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= Hormic Psychology = A school of psychology that discusses the instinctual and self-motivation behind day to day actions, without organisms’ acknowledgment. Intrinsically, every organism’s instincts allows them to preserve the species and pass down traits that may be necessary to ensure future generation’s to survive. The word Hormic, derived from the Greek word horme, which means urges or drives. The horme was believed to be the force that motivated and drove organisms to fulfill their purpose. William McDougall, the founder of Hormic psychology, supported the Lamarckian theory and implemented it in his system.

Basic principals

 * Conation is the essence of behavior, while cognition only serves as a guide.
 * The goal is unacknowledged.
 * Instincts are hereditary, which supported Lamarck’s theory that instincts are passed down through generations and organisms are pre-disposed to behave in certain manners that will ensure species' survival.
 * Instinct are linked to an emotion.
 * 1 instinct may be linked to more than an emotion (sentiment)
 * Goal is motivated by purpose not pleasure. One may feel satisfaction accomplishing a goal, but the satisfaction is not the drive to fulfill the goal.
 * Sentiments make up personality and character.
 * Dualism, the mind and body are separate systems that function together in order to intake, organize and deliver information.
 * Intrinsic teleology, organisms have an internal motivation (e.g. survive and ensure further survival in upcoming generation) to fulfill their purpose in life.

== History and Background == Williams McDougall was an Englishman who developed his system of Hormic psychology in America. Before immigrating the United states, McDougall had major psychoanalytic influence in England for two decades. His medical experience and expeditions introduced him to comparative psychology. Eventually, he was offered a position at Harvard University, but concluded that the environment did not suit him, thus ended up accepting a position to teach at Duke University. He was a scientist and a philosophy and theology enthusiast. However, his approach was mostly philosophical and American scientists demanded a stricter experimental analysis. He attempted to adopt more experimental techniques to satisfy these guidelines; nonetheless, he received much criticism. In his book, “Introduction to social psychology” (1908) he set forth an extension of concepts like sentiments, emotions, and at the core of his study, instincts. Despite publishing inadequate books and having project about instincts banished, McDougall continued to publish articles and cultivated inspirations from Pavlov, Freud, Gestalt, and many others. Back in London, he worked with Francis Galton, who studied eugenetics and shortly after McDougall did too.

Evaluation of effectiveness (past experiments and results)
Attempted to explain Hormic psychology in mechanistic terms, hence performing research on various generations of rats. McDougall tested on 23 generations of rats to view if there was a hereditary pattern to behavior. He build a contraption, where he would be able to put rat in the middle of two exits, an illuminated and a dim exit. The rats that attempted to escape through the illuminated exit would get electrocuted and the rats that attempted to escape through the dim exit would get a reward. In comparison to the control group, rats from the experimental unit attempted to escape more frequently through the dim exit. This results suggested that organisms pass down instincts. However, despite achieving positive results, he was thought to tamper his data to derive a favorable outcome. Other scientists attempted to repeat McDougall’s hypothesis using different experimental methods and achieved negative results.

Influencers of Hormic psychology
This system was influenced by philosophers and psychologists such as:


 * Rene Descartes
 * Lamarck
 * Aristotle
 * Francis Galton
 * Ivan Pavlov
 * Sigmund Freud

Interpretation and criticism
McDougall was in behaviorists territory when he wrote Psychology, the study of Behavior, and Watson was not pleased by this publication, thus McDougall decided to focus on another aspect of psychology. Despite his prestigious reputation back in England, American psychologists took McDougall’s work for granted because they did not want to associate with the work of an immigrant. American scholars did not approve McDougall’s interest for animism and the psyche. They thought it was pointless to investigate something that could not be thoroughly experimented. McDougall’s created an intricate system and he felt that mechanists tried to narrow every behavior down to stimulus and respond.

Notable Critics:


 * James Watson
 * James McKeen