Gardner Murphy

Gardner Murphy (1895–1979) was an American psychologist specialising in social and personality psychology, and parapsychology. His career highlights included serving as president of the American Psychological Association, and of the British Society for Psychical Research.

Biography

Murphy was born on July 8, 1895 in Chillicothe, Ohio, US. Upon graduating with a B.A. from Yale University in 1916, Murphy attended Harvard University, working with L. T. Troland in a telepathy experiment, and achieving his M.A. in 1917. Murphy succeeded Troland as holder of the Hodgson Fellowship in Psychical Research at Harvard University. After the war, in 1919, Murphy continued his studies at Columbia University, working towards his Ph.D., and combined this, until it was awarded in 1923, with work under the Hodgson Fellowship.

He studied the medium Leonore Piper, and collaborating with French chemist and psychical researcher René Warcollier in a transatlantic telepathy experiment. The latter involved 35 trials, conducted over the course of two years, with groups in Paris and New York alternating the roles of sender and percipient. From 1921-1925, he served as lecturer in psychology at Columbia University. In 1925, Clark University hosted a symposium on psychical research, and, together with Harvard psychologist William McDougall, Murphy argued for the respect of the field as an academic discipline, while recognizing the difficulties of scientific acceptance and experimentation. From 1925-1929, he continued at Columbia University in the capacity of instructor and assistant professor in psychology. He was re-appointed as Hodgson Fellow at Harvard in 1937. From 1940-1942 he was professor and chairman of the Department of Psychology at City College in New York. From 1952, he worked as director of research for the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas. He was elected to the presidency of the American Psychological Association in 1944. He subsequently served as the President of the British Society for Psychical Research in 1949 (which he had joined in 1927), and was Director of the Parapsychology Foundation in 1951.

Murphy authored several texts in psychology, including An historical introduction to modern psychology (1928; 1949), Personality (1947), and Human potentialities (1958). He was a contributor to personality, social and clinical psychology and an early exponent of humanistic psychology. During these years, he continued his association with psychical research, including sitting on the council of the American Society for Psychical Research and serving as chair of its research committee; serving as an editor of the Journal of Parapsychology (1939–1941);, speaking at professional symposia on psychical research; writing report, review and critical articles in general scientific, psychological as well as parapsychological journals. He also spported (through his own book royalties) experimental studies by J. G. Pratt at Columbia (1935–1937); authoring an introductory review to the field, The challenge of psychical research (1961), as well as William James and psychical research (1960) (with R. Ballou) and a 20-page article on parapsychology for the Encyclopedia of Psychology (1946); editing an English-language publication of Warcollier's reports (1938); and writing forewords for several parapsychological monographs.

Although illness repeatedly interrupted his research, Murphy pursued an experimental program that addressed psychological processes involved in parapsychological phenomena. He especially explored motivational, personality and creative processes. His work also promoted use of graphemic methods of participant response, and he argued for abiding respect for investigating the question of the postmortem survival of human personality.

Murphy died in 1979 in Washington, D.C..

Reception

Murphy's Historical Introduction to Modern Psychology (1929) received a positive review in the British Medical Journal which stated "no purely objective record could be as successful as Dr. Gardner Murphy's presentation of the history, which bears evidence everywhere of a judicious choice of material and of such emphasis as is free from any prepossession." The 1949 revised edition received a mixed review by A. Chapanis in The Quarterly Review of Biology who wrote the book did not present a balanced synopsis of research but recommended it as a "useful addition to the psychologist's library". However, Ralph H. Turner wrote Murphy maintained an "exceptional order of objectivity through most of his presentation" and described it as "a very useful text".

Murphy's introductory psychological textbook An Introduction to Psychology (1951) received positive reviews. Alastair Heron described it as a "textbook for the interested and not-too-sophisticated reader who hopes to become more interested without becoming at the same time more sophisticated."

John L. Kennedy in a review for Murphy's book Challenge of Psychical Research (1961) wrote there was inadequate information about the role of the experimenter during psychical research experiments. Ralph W. Gerard gave the book a positive review but stated the results from the experiments may be explainable by alternative factors such as misinterpretation or unintended cues without recourse to the paranormal.

Publications

Books

• Historical Introduction to Modern Psychology (1928, revised edition 1949)
• A Briefer General Psychology (1935)
• An Introduction to Psychology (1951)
• In the Minds of Men: The Study of Human Behavior and Social Tensions in India (1955)
• Human Potentialities (1958)
• Challenge of Psychical Research: A Primer of Parapsychology (1961)
• Personality (1966)
• Asian Psychology (1968)
• William James on Psychical Research (1973)
• Humanistic Psychology (1989)
• There is More Beyond: Selected Papers of Gardner Murphy (1989)

Papers

• Murphy, G. (1941). Some Present-Day Trends in Psychical Research. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 35: 118-132.
• Murphy, G. (1945). Field Theory and Survival. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 39: 181-209.
• Schmeidler, G. R., Murphy, G. (1946). The Influence of Belief and Disbelief in ESP Upon Individual Scoring Level. Journal of Experimental Psychology 36: 271-276.
• Murphy, G. (1949). Psychical Research and Personality [Presidential address]. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. 49: 1-15.
• Murphy, G. (1953). Psychology and Psychical Research. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. 50: 26-49.
• Murphy, G. (1958). Trends in the Study of Extrasensory Perception. American Psychologist 13: 69-76.
• Murphy, G. (1962). Report on Paper by Edward Girden on Psychokinesis. Psychological Bulletin 59: 520-528.
• Murphy, G. (1966). Psychical Research Today. International Journal of Neuropsychiatry 2: 357-362.
• Murphy, G. (1967). Introductory Aspects of Modern Parapsychological Research. Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences 30: 256-260.
• Murphy, G. (1973). A Caringtonian Approach to Ian Stevenson’s Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 67: 117-129.

Further reading

• Robert E. L. Faris. (1959). Human Potentialities by Gardner Murphy. American Sociological Review. Vol. 24, No. 3. pp. 429-430.
• Earl A. Loomis, Jr. (1960). Human Potentialities by Gardner Murphy. Review of Religious Research. Vol. 1, No. 3. pp. 127-129.
• McKim Marriott. (1955). In the Minds of Men: The Study of Human Behavior and Social Tensions in India by Gardner Murphy. American Anthropologist. New Series, Vol. 57, No. 1, Part 1. pp. 173-174.