Early Life & Education

The Bentleys were from Upstate New York, the town of Warners northeast of Syracuse. Bentley studied psychology at the University of Nebraska. Harry Kirke Wolfe

Harry Kirke Wolfe

Harry Kirke Wolfe was a prominent early American psychologist.-Education:Wolfe earned undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska in 1880, and his PhD under the supervision of Hermann Ebbinghaus and Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig in 1886...

 was his mentor. He also studied under Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physician, 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"...

 at the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

 during the AY1886-1887, later taking his bachelor’s degree in 1895. He then commenced graduate work at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 under the supervision of Edward B. Titchener

Edward B. Titchener

Edward Bradford Titchener, D.Sc., Ph.D., LL.D., Litt.D. was a British psychologist who studied under Wilhelm Wundt for several years. Titchener is best known for creating his version of psychology that described the structure of the mind; structuralism...

, receiving his PhD in 1899.

Academic career

Teaching at Cornell, Bentley was elevated to assistant professor in 1902; chairman of the Psychology Department in 1910. He left Cornell for Illinois in 1912. During the First World War, he conducted U.S. Army Air Corps research on the ear. In 1928, Bentley returned to Cornell and became Titchener’s successor as the Sage Professor of Psychology and Chairman of the Psychology Department.

Theoretical Disposition

Bentley opposed both the behaviorism

Behaviorism

Behaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking, and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior...

 and mentalism

Mentalism

Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship, mind control, memory feats and rapid...

 movements of psychology. In his view, psychological functions were different. They surmounted a distinction between the organism

Organism

In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...

 and the environment

Natural environment

The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....

. The environment was absorbed by the organism. Research into psychological functions ought to describe the functions modes and derivations.

Writings

Professor Bentley’s contribution to the field of psychology was prolific. He wrote on the memory image, analysis of complex sensations, learning in paramecia, mental disorders, and anthropological psychology. But I. Madison Bentley's greatest skill was that of editing. He was cooperating editor, American Journal of Psychology, as early as 1903. He remained with the Journal until 1950, finishing out as co-editor. He also tended The Psychological Index (1916 to 1925), served as associate editor, Journal of Comparative Psychology (1921–1935); editor, Journal of Experimental Psychology (1926–1929).

External links