Discuss the roles of Scott and Münsterberg in the origin of industrial-organizational psychology.
Work by Scott displays the concern of school of functionalist psychology with pragmatic issues. Publications of Scott changed from theoretical German to useful American. Rather than explaining impulses and motives in general, Scott dealt with influencing people, comprising lecture audiences, workers and consumers.
Scott arranged a remarkable list of initials. He for the first time in psychology applied it to advertising, management and personal selection. He wrote the first book in this field and was the first one to be known as the professor in the psychology of application.
He was also the founder of the very first company for consultation of psychology, and the first one to obtain the Medal for Differentiated Service from the army of US.
Munsterberg, a stereotypical professor from Germany, was a substantial success in the psychology of America and in the eyes of public for a time. He documented thousands of famous articles in magazines and about 24 books in areas of application like industrial, forensic and clinical psychology.
He founded psychology of application in Europe and United States and was also implicated for being a detective. He has been characterized as a “creative propagandizer for psychology of application”.
His biographer said that he was also a prosperous publicist, “adored with sensational flair which was uncanny”. He was very self-centered and had a powerful impression of self-importance.
Munsterberg had been characterized as “egoistical beyond infinity” and “pompous” by Santayana. By the end of life, he turned into a figure of ridicule and scorn, the subject for cartoons and newspapers and an embarrassment for the university he had worked for so many years.