Who is Robert S. Woodworth?

Robert S. Woodworth, an American psychologist who studies the psychology of learning, was born in Massachusetts (USA) in 1869. He developed a system he called “dynamic psychology,” which he incorporated into several different streams of psychological thought.

Woodworth, who previously worked as a mathematics teacher, completed his graduate studies at Harvard and Columbia Universities. He continued his research at Columbia and became a professor of psychology in 1909. As a result of a study he conducted with Edward L. Thorndike in 1901, he argued that education cannot be transferred. According to them, learning a subject did not provide an improvement in general learning ability.

Claiming that behavior and consciousness were the subject of psychology, Woodworth believed that behavior was a function of both environmental stimuli and the structure of the organism. He also argued that a mechanism could take over the function of a driver by a motivational force.

Woodworth designed a questionnaire to detect and measure abnormal behavior. This questionnaire acted as a simple screening device for behavioral disorders. His dynamic psychology behavior; He tried to explain it by combining the theories of motivation, perception, learning and thinking. Throughout his career, he sought to develop a unified theory of psychology using his extensive scientific observations and generalizations from them.

Prepared by: Sociologist Ömer YILDIRIM
Source: Omer YILDIRIM’s Personal Lecture Notes. Atatürk University Sociology Department 1st Year “Introduction to Philosophy” and 2nd, 3rd, 4th Grade “History of Philosophy” Lecture Notes (Ömer YILDIRIM); Open Education Philosophy Textbook