Jim Clark wrote:
>
> > "No one can accept the fundamental hypotheses of scientific psychology
> > and be in the least mystical."
> > Knight Dunlap
>
> Who is Knight Dunlap and what is the source of this (excellent)
> quote?
Knight Dunlap is best remembered for his role in the instinct controversy of
the early 1920s. He fired off the first shot in what became a salvo of
criticisms against the supporters of instinct theory in psychology. This first
shot consisted of a paper he published in 1919 entitled "Are there any
instincts?" (_Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, _14_, 307-311). His target was
the instinct theory of William McDougall. According to Dewsbury (1984), Dunlap
attained the PhD degree at Harvard in 1903, and served on the faculty at
Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, and finally UCLA where he developed its graduate
program. In 1917, he founded the journal _Psychobiology_ (which made it through
only two volumes), and edited the _Journal of Comparative Psychology_ along
with Robert Yerkes from 1921 (the year of its inception) to 1943. Many thought
of him as an iconoclast. The quote I use in my signature file is from a paper
Dunlap published in 1920 in the _Scientific Monthly_ (Vol. 10, pp. 502-517)
entitled "The social need for a scientific psychology." According to Burnham
(1987; the book from which I obtained the quote), this paper is an excellent
early example of the attempt by psychologists in their popularizations to
expose fraud and unscientific thinking (p. 97 and note 31, p.294; the quote is
on page 111 of Burnham's book).
Jeff
References:
Burnham, J. C. (1987). _How superstition won and science lost: Popularizing
science and health in the United States_. New Brunswick: Rutgers University
Press.
Dewsbury, D. A. (1984). _Comparative Psychology in the Twentieth Century_.
Stroudsburh, PA: Hutchinson Ross.
--
Jeffry P. Ricker, Ph.D. Office Phone: (480) 423-6213
9000 E. Chaparral Rd. FAX Number: (480) 423-6298
Psychology Department [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Scottsdale Community College
Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626
"The truth is rare and never simple."
Oscar Wilde
"No one can accept the fundamental hypotheses of scientific psychology
and be in the least mystical."
Knight Dunlap
