Why was Woodworth’s approach to psychology called dynamic psychology? Why did he prefer an S–O–R explanation of behavior over an S–R explanation?
Robert Sessions Woodworth had obtained his doctorate degree under the supervision of the Cattell in the Columbia. Under the influence of the Cattell the Columbia became the stronghold of the functionalism and psychology, Woodworth found his interest in the ‘why’ for example what people do and why they do so. His primary interest was the motivation. He named his branch of psychology as the dynamic psychology.
He was strongly disagreed to the people who talked about the matter of the responses, stimuli and brain processes as environmental adjustments just like the Dewey. According to him, some psychologist had left the mechanism of the brain and talked about only the stimulus response relationships (S-R). He worked on the stimulus organism response(S-O-R) as a combination to designate the importance of the organism.
Just like Carr’s adaptive act, he used the term called as the mechanism to depict the organism’s way to interact with the environment for his own need satisfaction. These mechanisms also called as the adaptive behavior, they remain dormant unless the need triggers them. Thus, an organism in the same physical environment can act differently in accordance with the need.