William McDougall

William McDougall was a British psychologist, born near Manchester in 1871 and died in 1938, who held posts at University College London, Oxford, Harvard and Duke. He wrote influential textbooks and was important in developing the theory of instinct and social psychology in the English-speaking world. An opponent of behaviourism, he argued that behaviour is generally goal-oriented and called his approach hormic psychology. He held the William James chair of psychology at Harvard from 1920, then moved to Duke University, where he established the Parapsychology Laboratory under J. B. Rhine. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and his students included Cyril Burt, May Smith, William Brown and John Flügel.