Hugo Münsterberg


Münsterberg, Hugo

 

Born July 1, 1863, in Danzig (now Gdańsk); died Dec. 16, 1916, in Cambridge, Mass. German psychologist and idealist philosopher; student of the German philosopher and psychologist W. Wundt.

Münsterberg received a professorship at the University of Freiburg in 1891. In 1892 he moved to the USA, where he became a professor at Harvard University. Under the influence of I. H. von Fichte and in the spirit of the Baden school of neo-Kantianism, Münsterberg developed a doctrine of values. In psychology, he was an advocate of a type of psychophysical parallelism. One of the founders of applied psychology, he wrote the first works on the determination of an individual’s suitability for a particular occupation.

WORKS

Beiträge zur experimentallen Psychologie fascs. 1–4. Freiburg, 1889–92. Grundzüge der Psychologie, 2nd ed., vols. 1–2. Leipzig, 1918.
Philosophie der Werte, 2nd ed. Leipzig, 1921.
In Russian translation:
Psikhologiia i uchitel, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1915.
Osnovy psikhotekhniki, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1924–25.
Psikhologiia i ekonomicheskaia zhizn’, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1924.

REFERENCES

Wigmore, J. H. Münsterberg and the Psychology of Evidence. Illinois, 1909.
Münsterberg, M. H. Münsterberg: His Life and Work. New York-London, 1922.