Oliver Zangwill
Encyclopedia
Oliver Louis Zangwill FRS (29 October 1913 - 12 October 1987) was an influential British neuropsychologist. He was Professor of Experimental Psychology
, University of Cambridge
, 1952-81, then Professor Emeritus. He was the son of Israel Zangwill
and the grandson of William Edward Ayrton
. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
in 1977.
Zangwill was educated at University College School
, London
, and then at the University of Cambridge
, where he was a member of King's College
. He received his Bachelor of Arts
in 1935 (MA 1939), having completed the Natural Sciences Tripos
, Part I in 1934 (Class 2), and the Moral Sciences (i.e. Philosophy
) Tripos, Part II in 1935, being awarded 1st class honours with special distinction.
As Professor of Experimental Psychology at Cambridge (in an era when the norm for UK academic departments was to have only a single faculty member with the title "Professor", who was also permanent head of department, and when Experimental Psychology
was the only branch of the discipline to have a university department at Cambridge), Zangwill occupied a position of enormous influence. He was active both in the Experimental Psychology Society
(of which he was a founder member, indeed the convenor of the founding meeting) and the British Psychological Society
. It can be argued that his influence in the two societies helped prevent their sometimes conflicting perspectives from leading to an open rift. He was always ready to advise and support those setting up new psychology degrees as the discipline spread through UK universities in the 1950s and 1960s, and served many departments as an external examiner
both of undergraduate programmes and of PhD
candidates. As a result he exerted considerable influence at a period when UK psychology was expanding rapidly.
Zangwill's research interests were mainly in neuropsychology
, particularly brain lateralisation, at a time when these topics were not particularly fashionable. Much of his research was based at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London
(now part of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
), and he was always interested in the links between research and treatment. Self-deprecating about his own research, he saw himself as someone who could provide encouragement and support to others, and the renaissance of neuropsychology in the United Kingdom from the 1970s on owes much to his influence. As the professor and head of department at Cambridge, he also saw it as his responsibility to supervise any PhD students whose interests did not correspond to any of his colleagues'. For example he supervised the work of Liam Hudson
, an unlikely member of an Experimental Psychology department, who nonetheless acknowledges his debt to him and describes him as, "a scholarly, preoccupied, subtle, and at times startlingly insightful, person".
Recognising the part Zangwill played in the development of care for patients with neurological disorders, the East Cambridgeshire and Fenland NHS
Primary Care Trust has named a research and treatment unit, the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, in his honour. This Centre has now formed part of Cambridgeshire PCT.
Zangwill was married twice, to Joy Moult (married 1947, divorced 1975) and to Shirley Tribe (married 1976). With his first wife he had a son, David, who died in an accident as a baby; he later adopted his second wife's son Jeremy.
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...
, University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, 1952-81, then Professor Emeritus. He was the son of Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill was a British humorist and writer.-Biography:Zangwill was born in London on January 21, 1864 in a family of Jewish immigrants from Czarist Russia, to Moses Zangwill from what is now Latvia and Ellen Hannah Marks Zangwill from what is now Poland. He dedicated his life to championing...
and the grandson of William Edward Ayrton
William Edward Ayrton
-See also:*Henry Dyer*John Milne*Anglo-Japanese relations...
. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in 1977.
Zangwill was educated at University College School
University College School
University College School, generally known as UCS, is an Independent school charity situated in Hampstead, north west London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and then at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, where he was a member of King's College
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
. He received his Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in 1935 (MA 1939), having completed the Natural Sciences Tripos
Natural Sciences (Cambridge)
The Natural Sciences Tripos is one of the several courses which form the University of Cambridge system of undergraduate teaching...
, Part I in 1934 (Class 2), and the Moral Sciences (i.e. Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
) Tripos, Part II in 1935, being awarded 1st class honours with special distinction.
Career
- Research Student, Cambridge Psychological Laboratory, 1935-40
- Psychologist, Brain Injuries Unit, EdinburghEdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
1940-45 - Assistant Director, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Oxford, 1945-52
- Senior Lecturer in General Psychology, University of OxfordUniversity of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, 1948-52 - Professorial Fellow, 1955-87, Supernumerary Fellow, 1981-7, King's College, Cambridge
As Professor of Experimental Psychology at Cambridge (in an era when the norm for UK academic departments was to have only a single faculty member with the title "Professor", who was also permanent head of department, and when 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,...
was the only branch of the discipline to have a university department at Cambridge), Zangwill occupied a position of enormous influence. He was active both in the Experimental Psychology Society
Experimental Psychology Society
The Experimental Psychology Society is an academic society which facilitates research into experimental psychology and communication between experimental psychologists. It is based in the United Kingdom....
(of which he was a founder member, indeed the convenor of the founding meeting) and the British Psychological Society
British Psychological Society
The British Psychological Society is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. The BPS is also a Registered Charity and, along with advantages, this also imposes certain constraints on what the society can and cannot do...
. It can be argued that his influence in the two societies helped prevent their sometimes conflicting perspectives from leading to an open rift. He was always ready to advise and support those setting up new psychology degrees as the discipline spread through UK universities in the 1950s and 1960s, and served many departments as an external examiner
External examiner
The external examiner plays an important role in all degree level examinations in higher education in the United Kingdom. The external examiner system was introduced into the UK during the 19th century, and it is therefore also found in countries whose higher education systems were developed on...
both of undergraduate programmes and of PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
candidates. As a result he exerted considerable influence at a period when UK psychology was expanding rapidly.
Zangwill's research interests were mainly in neuropsychology
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain related to specific psychological processes and behaviors. The term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied to efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells in...
, particularly brain lateralisation, at a time when these topics were not particularly fashionable. Much of his research was based at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(now part of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery is a neurological hospital in London, United Kingdom and part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust...
), and he was always interested in the links between research and treatment. Self-deprecating about his own research, he saw himself as someone who could provide encouragement and support to others, and the renaissance of neuropsychology in the United Kingdom from the 1970s on owes much to his influence. As the professor and head of department at Cambridge, he also saw it as his responsibility to supervise any PhD students whose interests did not correspond to any of his colleagues'. For example he supervised the work of Liam Hudson
Liam Hudson
-Books:*The Cult of The Fact .*Contrary Imaginations: A Psychological Study of the English Schoolboy . The book was quoted in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. In the references of Outliers, Gladwell says, "Hudson is an absolute delight to read."- Sources :*...
, an unlikely member of an Experimental Psychology department, who nonetheless acknowledges his debt to him and describes him as, "a scholarly, preoccupied, subtle, and at times startlingly insightful, person".
Recognising the part Zangwill played in the development of care for patients with neurological disorders, the East Cambridgeshire and Fenland NHS
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
Primary Care Trust has named a research and treatment unit, the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, in his honour. This Centre has now formed part of Cambridgeshire PCT.
Zangwill was married twice, to Joy Moult (married 1947, divorced 1975) and to Shirley Tribe (married 1976). With his first wife he had a son, David, who died in an accident as a baby; he later adopted his second wife's son Jeremy.
Other positions held
- Visiting Psychologist, National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, London, 1947-79
- Honorary Consulting Psychologist to United Cambridge Hospitals, 1969-1987
- Editor, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1958-66
- President: Section J, British Association for the Advancement of ScienceBritish Association for the Advancement of Scienceframe|right|"The BA" logoThe British Association for the Advancement of Science or the British Science Association, formerly known as the BA, is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating interaction between...
, 1963 - President: Experimental Psychology Society, 1962-63
- President: British Psychological Society, 1974-75
- Member of the Biological Research Board, Medical Research CouncilMedical Research Council (UK)The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
, 1962-66
Publications
- An Introduction to Modern Psychology, 1950
- Cerebral Dominance and its relation to psychological function, 1960
- Current Problems in Animal Behaviour, 1961 (Edited, with William H. ThorpeWilliam Homan ThorpeWilliam Homan Thorpe FRS was Professor of Animal Ethology at the University of Cambridge, and a significant British zoologist, ethologist and ornithologist....
) - Amnesia, 1966, 2nd edn 1977
- Lateralisation or Language in the Child, 1981
- Handbook of Psychology, vol. 1, General Psychopathology, 1982
- The Oxford Companion to the Mind, 1987 (Edited, with Richard L. GregoryRichard GregoryRichard Langton Gregory, CBE, MA, D.Sc., FRSE, FRS was a British psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol.-Life and career:...
(ISBN 0-19-866124-X)