1871-1938
British experimental psychologist who developed a theory of human instincts and studied psychic phenomena.

William McDougall was an experimental psychologist and theorist of wide-ranging interests. Above all, he believed in a holistic psychology that utilized every available tool for understanding the human psyche. He was the first to formulate a theory of human instinctual behavior, and he influenced the development of the new field of social psychology.

Born in 1871, in Lancashire, England, the second son of Rebekah Smalley and Isaac Shimwell McDougall, a wealthy Scottish industrialist, McDougall was educated at a local private school and then at the Realgynmnasium in Weimar, Germany. Although his father wanted him to study law...