Inspired by evolutionary theory, James’s theoretical perspective on psychology came to be known as functionalism, which sought causal relationships between internal states and external behaviors. His belief in the connection between mind and body led him to develop what has become known as the James-Lange Theory of emotion, which posits that human experience of emotion arises from physiological changes in response to external events. James’s laboratory research on sensation and perception was conducted in the first half of his career. Hall noted that James’s course was, “up to the present time the only course in the country where students can be made familiar with the methods and results of recent German researches in physiological psychology” (Hall, 1879).
James oversaw Harvard’s first doctorate in psychology, earned by G. In 1875 James taught one of the university’s first courses in psychology, “The Relations between Physiology and Psychology,” for which he established the first experimental psychology demonstration laboratory. In 1872 James was recruited by Harvard’s new, reformer president, Charles Eliot, to teach vertebrate physiology. During an extended stay in Germany after graduating, James developed an interest in studying the mind, as well as the body.
Initially trained in painting, James abandoned the arts and enrolled in Harvard in 1861 to study chemistry and anatomy.
Despite James’s skepticism, in the ensuing century this hope was fully realized in the department he helped to found. James himself remained unconvinced that psychology was in fact a distinct discipline, writing in his 1892 survey of the field, Psychology: Briefer Course, "This is no science it is only the hope of a science" (p. William James, philosopher and psychologist, was instrumental in establishing Harvard's psychology department, which at its inception was tied to the department of philosophy.
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