G. Stanley Hall

Date of Birth: February 1, 1846

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Date of Death: April 24, 1924

Biography

Granville Stanley Hall, commonly known as G. Stanley Hall, was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. Born on February 1, 1846, in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Hall is often credited as the founder of educational psychology and child development as academic fields. He was the first president of the American Psychological Association (APA) and played a significant role in the development of psychology as a formal discipline in the United States. Hall earned his undergraduate degree from Williams College in 1867 and later studied at the Union Theological Seminary before shifting his focus to psychology and education. He earned his doctorate from Harvard University in 1878, where he studied under William James. His dissertation, “The Muscular Perception of Space,” was one of the first American theses in the field of psychology. In 1882, Hall became a professor at Johns Hopkins University, where he established the first American psychology laboratory. He became the first president of Clark University in 1889, where he continued his research and teaching, inviting many prominent psychologists, including Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, to lecture. Hall’s work in adolescence, where he described it as a period of “storm and stress,” laid the foundation for developmental psychology. His two-volume work “Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education” remains a seminal text in the field.

5 Interesting Facts about G. Stanley Hall

1. G. Stanley Hall was the first American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology.

2. He founded the American Journal of Psychology in 1887, the first English language journal in the field.

3. Hall invited Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to Clark University in 1909, marking Freud’s only visit to the United States.

4. He was a proponent of the child study movement, which aimed to understand child development scientifically.

5. Hall was instrumental in bringing the ideas of evolutionary theory into psychology, heavily influenced by Charles Darwin.

5 Most Interesting Quotes from G. Stanley Hall

1. “Adolescence is a new birth, for the higher and more completely human traits are now born.”

2. “Every theory of mental growth must include, as its most essential feature, a theory of the developing self.”

3. “Man is largely a creature of habit, and much of the course of his life is practically out of his control.”

4. “The years from about eight to twelve constitute a unique period of human life.”

5. “The only way to gain a true and thorough knowledge of human psychology is to study the human child.”

Highest Net Worth Achieved

While specific financial figures from his lifetime are not well-documented, it is known that G. Stanley Hall was a respected academic, and his positions likely provided him with a comfortable living. Adjusted for inflation, his highest net worth would not compare to modern standards of wealth.