American psychologist and educator
James Rowland Angell
(
; May 8, 1869 ? March 4, 1949) was an American psychologist and educator who served as the 16th
President of Yale University
between 1921 and 1937. His father,
James Burrill Angell
(1829?1916), was president of the
University of Vermont
from 1866 to 1871 and then the
University of Michigan
from 1871 to 1909.
Biography
[
edit
]
Early life and education
[
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]
Angell was born on May 8, 1869, in Burlington, Vermont. He was born into one of the stellar academic families in American history. A sixth-generation descendant of
Thomas Angell
who settled
Providence, Rhode Island
, James's father,
James Burrill Angell
, was the president of the
University of Vermont
and thence president of the
University of Michigan
. He was the youngest of three children, with an older brother and sister. When Angell was two years old, his family moved to Ann Arbor so that his father could take up the presidency of the
University of Michigan
. His maternal grandfather,
Alexis Caswell
, was a professor of mathematics and
astronomy
at
Brown University
, later becoming its president. He was also a charter member of the
National Academy of Sciences
. His brother
Alexis C. Angell
became a professor of law of Michigan, and later a federal judge. His sister's husband,
Andrew C. McLaughlin
, was head of the history department at Michigan. His cousin,
Frank Angell
, founded psychology laboratories at
Cornell
and
Stanford
Universities.
Angell graduated from the
University of Michigan
with his bachelor's degree in 1890. He worked closely with
John Dewey
, earning a master's degree under his supervision in 1891. At Michigan he was a member of
Delta Kappa Epsilon
fraternity (Omicron chapter). He then went to
Harvard University
where he received a second master's degree in 1892 in
psychology
. He studied for a doctorate in philosophy in Berlin and Halle. His dissertation on the treatment of freedom in Kant was accepted, but required stylistic changes, which he never completed.
[1]
Instead, he decided to take up a post at the
University of Minnesota
. He did, however, receive 23 honorary degrees during his lifetime.
[2]
Academic career
[
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]
In 1895, Angell was offered a position at the
University of Chicago
by
John Dewey
, who had moved from Michigan the year before. Almost immediately, he co-authored an article with his Chicago colleague
Addison W. Moore
[3]
that simultaneously settled a nasty dispute between
Cornell
psychologist
Edward Bradford Titchener
and
Princeton
psychologist
James Mark Baldwin
as well as laying the foundations for the school of
Functionalism
. Later, while still at Chicago, Angell published the textbook
Psychology; An Introductory Study of the Structure and Functions of Human Consciousness
in 1904,
[4]
which became the major statement of the
functionalist approach
to psychology. Angell noted that the goal of psychology was to study how the mind helps the organism adjust to the environment and
functionalism
was a method in which to study consciousness and how it improves the organism relationship with the environment.
[2]
In 1905 (the year after Dewey left Chicago for
Columbia University
), Angell became the head of the newly created psychology department at Chicago. During this time he served as the 15th and youngest president of the
American Psychological Association
. He also supervised the young
John B. Watson
, who would later go on to found the behaviorist school of psychology. In 1908, Angell was raised to the level of Dean at Chicago, leaving the psychology department to another of his former students,
Harvey Carr
. During the last year of
World War I
Angell worked for the military under the supervision of
Northwestern University
psychologist
Walter Dill Scott
. The following year (1918), he returned to Chicago to serve as Acting President. The school would not make him president on a permanent basis, however, because he was not Baptist. In 1919 he left Chicago to head the
National Research Council
. In 1920, he headed the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Yale presidency
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]
In 1921, Angell was appointed
President of Yale University
, the first non-Yale graduate to hold the position since the early 18th century. That same year, he was elected as an honorary member of the Connecticut
Society of the Cincinnati
. At Yale, he oversaw a major expansion of Yale's physical campus, including the completion of the
residential college system
and
Sterling Memorial Library
. He remained president of the university until his retirement in 1937, at which point he became educational counselor of the
National Broadcasting Company
(NBC). He was elected a member of the
American Philosophical Society
in 1924 and a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1932.
[5]
[6]
As president of Yale, Angell was a proponent of
eugenics
.
[7]
Angell's role at NBC was to "devise and suggest methods by which we may more capably serve radio's listening millions".
[8]
He often wrote about that topic and lectured about it. Angell was a driving force behind the development of the art-appreciation program
Art for Your Sake
, which debuted on NBC radio in October 1939. He was also chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Art Society, which devoted efforts to "'mass production plus mass distribution' of cultural products".
[8]
Death
[
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]
Angell died on March 4, 1949, in New Haven, Connecticut.
Marriages
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In 1894, James married Marion Isabel Watrous from Des Moines, Iowa, a fellow graduate of the
University of Michigan
. He had two children with her, one boy and one girl, but then she died in 1931. He subsequently married
Katharine Cramer Woodman
in 1932,
[9]
who brought great joy to his life because of the interest she took in his students and problems.
[
citation needed
]
Katharine Angell founded the New Haven Restaurant Institute, later known as the
Culinary Institute of America
.
[10]
[11]
Functional psychology
[
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]
He was greatly influenced by the thought of
John Dewey
and is closely identified with
functional psychology
.
Angell laid out his three major points about functionalism during his presidential address for the
American Psychological Association
.
- Functional psychology is interested in mental operations by way of mental activity and its relation to the larger biological forces. Angell believes that functional psychologists must consider the evolution of the mental operations in humans as one particular way to deal with the conditions of our environment. Mental operations by themselves are of little interest. Functional psychology is not conscious elements .
- Mental processes aid in the cooperation between the needs of the organism and its environment. Mental functions help the organism survive by aiding in the behavioral habits of the organism and unfamiliar situations.
- Mind and body cannot be separated because functionalism is the study of mental operations and their relationship with behavior. The total relationship of the organism and the environment and the minds function/place in this union is at question.
[12]
By stating these points, Angell drew the difference between functionalism as a study to discover how mental processed operate, what they accomplish that has kept them around, and the conditions in which they occur or the how and why of consciousness and its predecessor,
structuralism
, which focused on individual mental elements or the what of consciousness.
[12]
Criticisms
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]
James Angell did have some criticism come his way for his views. The backlash from some about his implication of leaving out the
structuralism
model in studies and having a completely
functionalist
view did not sit well amongst some of his peers. There was also the dissecting of his works and the assumption that he contradicted himself in his view of what consciousness was and its function. Some think that he portrayed consciousness as more of a
deux ex machina
entity in its function due to his claim that the function of the conscious was to appear when the organism was in trouble and then disappear soon after the trouble had passed.
[13]
In her book
Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science
,
Donna Haraway
writes that "Angell paradigmatically represented the elaborate interconnections of university, industry, philanthropy, and science policy in the development of the material structures and ideologies of scientific management of society." (p. 67)
[14]
Published books and articles
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]
- Psychology: An Introductory Study of the Structure and Function of Human Consciousness'
- Chapters from Modern Psychology
- "The Influence of Darwin on Psychology" (part of a larger collection,
Darwinism: Critical Reviews from Dublin Review, Edinburgh Review, Quarterly Review
)
- "The Evolution of Intelligence" (part of a larger collection,
The Evolution of Man: A Series of Lectures Delivered before the Yale Chapter of the
Sigma Xi
during the Academic Year 1921-1922
)
Notes
[
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]
- ^
Dewsbury, D. (2003). James Rowland Angell, Born Administrator. In G. A. Kimble & M. Wertheimer (Eds.),
Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology
(vol. 5). APA & LEA
- ^
a
b
Kneessi, D. F. (2002). Datelines: James Rowland Angell. Retrieved from
http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/datelines_jamesangell.html
Archived
2016-08-22 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Angell, J. R. & Moore, A W. (1896). Studies from the psychological laboratory of the University of Chicago: 1. Reaction-Time: A study in attention and habit. Psychological Review, 3, 245-258.
http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Angell/Angell_Moore_1896.html
- ^
"James Rowland Angell: Psychology: Preface and Table of Contents"
.
- ^
"APS Member History"
.
search.amphilsoc.org
. Retrieved
2023-08-23
.
- ^
"Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A"
(PDF)
. American Academy of Arts and Sciences
. Retrieved
18 April
2011
.
- ^
Conniff, Richard (May?Jun 2012).
"God and white men at Yale"
.
Yale Alumni Magazine
.
LXXV
(5). Yale Alumni Publications, Inc
. Retrieved
7 November
2017
.
- ^
a
b
Mazow, Leo G.; Benton, Thomas Hart (2012).
Thomas Hart Benton and the American Sound
. Penn State Press. p. 130.
ISBN
978-0-271-05083-6
. Retrieved
December 13,
2023
.
- ^
Kimble, Gregory A.; Wertheimer, Michael (2003).
Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology
. Psychology Press. p. 1942.
ISBN
9781135705336
.
- ^
Schiff, Judith (Jan?Feb 2008).
"Angell of the CIA"
.
Yale Alumni Magazine
. Retrieved
23 April
2014
.
- ^
"Katharine Angell Dies; Led Culinary Institute"
.
New York Times
. 26 July 1983
. Retrieved
24 April
2014
.
- ^
a
b
Arnold, F. (1907) Untitled. Review of the article:
The Province of Functional Psychology
. The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 4, 276-27
- ^
Thilly, F. (1905) Untitled. [Review of the book: Psychology: An Introductory Study of the Structure and Function of Human Consciousness]. The Philosophical Review, 14, 481-487.
- ^
Haraway, Donna
(1989).
Primate Visions
. Routledge. pp.
67
.
ISBN
0-415-902940
.
References
[
edit
]
- Angell, J. R. (1936). James Rowland Angell. In Carl Murchison (Ed.),
A History of Psychology in Autobiography
(Vol. 3, pp. 1?38). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.
http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Angell/Angell_1961.html
- Arnold, F. (1907) Untitled [Review of the article: The Province of Functional Psychology]. The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 4, 276-277.
- Dewsbury, D. (2003). James Rowland Angell, Born Administrator. In G. A. Kimble & M. Wertheimer (Eds.),
Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology
(vol. 5). APA & LE
- Hergenhahn, B. R. (2009). An Introduction to the History of Psychology. Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
- Kelley, Brooks Mather. (1999).
Yale: A History.
New Haven:
Yale University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-300-07843-5
;
OCLC 810552
- Kneessi, D. F. (2002). Datelines: james rowland angell. Retrieved from
http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/datelines_jamesangell.html
Archived
2016-08-22 at the
Wayback Machine
- Thilly, F. (1905) Untitled. [Review of the book: Psychology: An Introductory Study of the Structure and Function of Human Consciousness]. The Philosophical Review, 14, 481-487.
- Hunter, W. S. (1951).
James Rowland Angell 1869?1949: A Biographical Memoir
(PDF)
.
Washington, D.C.
:
National Academy of Sciences
.
External links
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