Why William James Might be Considered the Founder of the Scientist-Practitioner Model

Willhelm Wundt has come to be known as the founder of experimental psychology. William James is seen as the founder of scientific psychology in America, largely because of the impact that The Principles of Psychology had on psychology in the United States. In seeing James as the central forebear of scientific psychology in this country, many applied psychologists have underestimated the importance of his contributions for their professional ambitions. It is argued that close examination of James's more philosophically oriented works reveals a set of principles (i.e., pragmatism, pluralism, radical empiricism, strenuosity, and freedom of the will) that form the basis of the scientist pracitioner model in psychology.