Munsterberg's Applied Psychology

One of Munsterberg's intentions was to treat psychology as broadly and as widely as possible. He did not have any patience with approaches like Titchener's, which he viewed as too restrictive. Munsterberg was known to speak of Titchener's structuralism as precise but not useful. However, Munsterberg did not like gicing a concrete definition of psychology becasue he thought that any definition would create rules and restrictions that he did not want and could not accept. Instead, Munsterberg was interested in functions or acts such as, memory, understanding, learning, a search for beauty, empathy, love, and faith. Munsterberg saw psychology in a purpose-oriented functionalist manner. For him, it was "more natural to drink the water than to analyze it in the laboratory into its chemical elements" (Hothersall, 1995, p163). Dr. Munsterberg's lifetime interest was in the application of psychological knowledge, specifically in the service of humanity. Munsterberg always considered himself to be an experimental psychologist as he later referred to his patients coming in for treatment to his laboratory and his experiments in the industrial settings. For more on Munsterberg's Clinical Psychology, see ClinicalPsychology.htm

 

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