Why was James considered to be the most important American psychologist? Describe his attitude toward laboratory work.
James is considered to be one of the greatest American psychologists. Three traits are attributed to his success. These three attributes, suggest his influence and overwhelming stature.
First, his writings had clarity, which was a rare sight in science. He wrote with style, had a charming way of explaining his points. His work showed magnetism as many got interested and attracted by his work.
Second, he opposed the famous Wundt. He opposed his theory of breaking mind into elements. His view on consciousness and the way of analyzing it did not, satisfy James. His own views on consciousness were quite different than Wundt.
Third, James offered a new way to look at psychology. He developed the new psychology in a way which was ready to be acceptable in America at that time. He applied his functional approach to study psychology.
James started his laboratory work at Harvard, still he was not interested in experimentation. He was not an experimentalist. He never valued the use of laboratory work in psychology. According to him, American universities already had many laboratories.
He was also discouraged by the results obtained from laboratory work. He said that the efforts required to do an experiment and the results that came were not in equal proportion. Even with more effort qualitative results could not be obtained.