Ernest Hilgard

Ernest Ropiequet Hilgard (born  July 25, 1904 in Belleville, Illinois , †  October 22, 2001 in Palo Alto ) was an American psychologist . He worked from 1933 to 1979 at Stanford University , including from 1938 to 1969 as a professor, and was particularly concerned with the theory of learning and the investigation and application of hypnosis . In 1948 he published a textbook entitled Introduction to Psychology , which has since appeared in over ten editions and is now published as Atkinson and Hilgard's Introduction to Psychology . Ernest Hilgard is regarded as one of the most important hypnosis researchers and, due to his many years of diverse scientific activities, is one of the most outstanding American psychologists of the 20th century.

Life

Ernest Hilgard was born in 1904 in Belleville , Illinois, the son of a doctor. He first studied chemical engineering at the University of Illinois , where he received a bachelor's degree in 1924 . He then completed a degree in psychology , which he graduated from Yale University in 1930 with a doctorate on conditioning . At Yale University he also met his future wife, who received a doctorate in developmental psychology and with whom he was married from 1931. After initially remaining as a lecturer at Yale University, he moved to Stanford University in 1933 , where his wife began studying medicine and later taught in the department of psychiatry.

Ernest Hilgard received a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and in the Faculty of Education at Stanford University , and was made a full professor in 1938. He spent his entire academic career at Stanford University, where he served as head of the psychology department from 1942 to 1951 and as dean of the graduate school from 1951 to 1955 . During his time as dean, the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences was established at the university . After his return from his administrative activities to active teaching and research, he realigned his interests and, apart from an introductory course, only took over lectures that he had not given before. He retired in 1969 , but was active in research for another ten years as the head of the Laboratory of Hypnosis Research .

Ernest Hilgard was considered politically liberal and supported, among other things, consumer associations, peace initiatives, teachers' unions, educational projects for prison inmates and the American Civil Liberties Union . His wife, with whom he had a son and a daughter, died in 1989. He himself died in 2001 at the age of 97 in Palo Alto as a result of cardiac arrest . His estate is kept in the Archives of the History of American Psychology at the University of Akron .

Scientific work

The focus of Ernest Hilgard's research was the study of learning processes and, after his time as dean at Stanford University, hypnosis . In the field of hypnosis research in particular, he became one of the world's leading scientists. From the end of the 1950s onwards, he developed the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales as a benchmark that enabled the comparability and reproducibility of results from different research groups and placed research on hypnosis on a quantitative basis. In the area of ​​therapeutic use of hypnosis, he mainly devoted himself to analgesia . His students included Charles Tart, one of the founders of transpersonal psychology, and the social psychologist and election researcher Angus Campbell .

Most of the books he has published are considered standard works. His textbook Introduction to Psychology has appeared in over ten editions since it was first published in 1948 and is now published under the title Atkinson and Hilgard's Introduction to Psychology . It was so commercially successful that Hilgard offered to publish every book he wrote. In addition to his monographic works, Ernest Hilgard published more than 100 scientific publications as well as more than 100 Hypnosis Research Memoranda , in which he described methods, preliminary results and incidental findings in particular.

Ernest Hilgard also took on management positions in various professional associations. In 1949 he served as President of the American Psychological Association (APA), from 1973 to 1979 as President of the International Society of Hypnosis, and from 1979 to 1981 as President of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis .

Awards

Ernest Hilgard was accepted into the National Academy of Sciences in 1948 and ten years later into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1969 into the American Philosophical Society . He was also a member of the National Academy of Education and an honorary member of the International Association for the Study of Pain . He received the Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental Psychologists in 1940 , the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the APA in 1969 , the Gold Medal of the American Psychological Foundation in 1978 , and in 1979 the triennial Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal, the highest honor of the International Society of Hypnosis, and 1984 NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing . He has received honorary doctorates from Center College , Colgate University , Kenyon College , Northwestern University and the University of Oslo . The American Psychologist magazine ranked him among the ten most important contemporary psychologists in 1991.

Are named after Ernest Hilgard of Ernest R. Hilgard Award , which is awarded by the APA since 1994 for outstanding contributions to general psychology, as well as since 1997 by the International Society of Hypnosis assigned Ernest R. Hilgard Award for Scientific Excellence .

Works (selection)

• Conditioning and Learning. New York and London 1940
• Theories of Learning. New York 1948
• Introduction to Psychology. New York 1953
• Hypnotic susceptibility. New York 1965
• Hypnosis in the Relief of Pain. Los Angeles 1975
• Divided Consciousness: Multiple Controls in Human Thought and Action. New York 1977
• Psychology in America: A Historical Survey. San Diego 1987

literature

• John F. Kihlstrom: Biographical Memoirs: Ernest Ropiequet Hilgard. July 25, 1904 - October 22, 2001. In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 147 (4) / 2003. American Philosophical Society, pp. 399-404, ISSN  0003-049X
• Gordon Bower : Obituary: Ernest R. Hilgard (1904-2001). In: American Psychologist. 57 (4) / 2002. American Psychological Association, pp. 283-285, ISSN  0003-066X
• Helen J. Crawford: Ernest R 'Jack' Hilgard, 1904-2001. In: Contemporary Hypnosis. 19 (1) / 2002. John Wiley & Sons, pp. 1-7, ISSN  0960-5290
• John Kihlstrom: In Memoriam: Ernest Ropiequet Hilgard (1904-2001). In: The International Society of Hypnosis Newsletter. 26 (1) / 2002. International Society of Hypnosis, pp. 11-17

Web links

• American Psychological Association: Ernest R. Hilgard (1904–2001) (English)
• Archives of the History of American Psychology : Finding Aid for Ernest R. Hilgard Documentation of the estate of Ernest Hilgard ( PDF file , approx. 1.55 MB)