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A history of psychology in autobiography volume III.Charles Samuel Myers.

A history of psychology in autobiography volume III.: Charles Samuel Myers. I was born in London on the confines of Bayswater and Notting Hill on March 13th, 1873. My interests in organizing and in humanity, my love of music, my enjoyment of traveling, and my attraction to archaeology have a basis in family influence. But I can find little hereditary basis for my early attraction either to literary composition or to chemistry--a subject then taught to all pupils save in the lowest forms of the City of London School, which I entered at 11 years of age. At the age of 16 my candidature for a Cambridge entrance scholarship came under consideration. I decided to try for a scholarship in natural science at Gonville and Caius College in 1891. My idea when I entered Cambridge University in 1891 was to prepare for the medical profession. On leaving Cambridge, I had no idea as to my future career. Certainly I felt disinclined to medical practice. My main interests were by then divided between anthropology and experimental psychology. C. S. Myers discusses his participation in the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits (New Guinea) and Sarawak (Borneo) and his professional contributions during World War I. In 1919 I was mainly instrumental in changing the constitution of the British Psychological Society, which had been founded in 1901 and of which I had been the Secretary from 1906-1910. In 1920 I was elected the first President of the newly constituted Society. From 1922 onwards, I have given most of my available time to the development of the National Institute of Industrial Psychology in London. Many of my scientific colleagues in England considered that I had taken a retrograde step by "going into business," when I gave up a secure academic position at Cambridge for the development of an institute in industrial psychology. My tendency to supervise younger people's research work rather than to engage in it myself arose doubtless from my wide interests in various subjects and in my fellowmen, my love of novelty, and my consequent difficulties in concentrating attention on any one small sphere of work. But, in thus following my early inclinations and natural bent, I have probably served psychology better than I could have done in other, more usual, ways. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A history of psychology in autobiography volume III.Charles Samuel Myers.

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Publisher
Clark University Press
Copyright
Copyright © 1936 American Psychological Association
Pages
215 –230
DOI
10.1037/11247-009
Publisher site
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Abstract

I was born in London on the confines of Bayswater and Notting Hill on March 13th, 1873. My interests in organizing and in humanity, my love of music, my enjoyment of traveling, and my attraction to archaeology have a basis in family influence. But I can find little hereditary basis for my early attraction either to literary composition or to chemistry--a subject then taught to all pupils save in the lowest forms of the City of London School, which I entered at 11 years of age. At the age of 16 my candidature for a Cambridge entrance scholarship came under consideration. I decided to try for a scholarship in natural science at Gonville and Caius College in 1891. My idea when I entered Cambridge University in 1891 was to prepare for the medical profession. On leaving Cambridge, I had no idea as to my future career. Certainly I felt disinclined to medical practice. My main interests were by then divided between anthropology and experimental psychology. C. S. Myers discusses his participation in the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits (New Guinea) and Sarawak (Borneo) and his professional contributions during World War I. In 1919 I was mainly instrumental in changing the constitution of the British Psychological Society, which had been founded in 1901 and of which I had been the Secretary from 1906-1910. In 1920 I was elected the first President of the newly constituted Society. From 1922 onwards, I have given most of my available time to the development of the National Institute of Industrial Psychology in London. Many of my scientific colleagues in England considered that I had taken a retrograde step by "going into business," when I gave up a secure academic position at Cambridge for the development of an institute in industrial psychology. My tendency to supervise younger people's research work rather than to engage in it myself arose doubtless from my wide interests in various subjects and in my fellowmen, my love of novelty, and my consequent difficulties in concentrating attention on any one small sphere of work. But, in thus following my early inclinations and natural bent, I have probably served psychology better than I could have done in other, more usual, ways. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Published: Dec 11, 2006

Keywords: Charles Samuel Myers; autobiography; psychology; history

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