Summarize Munsterberg’s work in clinical, forensic, and industrial psychology.
Munsterberg positive approach towards science led towards the discovery of the applied psychology. Applied psychology is consists of three important branch, forensic psychology, industrial psychology and clinical psychology. Munsterberg under the clinical psychology domain researched over various mentally ill people to understand the reason behind their abnormal behavioral pattern. He had applied his treatment to those mentally ill people without charging any fee to them.
He helped the patients suffering from the drug addiction, sexual dysfunction, phobia and alcoholism. He has not treated the patients with psychosis because according him, it was untreatable. He had analyzed the nervous system deterioration as one of the causes behind the psychosis. Munsterberg has also employed the concept called as the reciprocal antagonism. He explained that this concept is effective in strengthening the normal thoughts against the problem causing thoughts.
Munsterberg was the first psychologist, who had applied the principles of the psychology to the legal issues to create the forensic psychology. He had presented the eyewitness testimony as very much unreliable because according to him, sensory impressions are one of the illusionary impressions mostly. Stress and suggestions affects the perception of the individuals and accuracy of the memory cannot be justified.
Munsterberg has recommended the replacement of the brutal interrogation to the criminals with the psychological methods. He always believed that the brutal interrogation results in the false confessions. He had published a book on his thoughts related to the forensic psychology named as the “On the Witness Stand”. Munsterberg research later leads the discovery of the lie detectors.
Munsterberg’s books psychology and industrial efficiency and the vocation and learning considered as the beginning of the industrial psychology. In these books he wrote about the topics like, marketing and the advertising techniques, personnel selection techniques and the methods for work efficiency increment. He suggested that for determining the skills, performance of the task and the person’s ability to perform the task is necessary.