William James Research Paper

The Father of American Psychology is a bold title to bestow upon a man, particularly one whose interests sometimes strayed so far from scientific norms. Even so, there is no doubt that William James contributed much to the field of psychology as a whole and shaped many of the ideals held dear in the study of psychology. From his theories on emotion, consciousness, and will to his pragmatic and functionalist contributions it is not difficult to see that James had a heavy hand in shaping the field of psychology in the United States.
William James contributed much to the field of psychology as a whole but his most notable ideas concerned the so-called stream of consciousness, habit, emotion, and will. Without the use of modern technology such as brain imaging, he constructed these ideas from what he could observe and drew conclusions from those observations. The stream of consciousness is a metaphor, rather than an actual stream, which proposes human consciousness is centrally experienced as a continuous stream of elements and ideas rather than a collection (Fancher & Rutherford, 2012, p. 317). James felt that consciousness existed as a tool to facilitate adaptation to an environment, thus it is an ever-changing …show more content…
Much like his thoughts regarding the hand a person plays in forming habit, he made the argument that the existence of something can be animated by a fervent belief in such a thing. He “proved” this by citing the fact that he chose to believe that will is free, thus his will was free. He struggled to merge his personal experiences with the scientific knowledge accepted as fact at the time, eventually leading him to declare that in science and psychology he should hold a deterministic view but when dealing with philosophy and his own personal experiences he could hold the view that the will is free (Fancher & Rutherford, 2012, p.