History of Psychology Course

Paul F. Ballantyne, Ph.D.
pballan@comnet.ca

From the dust jacket of: Boring, E.G. (1963). History, Psychology, and Science: Selected Papers. (R.I. Watson & D.T. Campbell, Eds.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Edwin G. Boring began his long and distinguished career in psychology as an instructor at Cornell University where he received a M.E. in Engineering in 1908, an A.M. in Psychology in 1912 and a Ph.D. in Psychology in 1914. He served at Clark University as Professor of Experimental Psychology from 1919 to 1922, when he joined the faculty at Harvard University. At Harvard, he served as Associate Professor of Psychology from 1922 to 1928; as Professor of Psychology from 1928 to 1956; as Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology and Lowell Television Lecturer from 1956 to 1957; as Director of the Psychological Laboratory from 1924 to 1949; and as Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology Emeritus from 1957 to the present. He was also a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar in 1958 and 1959.

Dr. Boring is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Psychological Association and a foreign member of the British, French, and Spanish Psychological Societies. He served as President of the American Psychological Association in 1928, as Secretary of the IX International Congress of Psychology in 1929 and as Honorary President of the XVII International Congress of Psychology in 1963. He received the American Psychological Foundation's Gold Medal in 1959 and holds an honorary A.M. from Harvard and honorary Sc.D's from University of Pennsylvania and Clark University.

The author was founder and editor of Contemporary Psychology and has written and edited numerous books and articles. Among these is his History of Experimental Psychology which, 34 years after first publication [1929], continues to be the leading textbook in the history of Psychology in American colleges and universities.