Hugo Münsterberg: Victim or visionary?

Abstract

Historical treatments of Hugo Münsterberg have been less than adequate. Münsterberg was an early leader in the application of psychology in business and industry, was central to the development of psychology as a science in the United States, and wrote and spoke on a broad range of issues. This article covers his contributions and examines possible reasons for his obscurity. Among those reasons are the various transitions occurring in psychology during his active period, his own personal characteristics, the tension between the United States and Germany before World War I, and his untimely death. Although Münsterberg has name recognition among contemporary industrial–organizational psychologists, few are aware of his substantive contributions to the field. This article is intended to enhance that awareness.

Human Resource Management, Psychology of

“…Although they differed on several issues (notably, on how social structure affected productivity), Munsterberg's writings clearly suggest that he felt that the two emerging fields of personnel selection and social psychology (the study of how people affect and are affected by one another) were complementary (Landy, 1992;Moskowitz, 1977).…”

An Undergraduate Course in American Popular Psychology

“…ment, the course covers the following topics: mesmerism and phrenology (Fuller, 1986;Wrobel, 1975); the public lecture of the 19th century (Scott, 1980); early American self-help books and mind cure (Starker, 1989); the great popularizers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including William James, Hugo Munsterberg, and G. Stanley Hall (Hall. 1910;Landy. 1992); popularizations of psychoanalysis in America during the early 20th century, including the 1909 Clark University conference (Hale, 1971); intelligence testing, immigration, and Army selection practices during World Wzr I (Pastore, 1978); the behavioristic popularizations of].…”

The unwary purchaser: Consumer psychology and the regulation of commerce in America

“…An early student of Wilhelm Wundt, Münsterberg had emigrated to American in the 1890s to head Harvard's psychological laboratory at the request of William James. Münsterberg was a controversial advocate of using experimental psychology to address pressing political questions and was an outspoken critic of American culture (Hale, 1980;Landy, 1992;Spillman, 1993). Inspired by Rogers, Münsterberg began a series of experiments designed to pinpoint the likelihood of an ordinary purchaser being deceived by two similar commercial products (Münsterberg, 1909).…”