Clark L. Hull
American psychologist known for drive theory and the goal gradient effect.
Last updated
Clark Leonard Hull (May 24, 1884 – May 10, 1952) was an American psychologist who sought to explain learning and motivation by scientific laws of behavior. Hull is known for his debates with Edward C. Tolman and for his work in drive theory.
He spent the mature part of his career at Yale University, where he was recruited by the president and former psychologist, James Rowland Angell. His most significant works were the Mathematico-Deductive Theory of Rote Learning (1940), and Principles of Behavior (1943). He is perhaps best known for the 'goal gradient' effect or hypothesis.
Background
Hull was born in a log house in Akron, New York on May 24, 1884. He was born to a powerful father who was known to have a violent temper. His father was largely uneducated and married his mother when she was 15. At the age of three or four, Hull and his family moved to a farm in Michigan.
He was educated at a small, one room school in the village of Sickels. He displayed an early proficiency for mathematics. When he was 11 or 12, he was forcibly converted by a religious group known as the Christian Crusaders, which caused him to renounce religion entirely. At age 17, he passed a teacher's examination test and became a teacher.
Higher education
He attended a high school in west Saginaw County. After completing high school, he studied at Alma Academy, where he read the works of Baruch Spinoza. He contracted a near deadly case of typhoid, which left him with permanent amnesia and a general bad memory for names. He returned to Alma College, studying math, physics, and chemistry.
After two years, he moved to Hibbing, Minnesota to work as an apprentice mining engineer, but after two months he was afflicted by polio, which left him paralyzed in one leg, causing him to recover at his parents' home for a year. He considered becoming a minister of Unitarianism. His love of philosophy led to his interest in psychology; he read William James' The Principles of Psychology and took interest in the works of Watson and Pavlov. A year later, he taught back home in the one room school.
After two years teaching, he married Bertha Iutzi. They both attended the University of Michigan, where he graduated with his bachelor's degree in 1913. After teaching in Kentucky, Hull accepted a teaching assistant position at the University of Wisconsin under Joseph Jastrow. He graduated with a dissertation, 'Quantitative Aspects of the Evolution of Concepts.' He worked as a half-time assistant and full-time instructor at the University of Wisconsin before moving to Yale.
Did You Know?
- A Review of General Psychology survey published in 2002 ranked Hull as the 21st most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Clark L. Hull?
Clark Leonard Hull (1884–1952) was an American psychologist who attempted to explain learning and motivation through formal scientific laws of behavior. He is best remembered for his drive theory and his well-known intellectual rivalry with Edward C. Tolman.
What is Clark L. Hull most known for?
Hull is widely recognized for developing drive theory and the goal gradient hypothesis, which describe how motivation intensifies as an organism approaches a goal. His systematic, law-based framework became the dominant learning theory of his era.
What were Clark L. Hull's major publications?
His two landmark books were the Mathematico-Deductive Theory of Rote Learning (1940) and Principles of Behavior (1943). Together they laid out his mathematical analysis of animal conditioning and established his approach as the field's leading model.
Where did Clark L. Hull conduct his research?
Hull spent the mature portion of his career at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. It was there that he ran experiments demonstrating that his theoretical predictions could reliably account for observed behavior.
Also in the Codexery
More in Psychologists And Psychoanalysts
Related in Psychologists And Psychoanalysts
Links follow this subject's own source article.
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Clark L. Hull (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced