Edwin Boring
Edwin Garrigues 'Boring' was an American experimental psychologist, Professor of Psychology at Clark University and at Harvard University, who later became one of the first historians of psychology. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Boring as the 93rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century, tied with John Dewey, Amos Tversky, and Wilhelm Wundt.
Early life
Boring was born on October 23, 1886, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in a Quaker family interested in science. His elder sister was the zoologist, Alice Middleton Boring. In 1904, Boring attended Cornell University, where he studied electrical engineering. He earned a ME degree in electrical engineering in 1908 and then took a job at Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Boring returned to Cornell for an AM in physics, but he was instead drawn to the world of psychology by I. Madison Bentley's animal psychology course.Boring notes that his interest in psychology had already begun in 1905, when he took an elementary psychology class as an elective while pursuing his engineering degree. Bentley's course was under the professorship of Edward B. Titchener and captured Boring's attention. On one test Boring received back, Titchener had written "You have the psychological point of view!". It was that remark that stuck with him and guided him toward psychology when he arrived at Cornell for the second time.
Boring's minor research strayed too far from Titchener's definition of psychology. It was at Titchener's suggestion that he decided to do his thesis on visceral sensibility. He conducted the study by placing a stomach tube in his own stomach to learn more about the sensations of the alimentary tract. The results indicated that the stomach and esophagus were more sensitive to temperature and pressure than had been realized. The studies indicate his interest, from an early age, in the physical and experimental components of psychology. In 1914, Boring's efforts were rewarded when he received his PhD.
While he was completing his studies, Boring and his wife, Lucy M. Day, joined Titchener's lab group and became part of Titchener's selective in-group. Most of their time at Cornell was spent working on Titchener's research projects. During Boring's time at Cornell, he developed a close relationship with Titchener, one that continued until Titchener's death, in 1927. Boring felt deep respect for Titchener and admired his dedication to his work. In his autobiography, he even remarked that he believed Titchener to be the closest to genius of anyone he knew.
Titchener presented Boring with his first opportunity not only to teach but also to practice writing about the history of experimental psychology. Titchener wanted to redesign a systematic psychology course and enlisted his graduate students to do the job. It was a large task; the course covered the entire history of psychology in 3 lectures a week for 2 years. Boring and the rest of the team read through German literature on experimental psychology and many other primary sources of information to complete this project. The finished product was a 200-lecture course. The task sparked Boring's interest in the history that shaped the field; it would also serve as great training for Boring's later publication of his own text, The History of Experimental Psychology, in 1929. The work also gave Boring experience in teaching psychology. He continued to teach psychology at Cornell for 4 years but was glad when the war forced him to leave this position, as he felt that Cornell did not need him.
Intelligence testing in the First World War
During the First World War, Boring was not drafted because of the birth of his first son. Disappointment over not helping his country did not last for long. Robert M. Yerkes asked him to join in the development of intelligence testing. Boring was later appointed chief psychological examiner at Camp Upton in Long Island. Then, in 1918, Boring was asked to work on a massive report on the army intelligence program. Boring made his contribution during the war but was troubled afterward by the lack of scientific objectivity that resulted from intelligence testing. He found the use of probabilities to answer scientific questions to be particularly frustrating. At the time, Boring felt that science was a field of certainty, not probability. As a result, Boring remained cautious of intelligence testing throughout his life. When questions followed in later years about the definition of intelligence, Boring adopted the phrase "Intelligence is what the tests test".Professor of Psychology
Clark University
In 1920, Boring was offered a position at Harvard and was also offered a position to continue working with Yerkes in Minnesota. He chose Harvard because he believed that they had a greater need for him there; he had a mission to "rescue Harvard psychology from the philosophers" and transform psychology into a respectable science. Boring felt that the previous psychology professor, Hugo Münsterberg, had "vulgarized" the field by placing it in the philosophical realm; it was Boring's goal to bring the program to a more objective perspective. However, the summer before he was to start at Harvard, G. Stanley Hall, the president of Clark University, offered him a job as professor of experimental psychology for three years with the promise that if his work was satisfactory, his position would be made permanent. The appeal of stability led Boring to accept the position at Clark. Here, he enjoyed his work, but there were concerns regarding the status of psychology when the new president and geographer Wallace Walter Atwood was appointed, who wanted to replace newly popular psychology with geography. Controversy was also stirred during the Red Scare, when Atwood accused Boring of being a Bolshevik encouraging underground radicalism at Clark. Such allegations had no evidence of support, and while Boring waited for his reappointment to Clark, he received another offer from Harvard as an associate professor and an offer from Stanford University for a full professorship with a higher salary. The decision was made for Boring when Stanford withdrew the offer because of Boring's hesitation to accept it, leaving him to start a new career at Harvard.Harvard University
His tenure at Harvard almost ended before it began, when he was injured in an automobile accident. Boring fractured his skull and had to stay in the hospital for six weeks. Also, the accident resulted in temporary retroactive and progressive amnesia. The experience caused Boring to question what it means to be conscious. If a person could not recall what the person had said moments afterward, could he really be considered conscious? Such questions become a lifelong endeavor for Boring to try to answer.He was rewarded for his dedication to Harvard by being promoted to laboratory director in 1924; he held that position until 1949, when he resigned. In 1928, he received a full-time professorship; during that same year he was president of the American Psychological Association.
Boring was very interested in building a close relationship between the staff and students. At his suggestion, in 1924 the Harvard philosophy and psychology department began the first colloquium to build a sense of community.
In 1933, James B. Conant became president of Harvard. Conant's interest in psychology was considerably greater than the former president's, and in 1934, he accepted Boring's motion to separate the psychology and philosophy departments. By removing the philosophy go-between, the official break between the disciplines freed the psychological science faculty to focus on the research and experimental psychology questions that they wanted to answer. Boring emphasized the use of the experimental method, rather than the tools of philosophy, to investigate psychological questions. Boring's mission was finally complete. Boring was made the first chair of the Department of Psychology, but 2 years later, he resigned the position to Gordon W. Allport.
Psychoanalysis treatments
Boring's self-criticism, fear of failure, and need for peer-acceptance became unmanageable and affected the productivity of his work. In 1933, at the suggestion of his friends and family, Boring began psychoanalysis treatment with a former colleague of Freud, Hanns Sachs. Boring remained in psychoanalysis for a year, five sessions a week, but he found it to be ineffective in alleviating his concerns. Boring had hoped to achieve a change in personality by the end of the experience and was disappointed to find that he still had his old mindset. Four years later, both Sachs and Boring wrote about the experience in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. The two men agreed that the psychoanalysis was not successful.Psychological organizations, conferences, and committees
In 1919–1922 Boring served as secretary of the American Psychological Association while James McKeen Cattell was president. The two men were both very passionate about their work and often clashed as a result. In 1928, Boring became president of the American Psychological Association.Even with Boring's influence on the field of psychology, he influenced other disciplines as well. In 1945, he was elected as the chairman of the Publications Committee of the American Philosophical Society, of which he was a member. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the United States National Academy of Sciences.
In 1945, Robert M. Yerkes asked Boring to join his Survey and Planning Committee, designed to bring psychologists together to discuss issues regarding the war and the role psychologists could play during wartime to help provide services to the country. Boring suggested uniting the American Psychological Association and the Association for Applied Psychology and all other societies that were willing. It was an influential move that restructured the American Psychological Association into what it is today. The Intersociety Constitutional Convention was formed and first met in 1943. Boring was the first chairman of this Intersociety.
In 1966, Division 26, the Division for the History of Psychology, of the American Psychological Association was formed. During its formation, the Division 26 members made a gesture to honor Boring for his tremendous contribution as a historian of psychology. Boring declined to run for president and was made "honorary president" of the Division as an acknowledgment of his work. He was then asked to introduce the first elected president, Robert I. Watson, at the first official meeting, but old age prevented Boring from making the trip. He introduced him by a written statement he mailed, read by John A. Popplestone. In this speech, Boring made jokes that he was the ghost of history's past, a comment that was echoed by his voice being present without his body.