... History of Psychology, William James was one of the forefathers of modern psychology. He was a philosopher and psychologist, but was most well known in the field of psychology for developing the philosophy of pragmatism, or the functionalist theory: "Theory of mental life and behavior that is concerned with how an organism uses its perceptual abilities to function in its environment." James was the most widely read author of the ... to develop a view and practice of psychology and its clinical procedures. James drew upon all of his readings in both philosophical and physiological psycholo...

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... lectures, and meeting and talking to dozens of leading psychologists and other scientists; and gathered reports and clinical studies of abnormal and normal minds under hypnosis, drugs or stress. Over time James grew to dislike psychology and its study, so he shifted his focus towards the study of religion and philosophy. James interest in the ... in the importance of ideas (Smith, 2002). In his book "Principles of Psychology", James explained the principle of functionalism as relating to psychology, which gave people a new way of thinking about the traditional "branch of philosophy" and ...

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