GRANVILLE STANLEY HALL,(1844-1924)
GRAVILLE STALEY HALL,(1844-1924): ITERATIOAL DICTIOARY OF
PSYCHOAALYSIS: FLORIA HOUSSIER: Psychologist, educator, and philosopher Granville
Stanley Hall was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, on February 1, 1844, and died on April 24, 1924
in Worcester, Massachusetts.The son of Congregationalist farmers, he spent his adolescence in
rebellion against the strict authority of his father, a model of moral and religious values. He
attended Williams College and Union Theological Seminary before abandoning religion for the
emergent discipline of psychology. During two trips to Europe, Hall familiarized himself with
currents in philosophy, became conversant with the scientific trends in physiology and psychology,
and studied with biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel. In 1878 at Harvard University he was
awarded the first American doctorate in psychology by William James himself. In Leipzig during
1879-80, he also worked with Wilhelm Wundt, who was just then establishing the first laboratory of
experimental psychology. There he participated in word association tests based on Francis Galton's
psychometric experiments, which Carl Jung would later modify to confirm Freud's theory of
neuroses in a laboratory setting.
After returning to the United States, in 1880 Hall began his career as an educator and
psychologist, devoting himself to a systematic study of child and adolescent development. He edited
several journals, the most important of which was the American Journal of Psychology, which
eventually became a forum both to disseminate his own ideas and to publish articles on
psychoanalysis. He taught at Johns Hopkins from 1883, and his interest in the human sciences and
in education led to his appointment as president of Clark University in 1888, where he was also
professor of philosophy and psychology and launched more reviews, including the Journal of
Applied Psychology. In 1892 he also served as president of the newly founded American
Psychological Association.
In 1909, Hall invited Freud to deliver the series of lectures that launched the psychoanalytic
movement in the United States. The correspondence between the two men, from 1908 to 1923,
includes some thirty-one letters. For Hall, Freudian theory was a boon to the hereditarian approach
to studying children and adolescents. Like Freud, with whose works he had been familiar since
1894, Hall was inspired by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and he shared a lively interest in
understanding sexuality. He was electrified by Freud's lectures in Worcester, and believed that they
reduced to ashes much of the flimsy theoretical structure upon which philosophically-based
laboratory psychology of the time relied.
However, in a letter to Freud four years later (September 26, 1913) Hall indicated areas of
skepticism and disagreement with psychoanalytic theory. Rather prophetically, he suggested that one
day "specific [hereditary] influences" would be discovered to operate on individuals. He was also
critical of extravagant use of sexual symbolism. Subsequently, he made it clear that he regarded as
significant the contributions of Alfred Adler, who had rejected castration anxiety as central to the
fears and anxieties of childhood. Learning of Hall's friendly relationship with Adler, Freud wrote that
he was sharply stung by what he viewed as a serious defection. However, Hall continued to support
psychoanalysts in the American Psycho-pathological Association, and from 1917 to 1920 he served
as president of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Several years later, responding to Freud's
admonition that Adler's ideas were incompatible with psychoanalysis, Hall defended his eclecticism,
suggesting that Freud should be more generous toward rebellious children of psychoanalysis like
Adler and Jung.
Hall's autobiography, published in 1923, indicates that he tried self-analysis and underwent
some psychoanalysis; he was apparently disappointed with the results but did not disclose them. In
general, while exasperated by religious and moral restrictions upon happiness and artistic creation,
Hall hoped to protect the essential virtues of the ideology that he foughtâ_”the cult of work and the
intricacies of moral conscience. The influence of psychoanalysis is perceptible in his 1904
two-volume work on adolescence and in his life of Jesus Christ, published in 1917.
Hall died from pneumonia at eighty years of age. He is generally considered, with William James, to
be one of the founders of psychology as a scientific discipline in the United States.
Bibliography
Esman, Aaron H. (1993). G. Stanley Hall and the invention of the adolescence. Adolescent
Psychiatry, 19, 6-20.
Hale, Nathan G. Jr. (1971). Freud and the Americans: The beginnings of psychoanalysis in the
United States. New York: Oxford University Press. Hall, G. Stanley. (1923). Life and confessions of
a psychologist. New York: Appleton.. (1904). Adolescence: Its psychology and its relations to
physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education. New York: Appleton.
(1917). Jesus, the Christ, in the light of psychology. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.
Houssier, Florian. (2003). G. S. Hall (1844-1924): un pionnier dans la découverte de
l'adolescence. Ses liens avec les premiers pschanalystes de l'adolescent. Psychiatrie de l'enfant, 46,
655-668.
Rosenzweig, Saul. (1992). Freud, Jung, and Hall the king-maker: The historic expedition to America
(1909). St. Louis: Rana House.
GRAVILLE STALEY HALL - WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ECYCLOPEDIA
Hall, circa 1910.Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1844 - April 24, 1924) was a pioneering
American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development and
evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the American Psychological Association and the
first president of Clark University.
Biography: Teacher Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Hall graduated from Williams College
in 1867, then studied at the Union Theological Seminary. Inspired by Wilhelm Wundt's Principles of
Physiological Psychology, he earned his doctorate in psychology under William James at Harvard
University, after which he spent time at Wundt's Leipzig laboratory.
He began his career by teaching English and philosophy at Antioch College in Yellow
Springs, Ohio. In 1882 (until 1888), he was appointed as a Professor of Psychology and Pedagogics
at Johns Hopkins University, and began what is considered to be the first American psychology
laboratory. There, Hall objected vehemently to the emphasis on teaching traditional subjects, e.g.,
Latin, mathematics, science and history, in high school, arguing instead that high school should
focus more on the education of adolescents than on preparing students for college.
New discipline of psychologyIn 1887, he founded the American Journal of Psychology and
in 1892 was appointed as the first president of the American Psychological Association.[1] In 1889,
he was named the first President of Clark University, a post he filled until 1920. During his 31 years
as President, Hall remained intellectually active. He was instrumental in the development of
educational psychology, and attempted to determine the effect adolescence has on education. He was
also responsible for inviting Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to visit and deliver lectures in 1909.
Darwin's theory of evolution and Ernst Haeckel's recapitulation theory were large influences
on Hall's career. These ideas prompted Hall to examine aspects of childhood development in order
to learn about the inheritance of behavior. The subjective character of these studies made their
validation impossible. His work also delved into controversial portrayals of the differences between
women and men, as well as the concept of racial eugenics.
Social views: Hall was deeply wedded to the German concept of Volk, an anti-individualist
and authoritarian romanticism in which the individual is dissolved into a transcendental collective.
Hall believed that humans are by nature non-reasoning and instinct driven, requiring a charismatic
leader to manipulate their herd instincts for the well-being of society. He predicted that the
American emphasis on individual human right and dignity would lead to a fall that he analogized to
the sinking of Atlantis.
Hall was one of the founders of the child study movement. A national network of study
groups called Hall Clubs existed to spread his teaching. But what he is most known for today is
supervising the 1896 study Of Peculiar and Exceptional Children which described a series of
only-child oddballs as permanent misfits. Hall, and every other fledgling psychologist, knew close to
nothing about credible research practices. Yet for decades, academics and advice columnists alike
disseminated his conclusion that an only child could not be expected to go through life with the
same capacity for adjustment that siblings possessed. "Being an only child is a disease in itself," he
claimed. Hall argued that child development recapitulates his highly racialized conception of the
history of human evolutionary development. He characterized pre-adolescent children as savages
and therefore rationalized that reasoning was a waste of time with children. He believed that
children must simply be led to fear God, love country and develop a strong body. As the child burns
out the vestiges of evil in his nature, he needs a good dose of authoritarian discipline, including
corporal punishment. For adolescents, who he believed were characterized by more altruistic
natures, high schools should indoctrinate students into selfless ideals of service, patriotism, body
culture, military discipline, love of authority, awe of nature and devotion to the state and well being
of others. Hall consistently argued against intellectual attainment at all levels of public education.
Open discussion and critical opinions were not to be tolerated. Students needed indoctrination to
save them from the individualism that was so damaging to the progress of American culture.
Hall coined the phrase "storm and stress" with reference to adolescence, taken from the
German Sturm und Drang movement. Its three key aspects are conflict with parents, mood
disruptions, and risky behavior. As was later the case with the work of Lev Vygotsky and Jean
Piaget, public interest in this phrase, as well as with Hall's originating role, faded. Recent research
has led to some reconsideration of the phrase and its denotation. In its three aspects, recent evidence
supports storm and stress, but only when modified to take into account individual differences and
cultural variations. Currently, psychologists do not accept storm and stress as universal, but do
acknowledge the possibility in brief passing. Not all adolescents experience storm and stress, but
storm and stress is more likely during adolescence than at other ages. Hall had no sympathy for the
poor, the sick or those with developmental differences or disabilities. A firm believer in selective
breeding and forced sterilization, Hall believed that any respect or charity toward those he viewed
as physically, emotionally, or intellectually weak or "defective" simply interfered with the
movement of natural selection toward the development of a super-race.
Hall's major books were Adolescence (1904) and Aspects of Child Life and Education
(1921).Hall also coined the technical words describing types of tickling: knismesis, or feather-like
tickling; and gargalesis, for the harder, laughter inducing type. [edit] Literary activitiesAn important
contributor to educational literature, and a leading authority in that field, he founded and was editor
of the American Journal of Psychology and edited also the Pedagogical Seminary (after 1892), the
American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education (after 1904), and the Journal of Race
Development (after 1910).
G. STALEY HALL: (1844 - 1924): PSYCHOLOGY HISTORY: AMY GREZLIK
(MAY 1999)
Biography: G. Stanley Hall is a name not only known in the field of Psychology, but also in the
field of Education. He can easily be called the founder of organized psychology as a science and
profession, the father of the child study movement, and as a national leader of educational reform.
Hall, born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, on a farm, was raised under modest circumstances with
Congregational parents. His mother, Abigail, pushed him to go into ministry. Hall used this as his
reason to continue on with his education. At the age of 14, Hall reported that he began a journey of
his own. He climbed a hill and had a day long vigil. It was then that he made a vow to himself that
he would leave the farm and would become something in the world. Throughout his life, Hall had a
strong love for literature and music. They were his escape in life. In 1862, Hall left Ashfield for
Williston Academy. However, He was not happy there. The following year he transferred to
Williams College. Upon graduating in 1867, he wanted to study abroad but did not have the
necessary funds, so he attended the Union Theological Seminary for a year, and then was able to
travel abroad. Eventually Hall was granted his Ph.D. in Psychology under William James and Henry
P. Bowditch, the first Ph.D. in Psychology in America. He began as a professor of psychology and
pedagogics at Johns Hopkins University in 1882. When Clark University opened in 1889, Hall
began as the president, and remained there until his death in 1924. Along the way, Hall founded the
first psychological journal in America, the American Journal of Psychology in 1887, along with
many to follow in the later years.
While at Clark University, Hall organized a conference in 1909 for 175 people, 40 of which
were American Psychologists. Hall ran the conference as well as arranged the order of lectures and
handled the social arrangements. Among the attending psychologists were Sigmund Freud and Carl
Jung, who are seated respectively to Hall's right and left in this photo. The Clark Conference, as
named, was in celebration of Clark University's twentieth anniversary. Through all of this, Hall is
also important for his work with the child study movement and attained some notoriety with his
theory that ontology recapitulates phylogeny. He showed the importance of early childhood through
adolescence as a turning point in psychological growth. To him, childhood was merely an extension
of embryo logical development. Hall died in 1924, but still remains an important part of
psychology's history.
Theory: Hall linked together genetic psychology and education. The theory that Hall is
known for is his theory of recapitulation. More simply put as "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny".
This theory explains that each person goes through changes in both the psychic and somatic senses
which follow the evolution scale of the mind and body. Hall believed that the pre-adolescent child
develops to its best when it is not forced to follow constraints, but rather to go through the stages of
evolution freely. He believed that before a child turned six or seven, the child should be able to
experience how one lived in the simian stage. In this stage, the child would be able to express his
animal spirits. The child is growing rapidly at this stage and the energy levels are high. The child is
unable to use reasoning, show sensitiveness towards religion, or social discernment. By age eight,
the child should be at stage two. This, Hall believed, is the stage where formal learning should
begin. This is when the brain is at full size and weight. It is considered normal to be cruel and rude
to others at this stage for the reasoning skills are still not developed. The child should not have to
deal with moralizing conflicts or ideas, his is not yet ready at this stage. The child's physical health
is most important now. In the stage of the adolescent, the child now has a rebirth into a sexed life.
Hall argued that at this point, there should no longer be coeducation. Both sexes can't optimally
learn and get everything out of the lessons in the presence the opposite sex. And, this is when true
education can begin. The child is ready to deal with moral issues, kindness, love, and service for
others. Reasoning powers are beginning, but are still not strong. Hall argued that the high school
should be a place similar to a "people's college" so that it could be more of an ending for those who
would not be continuing their education to the next level. Hall's specific theory that maturation
needs to be traced, allowing deeper thoughts to be provoked only when the physical aspect of
growth is complete, did not greatly influence education. At the same time, he paved the way for
future scholars such as Piaget.
Time Line
1844 Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts
1858 Day long vigil, vowed to leave farm and to be someone in the world 1860 First independent job
as a schoolmaster
1862 Left Ashfield for Williston Academy
1863 Left Williston Academy
1866 Began Junto, literary club
1867 Graduated from Williams College
1867 Attended Union Theological Seminary as a divinity student 1868 Studied abroad in Germany
1878 Earned the first Ph.D. in Psychology in America
1882 Left for work at Johns Hopkins University
1887 Founded the first Psychological Journal is America, the American Journal of Psychology
1889 Became president of Clark University
1892 Founded the American Psychological Association
1894 Founded the Pedagogical Seminary
1904 Wrote Adolescence
1909 Organized the Clark Conference
1917 Founded the Journal of Applied Psychology
1924 Died
Bibliography
Hall, G. Stanley. (1904). Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology,
Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education. 2 vols. New York, Appleton.
Hall, G. Stanley. (1906). Youth: Its Education, Regiment, and Hygiene. New York, Appleton.
Hall, G. Stanley. (1911). Educational Problems. 2 vols. New York, Appleton. Hall, G. Stanley.
(1917). Jesus, the Christ, In the Light of Psychology. 2 vols. Garden City, New York, Doubleday.
Hall, G. Stanley. (1920). Morale: The Supreme Standard of Life and Conduct. New York, Appleton.
Hall, G. Stanley. (1923). Senescence: The Last Half of Life. New York, Appleton.
Hall, G. Stanley. (1923). The Life and Confessions of a Psychologist. New York, Appleton.
N. Orwin Rush (Ed.). (1948). Letters of G. Stanley hall to Jonas Gilman Clark. Worcester, Mass.:
Clark University Library.
Sources:
Hothersall, D. 1995. History of Psychology, 3rd ed., Mcgraw-Hill:NY International Encyclopedia of
the Social Sciences. (1968). Vol. 6. Macmillian and Free Press.
Ross, Dorothy. (1972). G. Stanley Hall. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.
Hulse, Stewart and Green, Jr., Bert. (1986). One Hundred Years of Psychology Research in
America. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University. Kavanaugh, Robert, Zimmerberg, Betty, and Fein,
Steven. (1996). Emotion. Mahwah, Laurence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
G. STALEY HALL: FROM EW WORLD ECYCLOPEDIA: Granville Stanley
Hall, c. 1910Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1844 - April 24, 1924) was an American pioneering
psychologist and educator. His interests focused on childhood development, evolutionary theory,
and their applications to education. Hall was a strong believer in the scientific method and its
application to the study of human nature. Thus, he supported empirical research in the then
emerging area of child development, developing theories both of psychological development and its
application to children's education. Although Hall's understanding was incomplete and his theories
not fully accepted, his work was significant in laying the foundation for the field.
Hall was the first president of the American Psychological Association and the first president of
Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Life: Hall was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, on February 1, 1844. His parents were rather
religious, and his mother wanted him to go into the ministry. He graduated from Williams College
in 1867, and then studied at the Union Theological Seminary to prepare as a clergyman.
Clark's personal desire, however, was to travel and accomplish something of note in the world.
Soon, he left for Germany for three years, where he studied philosophy and also attended Du
Bois-Reymond's lectures on physiology. Returning to New York in 1871, he completed his divinity
degree and served briefly at a country church. He then secured a position at Antioch College near
Dayton, Ohio, where he taught a variety of courses.
Inspired by Wilhelm Wundt's Principles of Physiological Psychology, Hall set out again for
Germany to learn from Wundt. However, he was offered a teaching post in English at Harvard
University, which also allowed him to work with William James. Hall received his doctorate in
1878 for a dissertation on muscular perception, the first American doctorate in psychology. From
then to 1880 Hall spent in Germany, where he worked for Wundt in the Leipzig laboratory. Career
and Work
In 1882 he was appointed as a professor of psychology and pedagogics at Johns Hopkins
University, and began what is considered to be the first American psychology laboratory.[1] There,
Hall objected vehemently to the emphasis on teaching traditional subjects, such as Latin,
mathematics, science, and history, in high school, arguing instead that high school should focus
more on the education of adolescents than on preparing students for college. In 1889 Hall was
named the first president of Clark University, a post he filled until 1920. During his 31 years as
president at Clark University, Hall remained intellectually active. He was instrumental in the
development of educational psychology, and attempted to determine the effect adolescence has on
education. He was also responsible for inviting Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to visit and deliver
lectures in 1909 at the "Clark Conference" organized in celebration of Clark University's twentieth
anniversary.
In 1887 he founded the American Journal of Psychology and in 1892 was appointed as the
first president of the American Psychological Association. In the year of his death, Hall was elected
to a second term as president of the American Psychological Association; the only other person to be
so honored was William James.
Contributions: Hall, like James, did not have the temperament for laboratory work. Rather,
he created an intellectual atmosphere to support those who were more empirically inclined. In this
way Hall contributed to the emerging body of psychological knowledge. Specifically, he was
convinced of the importance of genetics and evolution for psychology, which was reflected in his
writings and his support of the study of developmental psychology in terms of phylogenetic and
ontogenetic perspectives.
These ideas prompted Hall to examine aspects of child development in order to learn about the
inheritance of behavior. However, the subjective character of these studies made their validation
impossible. His work also delved into controversial portrayals of the differences between women
and men, as well as the concept of racial eugenics.[1]
Darwin's theory of evolution and Ernst Haeckel's theory of recapitulation ("ontogeny
recapitulates phylogeny") were large influences on Hall's work. His maturationist theory of child
development was based on the premise that growing children would recapitulate evolutionary stages
of development as they grew up, and that it was counterproductive to push a child ahead of its
development stage.
Hall regarded children as developing through three basic stages:
First stage - until six or seven children experience life through the physical senses, similar to
animals. Physical growth is rapid and energy levels are high. However reasoning is not yet
developed, nor is sensitivity to religion, or socialization.
Second stage - from age eight, when the brain has developed to its full size. Hall argued that this is
when formal education should begin. Since reasoning skills are only developing, children at this
stage are cruel and rude, and are not ready to deal with complex reasoning or issues of morality.
Third stage - at adolescence the child develops into a sexual being, and Hall argued that coeducation
was not appropriate at this stage. Without the distraction of the opposite sex, children at this stage
can learn better. They are ready to learn about moral issues, and how to live in society. Hall
advocated for high school to focus on preparation for life in society, rather than academic study,
which was only appropriate for those continuing their studies at a higher level.
Hall's theory was not influential in his day. Yet, it laid a foundation for later theorists, such as Jean
Piaget, whose stage theories of child development have impacted education.
Hall coined the phrase "Storm and Stress" with reference to adolescence, taken from the
German Sturm und Drang-movement. Its three key aspects are: conflict with parents, mood
disruptions, and risky behavior. As was later the case with the work of Lev Vygotsky and Jean
Piaget, public interest in this phrase and Hall's originating role, faded. Later research has led to some
reconsideration of the phrase and its denotation. Evidence does support the three aspects of
storm-and-stress, but modified to take into account individual differences and cultural variations.
Psychologists do not accept storm-and-stress as universal, but do acknowledge the possibility in
brief passing. Not all adolescents experience storm-and-stress, but it is more likely during
adolescence than at other ages.
In 1904 Hall published an original work in psychology focusing on adolescence,
Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime,
Religion and Education, which was widely read and discussed by psychologists, educators, medical
doctors, other professionals, and also by parents. Its focus on adolescence fed a growing national
concern in the early twentieth century about issues of femininity, masculinity, coeducation, and
concern over appropriate information and experience for adolescents growing into adulthood.
In 1909 Hall began The Children's Institute at Clark University. The institute was founded with the
double purpose of collecting data on children, which Hall initially hoped would create a psychology
founded on genetic and evolutionary principles (the direct outcome of his functionalist interest in
mental adaptation) and of using those data to form the basis for sound educational practices. The
institute functioned as both a laboratory for data to confirm Hall's recapitulation theory, and as a
program for teaching and promoting child study to teachers and others in education. The data were
disappointing with respect to their ability to confirm Hall's theoretical position. Therefore, the
institute functioned primarily as an educational entity and drew the interest of educators, teachers,
and parents.
In 1922, Hall published his final work, Senescence, a study of old age. By this time Hall
himself was no longer at Clark University, having retired as president in 1920, and was struggling
with personal definitions of retirement and the process of aging as final points of development. In
the book, Hall called for a new definition of aging, not as degeneration, but rather as a stage of
psychological renewal and creativity. Hall's view of aging was not significantly different from those
views advocated by other scholars and, as with others, Hall fell victim to an understanding of aging
that held the individual responsible for psychological health in old age, relegating culture and its
construction of aging to a minor role.
Legacy: Hall did not start systems of psychology, nor develop coherent theoretical
frameworks, nor leave behind loyal followers, but he was a loyal teacher and devoted organizer of
psychology. He was instrumental in firmly establishing psychology in the United States through
both substantive and practical activities, in particular his invitation to Sigmund Freud to speak at
Clark University brought psychoanalysis to America. In addition to his contribution to child
psychology and educational issues, he succeeded in securing the recognition of psychology as a
profession.
Hall also founded a number of journals to provide a forum for research and scholarship in
psychology: American Journal of Psychology, founded in 1887; Pedagogical Seminary (now under
the title of Journal of Genetic Psychology); Journal of Applied Psychology; and Journal of Religious
Psychology. Hall made psychology functional as a scientific discipline and left it firmly entrenched
in American academia.
At Johns Hopkins University, Hall's course in "Laboratory Psychology" attracted students
such as John Dewey, James McKeen Cattell, and Joseph Jastrow. Other students influenced and
taught by Hall included Arnold Gesell, Henry Goddard, Edmund C. Sanford, and Lewis M. Terman.
Although all of these students moved beyond the influence of Hall, his interest and insistence upon
psychology as an experimental endeavor served as a catalyst for much of their later work.
G. STALEY HALL: PSYCHOLOGIST AD EARLY GEROTOLOGIST: MAO
PARRY: G. Stanley Hall was instrumental in founding psychology as a science and in its
development as a profession. He is best known for his work on child development, especially
adolescence, yet he also wrote a powerful treatise on the economic, social, and intellectual isolation
of the elderly. Senescence, excerpted here, was the first major analysis by an American social
scientist of the changing experience of aging.
Granville Stanley Hall was born on his parents’ farm in Ashfield, Mass, on February 1, 1844.
His father, Granville Bascom Hall, served in the Massachusetts legislature, and his mother, Abigail
Beals, studied at the Albany Female Seminary and taught school. They passed on to their son their
love of learning as well as a strong sense of religious piety, and Hall grew up determined to make a
contribution to the world. He initially planned to become a minister.
Hall graduated from Williams College in 1867 and enrolled at Union Theological Seminary
in New York City the same year. He completed his training in 1870, although after 10 weeks as a
church pastor he decided to leave the ministry. From 1872 to 1876, Hall taught literature and
philosophy at Antioch College. He then undertook research with H. P. Bowditch at Harvard Medical
School and in 1878 was awarded the first PhD in psychology in the United States. After failing to
secure a professorship, Hall went to Germany, where he studied physiological psychology at
laboratories in Berlin and Leipzig. He also spent time investigating the possibilities of applying
psychology to education. He returned to the United States in 1880 and was invited by Harvard to
give a series of public lectures on education. The lectures were so successful that he repeated the
series the following year and was invited to deliver a similar series at Johns Hopkins University in
1881.
In 1882 Hall was appointed a lecturer in psychology and pedagogy at Johns Hopkins
University, becoming a professor in 1884. This professorship was the first chair in the new field of
psychology in the country. Hall was a major force in organizing the field, focusing on scientific
approaches and in 1883 establishing a psychology laboratory at the university. In 1887 he launched
the American Journal of Psychology, and in 1892 he convened the American Psychological
Association and served as its first president.
In 1888, Hall became the first president of Clark University, in Worcester, Mass. He
envisioned Clark as a major graduate school and invited a number of leading scholars to join the
faculty, including anthropologist Franz Boas and biologist C. O. Whitman. The accidental
asphyxiation of Hall’s wife and daughter in 1890 left him raising his young son alone,4 yet over the
course of the next decade he made some of his most significant contributions to the new science of
psychology. He developed his influential concept of “genetic psychology,” based on evolutionary
theory, and solidified his reputation as a leading educational reformer. In 1904, Hall published
Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime,
Religion, and Education. In this 2-volume study, based on the idea that child development
recapitulates human evolution, Hall took on a variety of issues and synthesized scholarship from a
wide range of disciplines. After his retirement in 1920, Hall wrote a companion volume on aging.
This important account has been labeled “prophetic” in its recognition of an emerging “crisis of
aging” in the 20th century, in which longer lifespan, narrowing family roles, and expulsion from the
workforce combined to dramatically isolate the elderly and restrict their active participation in
public life.1 Hall railed against this process, arguing that the wisdom conferred by old age meant
that the elderly had valuable and creative contributions to make to society. Yet, the stigma of aging
meant that, instead, many were engaged in the foolish pursuit of youth, trying to avoid being
excluded from full participation in their communities. In the conclusion of the book, Hall expressed
a tangible sense of personal anger against this form of discrimination.5 His stirring call for a better
understanding of the aging process anticipated the development of gerontology, and his critique of
the marginalization of the elderly still resonates today. \
References
1. Cole TR. The prophecy of Senescence: G. Stanley Hall and the reconstruction of old age in
America. Gerontologist. 1984;24:360â_“366. [PubMed]
2. Hulse SH, Green BF Jr. One Hundred Years of Psychological Research in America: G. Stanley
Hall and the Johns Hopkins Tradition. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press; 1986:4.
3. Ross D. Granville Stanley Hall. In: Garraty JA, Carnes MC, eds. American National Biography.
Vol 9. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1999:857â_“858.
4. Ross D. G. Stanley Hall: The Psychologist as Prophet. Chicago, Ill: The University of Chicago
Press; 1972:208.
5. Woodward: Against wisdom: the social politics of anger & aging. J Aging Stud. 2003;17:55-67.