parties and his intense personality. In this way his written work influenced countless students and fellow psychologists without ever coming into physical contact with them. In fact Boring’s revised version of A History of Experimental Psychology continues to be used today as a reference, although users remain cautious of Boring’s apparent bias in his portrayal of some psychologists.
Through the years Boring’s rigidity softened and he was able to contribute to many areas in psychology. He was a man of experimental psychology, objective science, but also philosophical science. His research was based on sensory and perceptual phenomena, but he was also a statesman and advocate for women in psychology and military psychology.
Boring also wrote many letters to psychologists all over the world, it was estimated to be about one thousand a year, usually the letters were longer than one page and many contain discussions of various theories and ideas. These letters reflect his dedication and interest in the field and his connection to many important figures in psychology.
The many contributions Boring made in psychology were recognized later in his lifetime. In 1956 Clark University
offered him an honorary degree. Then a year later in 1957 the Society of Experimental Psychologists
, a group he was a chatter member of, held a special dinner in his honor where students and colleagues gave donations to Harvard to start the Boring Liberty Fund. Perhaps the greatest recognition Boring received for his work in progressing the field of psychology was in 1959 when the American Psychological Association
honored him with Gold Medal, praising him for “his varied and distinguished contributions to psychology as investigator, teacher, historian, theorist, administrator and statesman, popular expositor, and editor”(p.796).
Boring had such a profound impact on psychology that Robert Yerkes
even dubbed him “Mr. Psychology” (p.445).
and Wolfgang Köhler
, who were just introducing their Gestalt psychology
to the United States at that time.
In 1919-1922 Boring served as secretary of the American Psychological Association
while James McKeen Cattell
was president. The two men were both very passionate about their work and often clashed as a result. In 1928 Boring became president of the American Psychological Association.
In 1927 two psychology students, Fred Lewis and Edwin Newman, at the University of Kansas had the idea to create Psi Chi
, an organization designed to advance scholarship in psychology. The members sent their ideas about the organization to several important psychologists at the time in order to gain support for their idea. Boring hated the idea and sent back a ruthless 3 page letter detailing why he believed it to be a horrible idea. In the letter Boring explains that concept was “depressing”(p.34) to him because he believed the organization to be counter productive; rather than facilitating research in the field Boring believed it would hinder it. Boring was so adamant about his negative view toward the organization that he refused to pass their original letter along; he believed it would be a nuisance to his fellow faculty members. Despite Boring’s obvious aversion to the organization there were many who supported the idea and Psi Chi was officially founded in 1929. Over the years Boring changed his mind about the organization and became quite supportive of it. Years later co-founder Edwin Newman became the Psychology Department Chair at Harvard and Boring’s boss.
In 1933 Boring was appointed to a committee began by James B. Conant to find “the best psychologist in the world”(p.45). After much debate the committee agreed on Karl S. Lashley, who had been Boring’s candidate from the start. With this title Lashley was elected Professor of Psychology and then given space in the biological laboratories, geographically spreading Harvard psychology.
His influence was not limited to psychology in 1945 he was elected as the chairman of the Publications Committee of the American Philosophical Society
.
In 1945 Robert M. Yerkes asked Boring to join his Survey and Planning Committee, designed to bring psychologists together to discuss issues regarding the war and the role psychologists could play during wartime to help provide services to the country. One of the most significant acts of this committee was made by Boring. He suggested uniting the American Psychological Association and the Association for Applied Psychology and all other societies that were willing. This was an influential move that restructured the American Psychological Association into what it is today. The Intersociety Constitutional Convention was formed and it met in 1943 for the first time. Boring was the first chairman of this Intersociety.
In 1966 Division 26, the Division for the History of Psychology, of the American Psychological Association was formed. During its formation the Division 26 members made a gesture to honor Boring for his tremendous contribution as a historian of psychology. Boring declined to run for president and was made “honorary president”(p.308) of the Division as an acknowledgment of his work. He was then asked to introduce the first elected president, Robert I. Watson, at the first official meeting, but old age prevented Boring from making the trip. He did introduce him though, through a written statement he mailed, read by John A. Popplestone. In this speech Boring playful jokes that he is the ghost of history’s past, a comment that is echoed by his voice being present without his body.
Experimental psychology
Experimental psychology is a methodological approach, rather than a subject, and encompasses varied fields within psychology. Experimental psychologists have traditionally conducted research, published articles, and taught classes on neuroscience, developmental psychology, sensation, perception,...
who later became one of the first historians of psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. He was born on October 23, 1886 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in a Quaker family dominated by women; he was the youngest and only son in a family of four. From an early age his attitude was shaped by his father’s emphasis on academic success and he suffered from feelings of inadequacy throughout his life. In 1914 he married fellow psychologist Lucy M. Day, who privately agreed never to “be jealous of his love for psychology” (p. 34). They had four children; the first, a son, was born on January 11, 1916, the birthday of Edward B. Titchener
Edward B. Titchener
Edward Bradford Titchener, D.Sc., Ph.D., LL.D., Litt.D. was a British psychologist who studied under Wilhelm Wundt for several years. Titchener is best known for creating his version of psychology that described the structure of the mind; structuralism...
, a colleague whom Boring held in high regard. Boring and his wife considered this to be a "happy omen" (p. 45). On July 1, 1968 Boring died at the age of 81, losing his life to myeloma, a condition he was plagued with throughout his life. This condition left his body weak and created more vulnerability in an already insecure man.
Early life
In 1904 Boring attended Cornell UniversityCornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, where he studied electrical engineering. In 1908 he earned a M.E. degree in electrical engineering and took a job at Bethlehem Steel Company in Pennsylvania, but when a promotion loomed after only a year of working there he realized that he was not satisfied with the life of an engineer.
He turned to teaching science at a Moravian Church school for a year, but once again was unsatisfied with this career. Some of the students had little respect for him and once glued him to his own chair. Boring made the excuse to return to Cornell for an A.M. in physics but was instead drawn to the world of psychology by I. Madison Bentley
I. Madison Bentley
- Early Life & Education :The Bentleys were from Upstate New York, the town of Warners northeast of Syracuse. Bentley studied psychology at the University of Nebraska. Harry Kirke Wolfe was his mentor. He also studied under Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig during the AY1886-1887, later...
’s animal psychology course. However, Boring notes that his interest in psychology had already begun in 1905 when he took an elementary psychology class as an elective while pursuing his engineering degree. The course was under the professorship of Edward B. Titchener
Edward B. Titchener
Edward Bradford Titchener, D.Sc., Ph.D., LL.D., Litt.D. was a British psychologist who studied under Wilhelm Wundt for several years. Titchener is best known for creating his version of psychology that described the structure of the mind; structuralism...
and captured Boring’s attention. On one test Boring received back Titchener had even written “You have the psychological point of view!” (p.31). It was this remark that stuck wit—h him and guided him toward psychology when he arrived at Cornell for the second time.
Cornell required two minor subjects for a Ph.D.; Boring surpassed this requirement and published 4 minor research projects. He began his first under the direction of Madison Bentley, researching the behavior of flatworms. His second was a 4-year study, conducted with Sutherland Simpson, on nerve regeneration. He conducted this research by cutting a nerve in his own arm and tracing its precise path to re-sensibility. The third study was done through G. M. Whipple regarding moving-pictures; this subject is reflective of Boring’s later interest in figure-ground phenomena. The fourth and final project was on schizophrenia; for this research he went into hospitals and observed patients with the disorder. In this study he worked with S. I. Franz and gained experience and relationships with important figures in the field. His minor research strayed too far from Titchener’s definition of psychology. It was at Titchener’s suggestion that he decided to do his thesis on visceral sensibility. He conducted this study by placing a stomach tube in his own stomach, in order to learn more about the sensations of the alimentary tract. The results indicated that the stomach and esophagus were more sensitive to temperature and pressure than was realized at the time. All of these studies indicate Boring’s interest from an early age in the physical and experimental components of psychology. In 1914 Boring's efforts were rewarded when he received his Ph. D.
While he was completing his studies, Boring and his wife, Lucy M. Day, joined Titchener’s lab group, becoming a part of Titchener's selective in-group. Most of their time at Cornell was spent working on Titchener’s research projects. During Boring’s time at Cornell he developed a close relationship with Titchener, one that continued until Titchener’s death in 1927. Boring felt deep respect for Titchener and admired his dedication to his work. Boring’s attachment to Titchener comes through in many of his written works. Although Boring did not agree with the Titchenerian perspective, he longed for Titcherner's approval in most aspects. In his autobiography he even remarked that he believed Titchener to be the closest to genius of anyone he knew.
Titchener presented Boring with his first opportunity not only to teach but also to practice writing about the history of experimental psychology. Titchener wanted to redesign a systematic psychology course and enlisted his graduate students to do the job. This was a large task; the course covered the entire history of psychology in 3 lectures a week for 2 years. Boring and the rest of the team read through German literature on experimental psychology
Experimental psychology
Experimental psychology is a methodological approach, rather than a subject, and encompasses varied fields within psychology. Experimental psychologists have traditionally conducted research, published articles, and taught classes on neuroscience, developmental psychology, sensation, perception,...
and many other primary sources of information to complete this project. The finished product was a 200-lecture course. This task sparked Boring's interest in the history that shaped the field; it would also serve as great training for Boring's later publication of his own text, The History of Experimental Psychology, in 1929. This work also gave Boring experience in teaching psychology. He continued to teach psychology at Cornell for 4 years, but was glad when the war forced him to leave this position; Boring felt that Cornell was not in need of him.
Intelligence testing
During the First World War Boring was not drafted because of the birth of his first son. Disappointment over not helping his country did not last for long. Robert M. Yerkes asked him to join in the development of intelligence testing. Boring was later appointed chief psychological examiner at Camp Upton in Long Island. Then in 1918 Boring was asked to work on a massive report on the army intelligence program. Boring made his contribution during the war but was troubled afterward by the lack of scientific objectivity that resulted from intelligence testing. He found the use of probabilities to answer scientific questions to be particularly frustrating. At the time Boring felt that science was a field of certainty, not probability. As a result Boring remained cautious of intelligence testing throughout his life. When questions followed in later years about the definition of intelligence Boring adopted the phrase, “Intelligence is what the tests test” (p.46).Clark University
In 1920 Boring was offered a position at Harvard and he was also offered a position to continue working with Yerkes in Minnesota. He chose Harvard because he believed that they had a greater need for him there; Boring had a mission to “rescue Harvard psychology from the philosophers”(p.36) and transform psychology into a respectable science. Boring felt that the previous psychology professor, Hugo MünsterbergHugo Münsterberg
Hugo Münsterberg was a German-American psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in applied psychology, extending his research and theories to Industrial/Organizational , legal, medical, clinical, educational and business settings. Münsterberg encountered immense turmoil with the outbreak of the...
, had “vulgarized”(p. 46) the field by placing it in the philosophical realm; it was Boring's goal to bring the program to a more objective perspective. However, the summer before he was to start at Harvard, G. Stanley Hall
G. Stanley Hall
Granville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
, then president of Clark University
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...
, offered him a job as professor of experimental psychology for three years, with the promise that if his work was satisfactory his position would be made permanent. The appeal of stability led Boring to accept the position at Clark. Here he enjoyed his work, but there were concerns regarding the status of psychology when the new president and geographer Wallace Walter Atwood was appointed; he wanted to replace newly-popular psychology with geography. Controversy was also stirred during the Red Scare, when Atwood accused Boring of being a Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
encouraging underground radicalism at Clark. Such allegations had no evidence of support and while Boring waited for his reappointment to Clark he received another offer from Harvard as an associate professor and an offer from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
for a full professorship with a higher salary. Boring was torn between the financial incentive and prestige of the position at Stanford as a full-time professor, or the challenge of transforming psychology at Harvard but beginning as only an associate professor. The decision was made for Boring when Stanford withdrew their offer because of Boring’s hesitation to accept it, leaving him to start a new career at Harvard.
Harvard University
Boring’s career at Harvard almost ended before it began, when he was injured in an automobile accident. Boring fractured his skull and had to stay in the hospital for six weeks. In addition, the accident resulted in temporary retroactive and progressive amnesiaAmnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
. This experience caused Boring to question what it means to be conscious. If a person could not recall what they had said moments after they had said it could they really be considered conscious? Such questions become a lifelong endeavor for Boring to try to answer.
When Boring began work at Harvard he discovered that Herbert S. Langfeld, who was the laboratory director, had been asked to forfeit the title and become an associate professor instead. The title was left unfilled, leaving both Langfeld and Boring associate professors with less power than their philosophical opponents.
Through the years Boring received many offers from other schools such as Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, and even an offer to succeed Titchener at Cornell, but he remained at Harvard, intent on his mission to improve their psychology program. After Boring refused Princeton they offered Langfeld the position, and he accepted; this gave Boring more independence in running psychology at Harvard. He was rewarded for his dedication to Harvard by being promoted to laboratory director in 1924; he held that position until 1949, when he resigned. In 1928 he received a full-time professorship; during that same year he was president of the American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
.
Boring was very interested in building a close relationship between the staff and students. At his suggestion, in 1924 the Harvard philosophy and psychology department began the first Colloquium to build a sense of community. Boring believed his most successful effort in facilitating unity in the department to be the laboratory luncheons that began with him bringing his lunch to the lab and offering to buy coffee for anyone who would join him. Through these small gestures Boring was able to create a place where the graduate students could interact with faculty — exchanging ideas, gaining insight, and discussing their work in an encouraging environment.
In 1933 James B. Conant became president of Harvard. Conant's interest in psychology was considerably greater than the former president's, and in 1934 he accepted Boring’s motion to separate the psychology and philosophy departments. By removing the philosophy go-between, the official break between the disciplines freed the psychological science faculty to focus on the research and experimental psychology questions they wanted to answer. Boring emphasized the use of the experimental method, rather than the tools of philosophy, to investigate psychological questions. Boring’s mission was finally complete. Boring was made the first chair of the Department of Psychology, but 2 years later he resigned the position to Gordon W. Allport.
Psychoanalysis
Boring’s self-criticism, fear of failure, and need for peer-acceptance became unmanageable and affected the productivity of his work. In 1933, at the suggestion of his friends and family, Boring began psychoanalysis treatment with a former colleague of Freud, Hans SachsHans Sachs
Hans Sachs was a German meistersinger , poet, playwright and shoemaker.-Biography:Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg . His father was a tailor. He attended Latin school in Nuremberg...
. Boring remained in psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
for a year, doing 5 sessions a week, but he found it to be ineffective in alleviating his concerns. Boring had hoped to achieve a change in personality by the end of this experience and was disappointed to find that he still had his old mindset. Four years later, both Sachs and Boring wrote about the experience in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. The two men agreed that the psychoanalysis was not successful.
Research
While at Harvard, Boring believed that he conducted only a few important independent research projects. Although he conducted a lot of research during his career, most of it resulted in minor contributions to psychology. The vast majority of his research centered around sensory and perceptual phenomena. However, most of his time was spent teaching, doing administrative work, writing, editing, or guiding the research of his graduate students. Boring worked 80-hour work weeks, and when he began writing books most of it had to be done in the summer. At the time, his graduate students chose their own research problems, and Boring had little success in convincing them to pursue his own research interests. However, Boring did publish some notable research findings during his time at Harvard.Figure-ground phenomena
My Wife and My Mother-in-Law
"My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" is a famous ambiguous optical illusion, which can be perceived either as a young girl or an old woman .-History:...
" in a 1930 journal article, explaining that this illustration was an accurate representation of the phenomena because the two different images are interpenetrating one another with no formal dividing line. He contrasted this image to Edgar Rubin
Edgar Rubin
Edgar John Rubin was a Danish psychologist/phenomenologist, remembered for his work on figure-ground perception as seen in such optical illusions like the Rubin vase. He once worked as a research associate for Georg Elias Müller.-External links:*...
's Rubin vase
Rubin vase
Rubin's vase is a famous set of ambiguous or bi-stable two-dimensional forms developed around 1915 by the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin...
figure, where he felt that there is an obvious dividing line between the human profiles and goblets. This description made Hill's young-woman/old-woman puzzle famous and earned it the title of the “Boring figure.”
Tonal brightness
One graduate student with whom Boring developed a student-professor relationship similar to the one Boring had had with Titchener was Stanley Smith StevensStanley Smith Stevens
Stanley Smith Stevens was an American psychologist who founded Harvard's Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory and is credited with the introduction of Stevens' power law. Stevens authored a milestone textbook, the 1400+ page "Handbook of Experimental Psychology" . He was also one of the founding organizers...
. Stevens and Boring did a considerable amount of work together; but because Boring was strongly opposed to the practice of professors putting their names on published work to which they had contributed very little, Boring included his name only when he considered his part to be a large enough contribution. Only once did Boring consider his role in Stevens' work to be equal enough to merit the term collaboration, and even in this case he was not fully in agreement that it was; it was only after Stevens refused to publish it unless Boring's name was included that Boring agreed. Boring stated that the only reason he consented was because he hated to see work go unpublished. And so it was just this one collaboration that was ever officially documented between Boring and Stevens, although Stevens disagreed and believed that there had been many more than just one. In 1936 the two published their research on tonal brightness. At the time it was known that tonal brightness varied with pitch; and, based on previous research, it was believed that high tones are bright and low tones are dull. The question that Stevens and Boring researched was concerning the bright and dull tones that could be produced with a siren when the holes were appropriately spaced, hypothesizing that brightness varies with both the intensity and the frequency of the pitch. Boring suggested that they embrace the new technology and conduct the experiment with a cathode-ray oscilloscope and a wave-analyzer. They concluded through this study that tonal brightness is essentially the same as tonal density.
Moon illusion
One of Boring's best-known projects is his 1940 study of the moon illusionMoon illusion
The Moon illusion is an optical illusion in which the Moon appears larger near the horizon than it does while higher up in the sky. This optical illusion also occurs with the sun and star constellations. It has been known since ancient times, and recorded by numerous different cultures...
. Boring and fellow researcher A. H. Holway hypothesized that the moon appears larger on the horizon because the eyes view it directly at a leveled position, while the moon overhead appears smaller because the eyes must look up. They tested this experimentally, and found that for an observer whose eyes were kept in a fixed position while a circle representing the moon moved up (through the use of a pulley system), the moon appeared to increase in size. This illusion did not occur when participants were lying down while viewing the moon, and they also found some evidence of it not occurring when viewing the moon with only one eye. These results led the researchers to conclude that the illusion of moon shrinkage depends on the movement of the eyes in the head, not the movement of the actual head, and that it depends on binocular vision, that is, the use of both eyes together. This study exemplifies Boring’s interest in misperceptions of sensory experience.
Publications
Although Boring did make some research contributions, he had a larger impact through his writing. His first connection to psychological literature came about in 1926 when Boring became a joint editor of The American Journal of Psychology, which was originally started by G. Stanley HallG. Stanley Hall
Granville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
and later bought by K. M. Dallenbach for Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
and put under Titchener’s control. When Titchener withdrew from the journal Dallenbach asked I. Madison Bentley
I. Madison Bentley
- Early Life & Education :The Bentleys were from Upstate New York, the town of Warners northeast of Syracuse. Bentley studied psychology at the University of Nebraska. Harry Kirke Wolfe was his mentor. He also studied under Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig during the AY1886-1887, later...
, Margaret Floy Washburn, and Boring to pick up editorship of the journal. Boring accepted and remained an editor for 23 years.
A History of Experimental Psychology
While studying at Cornell the 200 lecture course Titchener had Boring and the rest of his graduate students design left an interest in Boring on the historical perspective of psychology. This later inspired him to publish his first book titled A History of Experimental Psychology in 1929 in hopes of making psychologists more "history-conscious" (p.42). The book did well within the first year selling 1,316 copies; many in the field enjoyed the text and the manner in which he described the history of the discipline. However Boring was highly critical of his work and viewed his first book as only modestly successful. Despite his criticism the text continued to prosper through the years, selling 16,765 copies in 1950. Most notably in his first book he criticizes the founder of laboratory psychology, Wilhelm WundtWilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physician, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology"...
, for his focus on volitional consciousness and denial of psychology being a fully experimental science. It is also condemned for downplaying Völkerpsychologie. This portrayal of Wundt is often remarked to be given through the "Titchenerian lens" (p.444). Some of the confusion over Wundt’s psychology can be attributed to Boring’s book. However, most people still consider this to be Boring’s most important work; the publication made him one of the first historians of psychology.
The Physical Dimensions of Consciousness
His next work was published in 1933 titled The Physical Dimensions of Consciousness; he attempts an accommodation with behaviorismBehaviorism
Behaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking, and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior...
by viewing sensations through their physical mechanisms. In this Boring expresses his monist physicalism perspective, similar to operationalism’s emphasis on measurement in order to understand the meaning of concepts. Boring himself was surprised by his view being in direct opposition to his deeply respected mentor Titchener. However Titchener was dead by this time and Boring was now free to express his views. The mentalist and dualist perspective of Titchener seemed insecure to Boring, he focused on a physical brain rather than the abstract mind. One of the purposes of this book was try to clarify such complex terms as consciousness and sensation, questions that had been plaguing him since his automobile accident. Boring wanted to define what these phenomena actually meant physically.
His positivist view became much more liberal over time; he adapted pieces of opposing theories that fit his experimentalist side. He came to accept different areas of psychology as long as they were scientific. Toward the areas that relied on rationalism
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
he advised it is best to ignore these ideas if empirical evidence exists against these theories.. For other theories that are supported by facts he believes that psychologists should rejoice in these efforts even if they do not support their own school of thought because ultimately this progresses the field as a whole by adding more information about human nature.
Boring considered Dimensions to be his “immature-book”(p.44). He believed the book was before it’s time, a few years later research he was directing would appear that could have better supported this book. For instance some of his graduate students were investigating the relationship between auditory sensation and pitch, loudness, volume, and density. Additionally 2 years after his publication of Dimensions Percy Bridgman’s The Logic of Modern Physics surfaced which formally introduced operationalism. Later Boring’s student Stanley Smith Stevens
Stanley Smith Stevens
Stanley Smith Stevens was an American psychologist who founded Harvard's Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory and is credited with the introduction of Stevens' power law. Stevens authored a milestone textbook, the 1400+ page "Handbook of Experimental Psychology" . He was also one of the founding organizers...
would play a key role in integrating operationalism into the field of psychology, but Stevens admitted and provided in several examples how his mentor Boring helped to shape his own views on operationalism.
BLW textbooks
Boring was approached by Harry P. Weld to collaborate with him and Herbart Langfeld on a psychology textbook, referred to as the BLW textbooks. At the time Boring was not too keen to write an elementary psychology textbook because he felt it took away from the science that needed to be done, but he agreed and through the years there were three editions of the BLW textbooks. The first was titled Psychology: a Factual Textbook and was published in 1935. This textbook focused mainly on the hard facts and each section was written by a specialist in the field of focus for that chapter. Boring went through and edited the written work into a cohesive whole. The layout was difficult for elementary psychology students to grasp, especially those who lacked knowledge of the theoretical basis supporting the methods. Despite this the book was still used by both beginning and advanced psychology courses. In 1939 the text was much revised and a second edition was published. The third edition published in 1948 was renamed Foundations of Psychology and it was greatly expanded to include new authors, chapters, and format.Sensation and Perceptions in the History of Experimental Psychology
He considered his most important work to be his second volume of history, Sensation and Perception in the History of Experimental Psychology, which was published in 1942. Boring dated the preface December 6, 1941, the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl HarborPearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
because this was the last day “pure scholarship could be undertaken with a clear conscious”(p.47). As a historian of psychology Boring was well aware of the importance of place and time during which theories were proposed. He introduced psychology to Goethe and Johann Herder’s idea of Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...
in the last chapter of this book. Both G. Stanley Hall
G. Stanley Hall
Granville Stanley Hall was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory...
and William James
William James
William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
had occasionally used the term but it was Boring who popularized it.
In several of his works and articles he refers to the Zeitgeist, recognizing how it affected the acceptance of his own ideas. For instance Boring describes forces of the time working to separate the disciplines of philosophy and psychology at Harvard, commenting that the change would have been made even without him there to propose it. Boring never realized the true impact he made and gave himself little credit for any of his successes. Psychology was a huge force during the time and it was only a matter of time until this was recognized and the split between the two disciplines was made. But this does show that Boring understands that it takes more than a brilliant individual to make history, the setting must also be accepting of this change. The lack of the book’s success can be attributed at least partially to the timing it was released. Sales were not high with the general public because the country was wrapped up in the wartime concerns and people had little interest in reading a book detailing the sensory and perceptual histories in psychology. The book was held in positive regard by the specialist in the field though.
Psychology for the Fighting Man
During the Second World War Boring made his contribution to the war efforts through his writing. Since the a First World War there had been talk about the need for a textbook on military psychologyMilitary psychology
Military psychology is the research, design and application of psychological theories and experimentation data towards understanding, predicting and countering behaviours either in friendly or enemy forces or civilian population that may be undesirable, threatening or potentially dangerous to the...
but the war ended before the idea could be further developed. With the second war underway the idea resurfaced, and Boring felt confident that with his experience from his BLW textbooks he could write the textbook on military psychology. Boring made his proposal to The National Research Council's Emergency Committee on Psychology in 1942 and was appointed as the chairman on a subcommittee in charge of the writing and publication of the text. Boring followed the format of his previous books; the chapters were to be written by the experts and then edited to unify the book as a whole.
The committee decided to instead create a book that would focus on the psychology of the majority of soldiers in the army, the ordinary GI, instead of focusing on the higher level officers. In 1943 Psychology for the Fighting Man was published. It consisted of sections by 59 authors, which Boring and Marjorie Van de Water edited and unified. In order for the larger public to understand this text Boring greatly altered his writing style. He spoke directly to the reader, used short sentences, and concrete examples and the book was shorter than his previous texts taking up just 450 pages. This manner stands in stark contrast to his earlier work, especially his BLW textbooks which consisted almost entirely of data and facts. This flexibility in writing exemplifies his versatility and ability to adapt his writing to the job at hand. In this book the focus was on practical information such as boosting the morale of soldiers, personal-adjustment in the army, and obtainment of necessities such as food. The book sold 380,000 copies and brought The National Research Council about $10,000.
Psychology for the Armed Services
With that project complete Boring turned toward creating the military psychology textbook he had originally intended to work on. In 1945 he completed this work with the publication of Psychology for the Armed Services. Unfortunately, the book was not widely received at the time due to its wide scope rather than emphasis on ways to boost morale and focus on leadership. Through his work with the army Boring came to develop a greater appreciation for applied psychologyApplied psychology
The basic premise of applied psychology is the use of psychological principles and theories to overcome problems in other areas, such as mental health, business management, education, health, product design, ergonomics, and law...
. He was beginning to accept that psychology could be a science and be used by society.
Second edition of A History of Experimental Psychology
Boring resigned from Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1949 and a year later published the second edition of A History of Experimental Psychology where he brought the text up to date on advancements in the field of psychology. In this edition he incorporated information about advancements in the field since the first edition of History. He emphasizes the role of the Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...
providing a context for the great thinkers in psychology to advance their ideas. Both volumes of the textbook were used by numerous graduate students in the 1960s and have played a large role in shaping psychologists’ attitudes towards their field. It was considered to be "a classic, replacing a classic" (p.60) in the world of psychology.
Psychologists at Large: Autobiography
In 1961 Boring published a text about the great individuals involved in the field of psychology, but this time Boring used autobiographical information to describe the people. The book was titled Psychologists at Large: an Autobiography and Selected Essays. The three volumes of this work contain autobiographies from 43 psychologists. Boring acknowledged some recognition of his own impact in psychology by including himself in the book. The final volume was published in 1967. It was Boring’s last book to be published.In his seventies he continued to make contributions to the field through his writing. He founded and edited a journal that was dedicated exclusively to psychology book reviews, Contemporary Psychology. In this journal Boring was able to shape the psychological works that were published. He demanded a high degree of quality which challenged psychologists to rise to his standard. As editor Boring also had a regular column titled “CP Speaks.” This provided Boring with a platform to express his opinions regarding the works featured in each issue.
Boring and Women in Psychology
In the 1930s Boring collaborated with Alice Bryan to study the role of women in psychology. This began a series of 3 publications the two co-authored. Their research surveyed women’s positions, opportunities, and salaries in the field, however Boring and Bryan were in deep opposition over their explanations for these results. Bryan felt the inequality reflected discrimination against women, while Boring believed that the disparity was the result of social and cultural forces operating against women, not discrimination on the part of the American Psychological AssociationAmerican Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
.
He published an article on his own in 1951 in the American Psychologists that focused on women in the field and emphasized his beliefs. He wrote about the disadvantages women in psychology face as the result of society which affects their professional advancement. This he called this the “women problem.” Boring describes the standard procedure men undergo to achieve prestige in their career: a man must receive a Ph.D., conduct meaningful research that gets published, and undertake administrative work. If work is done well enough to impress their boss men are likely to be promoted to higher positions and work in broader tasks such as publishing books, or becoming a dean or college president, allowing them to influence a wider range of people. It was the pursuit of prestige at higher positions that women lacked, largely because they were blocked from the higher level jobs in the first place.
Another factor he believed was necessary for high success was commitment to the job, and once again this put women at a disadvantage. He did not believe that it was the American Psychological Association that kept women in lower positions; rather this discrepancy was the result of societal customs. An obvious obstacle he discussed was the traditional role women have towards their family which prevents them from dedicating their time completely to their work. He believed that to move up in the field to high level positions one must commit themselves to their research. Women have obligations to their families and this does not allow them to work 168 hours a week, the amount of work he quantified at necessary to achieve prestige. For those women who chose work over a family, they would be harshly judged by society for not fulfilling their traditional role as women. Boring also mentions that that an unmarried woman up against a married man for a high level position will usually lose out to him. Men who are married make their marriage work to their advantage by receiving emotional support from their wives, a factor that women who work do not always receive from their husbands.
Boring repeatedly makes the point that from his perspective the best way around the problem is for women to publish books on the works of others, this places their advancement in the field out of the control of others and as their own responsibility. Most notably it is evident that Boring has no objection to women following the same route to success as he did. Although he made other contributions to psychology through his research, he is most recognized in modern society as a historian of the field.
Boring and Psychology One
Boring appeared on “Psychology One” which was the first publicly televised introductory psychology course that aired in 1956. The program was designed to introduce psychology to the general public and provided an entertaining but insightful form of instruction. One well-talked about scene from the show was when Boring mimicked the expressions of emotions that Charles DarwinCharles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
highlighted. The program was very informative. Among other topics Boring lectured on the physics of sensations such as light and sound, the structures of sense organs. But he also included material about more psychological concepts such as perceptual constancy and illusions based on his previous research, learning, the nature of reflexes, and the physiological processes behind emotions.
His Legacy
Boring left his legacy on the field of psychology in many ways. He was a historian, researcher, professor, critic, editor, and served in positions on many committees and intellectual societies. He acted through a wide range of faculties to leave his mark on psychology.Boring taught psychology at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
for 27 years. He had a profound impact, training many students who would go on to become influential in the field of psychology such as Stanley Smith Stevens
Stanley Smith Stevens
Stanley Smith Stevens was an American psychologist who founded Harvard's Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory and is credited with the introduction of Stevens' power law. Stevens authored a milestone textbook, the 1400+ page "Handbook of Experimental Psychology" . He was also one of the founding organizers...
. Boring spent a great deal of his career editing papers of his students. Stevens once mentioned that Boring could be very compulsive in his editing. Stevens provides a famous example when he asked Boring to look over a 4,000 word paper and receive back an 8,000 word edit. Boring would insist the writers increase their clarity of work by challenging his students to put the words they actually meant rather than using abstract phrases. He pushed psychologists to adapt better writing habits which ultimately benefited the audiences that would later read these works. Most notably, Boring made the time to assist his students and shaped them into better writers and researchers. Instead of focusing on gaining success through his student’s work Boring led a professional life full of integrity, and was willing to sacrifice his own needs for those of his students.
His textbooks also provided his interpretations of the field and were read by thousands of people. This shaped the way students came to think about psychology. For instance, Boring played an influential role in introducing Titchener to the psychological world after his death. It was through his work that Boring recited vivid anecdotes and interpretations of the man he held in high esteem. Modern society still associates many of these stories with Titchener, such as his all-male parties and his intense personality. In this way his written work influenced countless students and fellow psychologists without ever coming into physical contact with them. In fact Boring’s revised version of A History of Experimental Psychology continues to be used today as a reference, although users remain cautious of Boring’s apparent bias in his portrayal of some psychologists.
Through the years Boring’s rigidity softened and he was able to contribute to many areas in psychology. He was a man of experimental psychology, objective science, but also philosophical science. His research was based on sensory and perceptual phenomena, but he was also a statesman and advocate for women in psychology and military psychology.
Boring also wrote many letters to psychologists all over the world, it was estimated to be about one thousand a year, usually the letters were longer than one page and many contain discussions of various theories and ideas. These letters reflect his dedication and interest in the field and his connection to many important figures in psychology.
The many contributions Boring made in psychology were recognized later in his lifetime. In 1956 Clark University
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...
offered him an honorary degree. Then a year later in 1957 the Society of Experimental Psychologists
Society of Experimental Psychologists
The Society of Experimental Psychologists , originally called the Society of Experimentalists, is an academic society for experimental psychologists. It was founded by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1904 to be an ongoing workshop in which members could visit labs, study apparatus, and hear and...
, a group he was a chatter member of, held a special dinner in his honor where students and colleagues gave donations to Harvard to start the Boring Liberty Fund. Perhaps the greatest recognition Boring received for his work in progressing the field of psychology was in 1959 when the American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
honored him with Gold Medal, praising him for “his varied and distinguished contributions to psychology as investigator, teacher, historian, theorist, administrator and statesman, popular expositor, and editor”(p.796).
Boring had such a profound impact on psychology that Robert Yerkes
Robert Yerkes
Robert Mearns Yerkes was an American psychologist, ethologist, and primatologist best known for his work in intelligence testing and in the field of comparative psychology....
even dubbed him “Mr. Psychology” (p.445).
Psychological Organizations, Conferences, and Committees
Boring attended his first international psychology function in 1923 when he and his wife went to Oxford for the seventh International Congress of Psychology. Here he met with influential psychologists, such as Kurt KoffkaKurt Koffka
Kurt Koffka was a German psychologist. He was born and educated in Berlin and earned his PhD there in 1909 as a student of Carl Stumpf...
and Wolfgang Köhler
Wolfgang Köhler
Wolfgang Köhler was a German psychologist and phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Koffka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt psychology.-Early life:...
, who were just introducing their Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies...
to the United States at that time.
In 1919-1922 Boring served as secretary of the American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
while James McKeen Cattell
James McKeen Cattell
James McKeen Cattell , American psychologist, was the first professor of psychology in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania and long-time editor and publisher of scientific journals and publications, most notably the journal Science...
was president. The two men were both very passionate about their work and often clashed as a result. In 1928 Boring became president of the American Psychological Association.
In 1927 two psychology students, Fred Lewis and Edwin Newman, at the University of Kansas had the idea to create Psi Chi
Psi Chi
Psi Chi is the International Honor Society in Psychology, founded in 1929 for the purposes of encouraging, stimulating, and maintaining excellence in scholarship, and advancing the science of psychology. With over 1,050 chapters, Psi Chi is one of the largest honor societies in the United States...
, an organization designed to advance scholarship in psychology. The members sent their ideas about the organization to several important psychologists at the time in order to gain support for their idea. Boring hated the idea and sent back a ruthless 3 page letter detailing why he believed it to be a horrible idea. In the letter Boring explains that concept was “depressing”(p.34) to him because he believed the organization to be counter productive; rather than facilitating research in the field Boring believed it would hinder it. Boring was so adamant about his negative view toward the organization that he refused to pass their original letter along; he believed it would be a nuisance to his fellow faculty members. Despite Boring’s obvious aversion to the organization there were many who supported the idea and Psi Chi was officially founded in 1929. Over the years Boring changed his mind about the organization and became quite supportive of it. Years later co-founder Edwin Newman became the Psychology Department Chair at Harvard and Boring’s boss.
In 1933 Boring was appointed to a committee began by James B. Conant to find “the best psychologist in the world”(p.45). After much debate the committee agreed on Karl S. Lashley, who had been Boring’s candidate from the start. With this title Lashley was elected Professor of Psychology and then given space in the biological laboratories, geographically spreading Harvard psychology.
His influence was not limited to psychology in 1945 he was elected as the chairman of the Publications Committee of the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
.
In 1945 Robert M. Yerkes asked Boring to join his Survey and Planning Committee, designed to bring psychologists together to discuss issues regarding the war and the role psychologists could play during wartime to help provide services to the country. One of the most significant acts of this committee was made by Boring. He suggested uniting the American Psychological Association and the Association for Applied Psychology and all other societies that were willing. This was an influential move that restructured the American Psychological Association into what it is today. The Intersociety Constitutional Convention was formed and it met in 1943 for the first time. Boring was the first chairman of this Intersociety.
In 1966 Division 26, the Division for the History of Psychology, of the American Psychological Association was formed. During its formation the Division 26 members made a gesture to honor Boring for his tremendous contribution as a historian of psychology. Boring declined to run for president and was made “honorary president”(p.308) of the Division as an acknowledgment of his work. He was then asked to introduce the first elected president, Robert I. Watson, at the first official meeting, but old age prevented Boring from making the trip. He did introduce him though, through a written statement he mailed, read by John A. Popplestone. In this speech Boring playful jokes that he is the ghost of history’s past, a comment that is echoed by his voice being present without his body.
Books
- A History of Experimental Psychology (1929)
- The Physical Dimensions of Consciousness (1933)
- Sensation and Perception in the History of Experimental Psychology (1942)
- Introduction to Psychology (1938)
- Sensation and perception in the history of experimental psychology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. (1942)
- Psychology for the Fighting Man (1943)
- Psychology for the Armed Services (1945)
- Foundations of Psychology (1948, with Herbert Langfeld and Harry Weld)
- A History of Experimental Psychology (1950) (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
- Psychologist at Large: an Autobiography and Selected Essays (1961)
- History, Psychology, and Science: Selected Papers (1963)
- History of Psychology in Autobiography (1967)