Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1844 - April 24, 1924) was a pioneering
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
psychologistA psychologist is someone who studies the human mind and behavior. Research psychologists study human perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, personality, behavior and interpersonal relationships...
and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the
American Psychological AssociationThe American Psychological Association is a professional organization representing psychologists in the U.S., with around 150,000 members and an annual budget of around $70m...
and the first president of
Clark UniversityClark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...
.
Born in
AshfieldAshfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,800 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
, Hall graduated from
Williams CollegeWilliams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts.Williams was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams as a men's college, located in the Berkshires in northwestern Massachusetts, at the foot of Mount Greylock. In 1834, the first...
in 1867, then studied at the
Union Theological SeminaryUnion Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets...
. Inspired by
Wilhelm WundtWilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German medical doctor, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology"...
's
Principles of Physiological Psychology, he earned his doctorate in psychology under
William JamesWilliam James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher trained as a medical doctor. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and the philosophy of pragmatism...
at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, after which he spent time at Wundt's
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
laboratory.
He began his career by teaching
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
and philosophy at
Antioch CollegeAntioch College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was the founder and flagship institution of the six campus Antioch University system. Founded in 1852 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1853 with Horace Mann as its...
in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1844 - April 24, 1924) was a pioneering
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
psychologistA psychologist is someone who studies the human mind and behavior. Research psychologists study human perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, personality, behavior and interpersonal relationships...
and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the
American Psychological AssociationThe American Psychological Association is a professional organization representing psychologists in the U.S., with around 150,000 members and an annual budget of around $70m...
and the first president of
Clark UniversityClark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...
.
Born in
AshfieldAshfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,800 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
, Hall graduated from
Williams CollegeWilliams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts.Williams was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams as a men's college, located in the Berkshires in northwestern Massachusetts, at the foot of Mount Greylock. In 1834, the first...
in 1867, then studied at the
Union Theological SeminaryUnion Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets...
. Inspired by
Wilhelm WundtWilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German medical doctor, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology"...
's
Principles of Physiological Psychology, he earned his doctorate in psychology under
William JamesWilliam James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher trained as a medical doctor. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and the philosophy of pragmatism...
at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, after which he spent time at Wundt's
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
laboratory.
He began his career by teaching
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
and philosophy at
Antioch CollegeAntioch College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was the founder and flagship institution of the six campus Antioch University system. Founded in 1852 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1853 with Horace Mann as its...
in Yellow Springs, Ohio. In 1882 (until 1888), he was appointed as a Professor of Psychology and Pedagogics at
Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Johns Hopkins also maintains full-time campuses elsewhere in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Italy, China, and Singapore...
, and began what is considered to be the first American psychology laboratory. There, Hall objected vehemently to the emphasis on teaching traditional subjects, e.g., Latin, mathematics, science and history, in high school, arguing instead that high school should focus more on the education of adolescents than on preparing students for college.
In 1887, he founded the
American Journal of Psychology and in 1892 was appointed as the first president of the
American Psychological AssociationThe American Psychological Association is a professional organization representing psychologists in the U.S., with around 150,000 members and an annual budget of around $70m...
. In 1889, he was named the first President of
Clark UniversityClark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...
, a post he filled until 1920. During his 31 years as President, Hall remained intellectually active. He was instrumental in the development of
educational psychologyEducational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
, and attempted to determine the effect
adolescenceAdolescence Adolescence Adolescence (lat adolescere, (to grow) is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. This transition involves biological (i.e. pubertal), social, and psychological changes, though the biological or...
has on
educationEducation in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
. He was also responsible for inviting
Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud , Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology...
and
Carl JungCarl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology known as Jungian psychology. Jung's approach to psychology has been influential in the field of depth psychology and in countercultural movements across the globe...
to visit and deliver lectures in 1909.
Darwin'sCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
theory of evolutionIn biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a...
and
Ernst HaeckelErnst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel ,also written von Haeckel, was an eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist who discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms, and coined many terms in...
's
recapitulation theoryThe theory of recapitulation, also called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism and often expressed as "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" is a discredited biological hypothesis...
were large influences on Hall's career. These ideas prompted Hall to examine aspects of childhood development in order to learn about the
inheritance of behaviorGenetics, , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding...
. The
subjectiveSubjectivity refers to a person's perspective or opinion, particular feelings, beliefs, and desires. It is often used casually to refer to unsubstantiated personal opinions, in contrast to knowledge and fact-based beliefs. In philosophy, the term is often contrasted with...
character of these studies made their validation impossible.
His work also delved into controversial portrayals of the differences between women and men, as well as the concept of racial
eugenicsEugenics is the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species. Widely popular in the early decades of the 20th century, after having become associated with the Holocaust, it has largely fallen into disrepute.- Overview :As a social movement...
.
Hall was deeply wedded to the German concept of
Volk, an anti-individualist and authoritarian romanticism in which the individual is dissolved into a transcendental collective. Hall believed that humans are by nature non-reasoning and instinct driven, requiring a charismatic leader to manipulate their herd instincts for the well-being of society. He predicted that the American emphasis on individual human right and dignity would lead to a fall that he analogized to the sinking of Atlantis. One of the founders of the child study movement, he argued that child development recapitulates his highly racialized conception of the history of human evolutionary development. He characterized pre-adolescent children as savages and therefore rationalized that reasoning was a waste of time with children. He believed that children must simply be led to fear God, love country and develop a strong body. As the child burns out the vestiges of evil in his nature, he needs a good dose of authoritarian discipline, including corporeal punishment. For adolescents, who he believed were characterized by more altruistic natures, high schools should indoctrinate students into selfless ideals of service, patriotism, body culture, military discipline, love of authority, awe of nature and devotion to the state and well being of others. Hall consistently argued against intellectual attainment at all levels of public education. Open discussion and critical opinions were not to be tolerated. Students needed indoctrination to save them from the individualism that was so damaging to the progress of American culture.
Hall coined the phrase "storm and stress" with reference to
adolescenceAdolescence Adolescence Adolescence (lat adolescere, (to grow) is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. This transition involves biological (i.e. pubertal), social, and psychological changes, though the biological or...
, taken from the German
Sturm und DrangSturm und Drang is the name of a movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of...
movement. Its three key aspects are conflict with parents, mood disruptions, and risky behavior. As was later the case with the work of
Lev VygotskyLev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist and the founder of cultural-historical psychology.- Biography :...
and
Jean PiagetJean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and philosopher, well known for his pedagogical studies...
, public interest in this phrase, as well as with Hall's originating role, faded. Recent research has led to some reconsideration of the phrase and its denotation. In its three aspects, recent evidence supports storm and stress, but only when modified to take into account individual differences and cultural variations. Currently, psychologists do not accept storm and stress as universal, but do acknowledge the possibility in brief passing. Not all adolescents experience storm and stress, but storm and stress is more likely during adolescence than at other ages.
Hall had no sympathy for the poor, the sick or those with developmental differences or disabilities. A firm believer in selective breeding and forced sterilization, Hall believed that any respect or charity toward those he viewed as physically, emotionally, or intellectually weak or "defective" simply interfered with the movement of natural selection toward the development of a super-race. Hall's social vision was a socialism of the right, a blueprint for the future German National Socialism that arose just a few years after his death.
By the time of his death in 1924, accumulating evidence in biology and anthropology and the influence of
John DeweyJohn Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been very influential. Dewey, along with Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, is recognized as one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism and of functional psychology...
as well as the growing reluctance of scholars to believe in cosmic history led to the rapid decline of Hall’s influence.
Hall's major books were
Adolescence (1904) and
Aspects of Child Life and Education (1921).
Hall also coined the technical words describing types of
ticklingTickling is touching a part of the body , so as to cause involuntary twitching movements or laughter. Such sensations can be pleasurable or exciting, but are sometimes considered highly unpleasant, particularly in the case of relentless heavy tickling.-Etymology:The word evolved from the Middle...
: knismesis, or feather-like tickling; and gargalesis, for the harder, laughter inducing type.
Literary activities
An important contributor to educational literature, and a leading authority in that field, he founded and was editor of the
American Journal of Psychology and edited also the
Pedagogical Seminary (after 1892), the
American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education (after 1904), and the
Journal of Race Development (after 1910). Among his books are:
- Aspects of German Culture (1881)
- Hints toward a Select and Descriptive Bibliography of Education (1886), with John M. Mansfield
- The Contents of Children's Minds on Entering School (1894)
- Adolescence (two volumes, 1904)
- Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene (1906)
- Educational Problems (two volumes, 1911)
Publications to consult
Consult G. E. Partridge,
Genetic Philosophy of Education: An Epitome of the Published Writings of G. Stanley Hall (New York, 1912)
New International EncyclopediaThe New International Encyclopedia was an English-language encyclopedia first published in the early 1900s. It was printed in two editions. The first edition was published from 1902 to 1914 by Dodd, Mead and Company. The second edition was copyrighted in 1917 and afterwards by Dodd, Mead and...